As many as 40,000 illegal miners — mostly poor, Quechua-speaking laborers from Peru's Andean highlands — have invaded some of the most pristine and biologically rich sections of ancient forest in the Amazon basin. In just a few years, they have laid waste to more than 120,000 acres, leaving behind Amazonian deserts of pestilent orange craters that bleed into the rivers when it rains.
POTOSÍ, Bolivia – Cerro Rico, the fabled peak towering over the Bolivian city of Potosí that supplied silver to fund Spain's colonial empire, is at risk of collapse from overmining, putting thousands of workers in jeopardy.
The workers are stuck at a depth of 80 meters (260 feet) in the southern town of El Corpus, said Oscar Triminio, a spokesman for the fire brigade in the Honduran capital.
After months of saber rattling, Infinito Gold, Ltd. announced Monday that it had filed for a Request for Arbitration with a World Bank court in its protracted dispute with the government of Costa Rica over the canceled Las Crucitas gold mining concession.
