In two years, the pockets of illegal mining went from 500 to 600 throughout the country. Losses add up to more than $ 900 million a year
A report by the Global Initiative against organized crime (Giatoc) already warned, six years ago, that around 80% of the mined minerals in Ecuador they were the product of illegal activities. In addition, at that time the alerts were also clear that everything was working in direct relation to the organized crime and the drug trafficking.
According to this report, the authorities of countries such as Ecuador, Colombia and Peru were fully aware of the seriousness of the problem, and of which sources of illegal minery they were open practically every day.
However, the response had a large component of negligence, poor controls and even complicity with the mafias.
This situation, according to Tomás Bermúdez, a mining engineer and economist, remains the same, and even worse.
“The crisis in Zaruma sums up the mismanagement from the state. It was waited until a new sinkhole collapsed houses and other infrastructure to control the exploitation illegal miner in the zone. This activity moves millions a year and is a good business for politicians, social leaders, among others, at the expense of the needs of the people, “he said.
Six years ago, a United Nations report already established that, in Colombia and Peru, the illegal minery it moved almost $ 3,000 million annually in each of the economies.
In the case of Ecuador, the approximate figure reaches $ 300 to $ 400 million. Now that amount is at least $ 600 million.
“There is no exact calculation because illegal activities they adapt, mutate and grow with greater flexibility and pace than formal operations. For a few years there was a specific mining control agency, but now the entire energy sector is managed in the same agency with little capacity and resources, ”Bermúdez said.
The Ecuadorian Mining Chamber has recognized, on several occasions, the depth and scope of the problem of illegal exploitation, but has not made any type of study or calculation to define its economic dimension.
It is only emphasized that the social damages are enormous in aspects such as: child labor, organized crime, prostitution, slavery, kidnapping, among others.
Environment and Amazon are threatened
Every year the illegal minery provokes environmental damage equivalent to more than $ 2,500 million in the Amazon areas of countries such as Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Brazil. For the Ecuadorian economy, the impact is at least $ 350 million annually.
In 2019, an investigation entitled “Amazonia Looted” calculated more than 2,600 points of exploitation outside the law in places of high diversity and environmental value in all those countries.
That estimate, however, may fall short of the growing reality of the last two years.
In 2019, the defunct Mining Regulation and Control Agency (Arcom) registered at least 500 points of illegal mining in Ecuador.
During that year alone, seizures and seizures of exploited minerals illegally, they averaged 63 tons per month.
But nevertheless, in 2020 the controls against that activity they fell from 418 to 282, in the middle of the first blow of the pandemic; while the foci, or exploitation sites, grew.
Currently, the foci of the illegal mineryThroughout the country, they already exceed 600. The most affected provinces are Zamora Chinchipe, Napo, Imbabura, Azuay, Loja, Los Ríos and Esmeraldas.
According to Andrés Ycaza, spokesman for the Chamber of Mining, the result has been slower and more inefficient processes; and more work with less staff.
“For example, the northern regional of the Regulation and Control Agency is in charge of two OCP pumping stations, Coca Codo Sinclair, Llurimagua, Cascabel, the problem of illegal minery from Buenos Aires, among others. There are only four technicians for all this, “he said. (JS)
En 2020, uno de los sectores más problemáticos de la minería ilegal fue Esmeraldas. En esa provincia se han detectado 50 frentes mineros a cielo abierto
Modus operandi of illegal mining is known, but nobody acts
According to an investigation by John Machado, in collaboration with the Journalistic Platform for the Americas (Connectas), the modus operandi of illegal mining is fully identified; but the activity continues without effective controls until a tragedy like that of Zaruma happens.
First, illegal miners investigate where there are private concessions, in production or not, and take over the area, buy neighboring land, and even pay rent for lots if necessary.
Once there, they build wood and plastic mines, open small tunnels with perforators powered by air compressors; They illegally transport dynamite to the point and extract the material that is dislodged from the rock as a result of the explosion.
The material travels in sacks to sites accessed by dump trucks and trucks. It is then transferred to industrial mills called beneficiation plants, which are legal businesses, but which process material regardless of the origin. Most of those plants are in Zaruma, Portovelo and Camilo Ponce.
The mineral is transformed into sheets or bars (in the case of gold), which are sold to local merchants. These local merchants negotiate with exporting companies, which use false documents to simulate legal purchases and export.
In the last phase, the money from exports is transferred in armored trucks to sectors such as the province of El Oro. However, the authorities do not know in which hands it will end, but it is presumed that a good part will be reinvested in more illegal mining activities.
