Amerindians of Guyana don’t have right to gold on their land

The Amerindian population is vulnerable to the negative effects brought by gold-mining. The loss of land is devastating to communities that primarily support themselves through subsistence farming, and pollution from the mining operations contaminates water sources, harming humans, vegetation, and animals alike. Mercury, a contaminant that can cause blindness, speech impairment, cardiovascular disease, memory loss, and fatigue and is especially dangerous to pregnant women and young children, is commonly used in gold panning to help separate gold pieces from soil. Guyana has sought permission to be exempted from the UN’s newly drafted Minimata Convention on Mercury (could link back to other article here). Despite undeniable evidence that mercury contamination is devastating to miners, jewelers, and inhabitants of the land near gold-mining operations, Guyana argued that such a ban would damage their growing economy. In July, Guyana banned gold-mining directly from rivers in an attempt to address growing complaints of contaminated drinking water.
http://firstpeoples.org/wp/tag/gold-mine/