In this video presentation, filmed from a helicopter in southern Bolivar State (Venezuela) on December 17, 2008, we see how illegal miners (garimpieros) have cut/burned away huge sections of the rain forest to then use powerful water hoses to blast away the surface soil in their relentless search for gold. Worse than that, they leave behind huge lakes polluted with mercury and cyanide which they use to "refine" the gold which fetches a ready market with local buyers, or is smuggled across the Brazilian and/or Guyana borders.
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Hard to imagine it could go on without the knowledge (benefit) of at least some politicians. I hope it is not used as an excuse to bring in foreign companies to do the same on a larger scale.
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