The investigation also found evidence of the sexual abuse of children in the illegal mining sector. In Peru, girls are recruited to work in brothels close to mining areas in the country’s southeast. As many as 2,000 sex workers, of whom 60 per cent are minors, are employed near one mining area, the study says.
These children are recruited by the wives of miners in the illegal sector, Wagner said.
Illegal mining can also take a devastating toll on the environment and on human health. A common way to extract gold is for workers to mix toxic mercury with powdered ore, and then burn off the mercury to collect the gold. This process, which is often done without safety equipment, can cause permanent health problems. Lakes and rivers in the Amazon region have mercury levels up to 34 times the safe limit for women, whose unborn children could suffer from permanent brain damage.
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