Illegal gold mining surges into new parts of Peru's Amazon, threatening rivers and lives

BOGOTA, Colombia — Illegal gold mining is spreading into new parts of Peru's Amazon, advancing along remote rivers and into Indigenous territories as experts warn of a widening environmental and public health crises that could cause irreparable damage.

The surge marks a new phase for one of the Amazon's most destructive industries, as operations move beyond long-established hot spots into previously untouched regions, environmentalists, researchers and Indigenous leaders told The Associated Press.

The expansion is accelerating deforestation, contaminating rivers with mercury and exposing remote communities to violence and organized crime, even as the government says it is stepping up enforcement.

Illegal mining hits ‘all regions of Peru'

Once largely concentrated in the southern Amazon region of Madre de Dios, the activity is now moving north into regions such as Loreto and Ucayali.

Peru's high commissioner for the fight against illegal mining, Rodolfo García Esquerre, acknowledged as much during a television interview in early February.

''Unfortunately, we have illegal mining in all regions of Peru,'' he said on TVPERU news channel.

Peruvian environmental lawyer César Ipenza said the expansion has accelerated in recent years as gold prices surge. Gold has been trading at roughly $2,000 an ounce so far in 2026 — near historic highs and roughly double its price a decade ago.

''Illegal mining has increased considerably,'' Ipenza said, pointing to new activity in Huanuco, Pasco, Loreto and along the Ecuador border as higher gold prices make it economically viable to operate in more remote regions.

Julia Urrunaga, Peru program director for the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency, said field reports show illegal mining is now appearing in new areas this year, particularly along river systems.

Rivers turn murky and forests fall

On the ground, conservationists say changes to the environment are noticed soon after illegal mining takes hold.

At the Panguana Biological Station in Peru's central Amazon, a private conservation area protecting one of the region's most biodiverse forests, the impacts are already visible in 2026. The station has become a front line site in the illegal mining boom, its administrator, Fernando Malatesta, told the AP.

''Where there were once intact forests … the rivers are now murky,'' he said. ''You used to see crystal-clear water, but not anymore.''

Heavy machinery and road building have pushed into once-intact forests. ''It was an unrecognizable place,'' Malatesta said of a nearby area he witnessed deforested by dozens of machines in recent months.

Illegal miners often arrive by river with dredging equipment or by road with excavators, rapidly clearing land and altering waterways.

Threats, violence and a retreat from the forest

''They started threatening us … there were people with machetes,'' he said, recalling confrontations with miners and residents.

Researchers say such violence is tied to the growing involvement of organized crime networks.

''Transnational criminal groups are becoming more significant every day,'' said Ipenza, the environmental lawyer.

Urrunaga said illegal gold mining has become a key source of income for criminal networks.

''Sadly, it's very connected. It's a source of income for many of the organized crime activities happening in the country,'' she said, adding that the activity is also ''deeply linked to the political forces in the country right now.''

In late 2023, Peru's government created a high-level multisector commission to combat illegal mining and oversee efforts to formalize small-scale miners.

Officials say enforcement efforts are ongoing. Recent operations have resulted in the seizure and destruction of equipment worth more than 60 million soles ($16 million) used in illegal mining activities.

But environmental defenders say enforcement remains weak on the ground.

The Peruvian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Rodolfo García Esquerre, Peru's high commissioner for the fight against illegal mining, appointed in 2024, declined to comment.

Indigenous communities caught in the middle

''This is already being heard in other parts of the Amazon. It is spreading through Loreto and Ucayali,'' said Julio Cusurichi, an Indigenous leader from Madre de Dios. He described how outside miners arrive quickly, cutting forests and polluting rivers.

''There is fear,'' Cusurichi said, adding that more than 30 Indigenous leaders have been killed in recent years for defending their lands.

At Panguana, Malatesta said Indigenous communities in some areas have begun to participate in mining due to economic need, while in others they try to resist.

''They are supporting illegal mining … they are selling their land thinking they are making the deal of the year,'' he said, warning the money from mining ''doesn't last forever.''

Mercury poisoning and a looming health crisis

''The devastation generated by gold mining is terrible in terms of the environment and through the environment also for human health,'' she said, pointing to how mercury, used to extract gold, pollutes rivers, and the food and water consumed by Indigenous communities, where fish is a staple food.

''Mercury becomes the delivery system for poison,'' Fernández said, explaining how it builds up through food chains and affects children's neurological development.

Claudia Vega, a scientist and mercury program coordinator at the Amazon Center for Scientific Innovation, CINCIA, said the expansion of mining into heavily fish-dependent Amazonian communities could have severe consequences.

''Amazonian communities are already vulnerable … they eat fish every day,'' she said. ''If you put mining in that type of place … you are adding more risk.''

She warned contamination could reach levels similar to the Minamata disaster in Japan, where mercury poisoning caused widespread neurological damage.

A tipping point for the Amazon?

Scientists warn that the expansion of mining could have irreversible consequences.

''We're going to see a conversion of river corridors, flood plains and forests,'' Fernández said.

Urrunaga said international gold buyers "need to be accountable for the destruction that their consumption is generating in terms of the environment, but most importantly in terms of human lives.''

As gold prices rise and demand continues worldwide, scientists caution that continued expansion could push parts of the Amazon closer to an ecological tipping point, with large areas of rainforest shifting into degraded savanna-like ecosystems.

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