Government shuts down gold mining and mining processing operations in three provinces

The Energy and Environmental Ministry has suspended mining activity in three provinces effective Tuesday. The order applies to mining and processing operations in Napo Province and to processing operations in El Oro and Loja Provinces.

An illegal gold mining operation on the Rio Napo.

According to Energy Minister Inés Manzano, the suspension is the result of “pollution of rivers and damage to sensitive ecosystems.” It is also the result of increasing levels of illegal mining and the processing of illegally mined material by licensed processing plants, a source inside the ministry said.

There is no scheduled date for the resumption of mining activities.

As part of the government order, police and military personnel will be sent to mines and processing plants in the three provinces. In addition, additional staff from the Mining Regulation and Control Agency (Arcom) are being assigned to the provinces.

“There has been extensive metal pollution of the Rio Napo as well the Rios Calera and Amarillo in El Oro,” a statement by the ministry said. “The amounts of, arsenic, mercury, cadmium and cyanide downstream of mines and processing facilities are many times higher than acceptable levels and the pollution is increasing.”

The statement said there are high levels of cancer and other diseases near mining operations due to pollution. There are also numerous cases of residents being sicked by contaminated fish caught in the polluted rivers. Many of the fish, says the ministry, exhibit deformities due to the ingestion of heavy metals.

Several recent media articles have claimed that processing plants are accepting raw material without verifying the source. “In some of the facilities, half the gold produced comes from illegal mines and because there is no oversight from the government the practice is increasing,” online news service Plan V reported in November. “Large amounts of money are being made by licensed processers, and they have no reason to question where the raw material comes from.”

Plan V also reported that legal mining operations are also working with agents from illegal mines, taking a percentage of profits.

Plan V claimed that the government is aware of the activity and has done little about it. It also said many government mining agents have been bribed to ignore illegal practices.

Following the government’s order, an association representing metal processing operations in El Oro Province sent a letter of protest to the government. It claimed hundreds of people in the province work at the facilities and hundreds of others provide ancillary services. “Thousands of El Oro families depend on these operations and, without warning, they have no income,” the association said.