Colombia's illicit mining industry—with some 6,000 sites nationwide—is fueling a substantial part of the conflict. It's acknowledged at the highest levels of government. "This criminal practice has generated pressures and extortions for illegal miners, while polluting the environment," said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in February, calling it a "cancer."
Across Colombia, according to U.N. statistics, wildcat miners using liquid mercury to separate gold from soil and river sediment make the Andean nation the world's greatest per-capita emitter of the man-made pollutant—at 130 tons annually—second only to fossil fuels.
In all, said Biodiversity Minister Sandra Bessudo, it would take $10.8 billion –and anywhere from 25 to 40 years—to repair the damage caused by deforestation and poisonous contamination from small mines.
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