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Under the roots, gold

By Philip Poupin (0033 6 82 96 68 09 – www.philip-photos.com)

Gold fever is infectious in the brazilian Amazonia. For the fine metal, they uproot the forest.

Before going to the goldmine, I made inquiries about the degree of safety at Eldorado do Juma, nickame given to this mine of the State of Amazonas, 350 km south of Manaus, owing to the rush of thousands gold diggers who have come there since the discovery of the first vein in november 2006. « No, you aren’t a garimpeiro (a goldwasher), don’t fear anything. But don’t dare to buy gold, they would kill you to rob you ! » I was answered in the nearest town. This news barely comforting took me to a question : the gold washers are to that extent feverished by gold ?

Feverished is the right word. Even if that fever is quiet. Luis Carlos is lying down on the white bed of the hospital of Apui, the nearest town to the garimpo (the goldmine), his face swollen, says nothing. This morning, this 43 year old Brazilian lost his hand during a brawl. Because of the dry weather, the men haven’t worked today. So they started drinking cachaça very early, a very strong sugar cane alcohol : too much ! And as the sun was at its zenith, the quarrel which has been going on for weeks between Luis and his fellow worker degenarated. His colleague tried to cut Luis’ throat with a long machete, Luis stopped the blade with his wrist, his hand fell, cut off. Luis like 3000 gold washers who work in the garimpo do Juma, arrived here last winter (2006-2007). And like the overwhelming majority of the gold washers, fortune didn’t favour him. So far he lived on imaginary salaries, on the dream of what he could earn if he discovered the vein. That way the days are going by in the Eldorado. The gold washers grin and bear when it is hot and humid, when they catch malaria or when they see their children growing up without going to school.

Gold fever in the brazilian Amazonia seems to come straight from a western film, but the explanation is as real as present. With the economic instability (the unpredicable stock exchange, the subprime crisis, etc), the value of gold shot up 30% in 2007. In those conditions, the seek of the previous metal by the gold digger to the financier is a normal reaction, gold being a safe investment. Numerous gold mines open or reopen. Even the famous garimpo of Serra Pelada, which Sebastiao Salgado took pictures of in the 80’s when it ad been exploited for more than 20 years, has just been reopened. More than 10 Ha of rainforest have been devasted at Eldorado do Juma, some people name it the « new Serra Pelada ». The soil have been turned over down more than 25 meters / 82 feet deep even if a part the hundreds kilos of gold found, would be, it is repeated to anyone who’ll listen, devoted to reforestation of the site, deforestation is irreversible.

First, the men in groups of five to ten cut down to the ground vegetation then water the soil to get some mud, the water used comes from a Juma River affluent which dries up when it doesn’t rain. Then the mud is pumped up with the same type of hose : firehoses. A washing ramp receives the mixture onto those two stair slopes. Gold settles in the grooves. Every two to four days, gold washers gather a compound of earth and gold. Then follows a sandpan work in order to keep only the precious specks. At Eldorado do Juma, the specks being big enough don’t often resort to mercury essential to coaglate the thin gold dusts the gold collected is of a high quality being 99% pure gold.

Piani Ro (49) owns an extraction machine. He employs four workers. After four days work it’s time to collect the « booty » : altogether there are 97 grams : it’s not much. The workers will leave with six grams each : that is 9O euros / 70 dollars. Piani, the owner keeps for himself 65% of the gold gathered. 10% will go to the « owner » of the plot. Actually, here as everywhere in Amazonia, there are neither title deeds nor landowners. Controlling systems are pratically nonexistent : the owner of the land is the man who takes it up or stands up for it. Zé Capeta, his real name is José Fereira, is the first man who has set foot on the river Juma lands. He does not live there. Most of the settlements of te forest areas are speculating, profit making ones, analyses Gabriel, a young INRA researcher (Amazonia National Research Institute) who came to the area of the mine to carry out investigation into the financing of deforestation. As the years go by, he explains, the piece of land is more deforested, the more it gains in value because the more rapidly formed as a meadow. In Amazonia, people speculate on deforestation thrusts forward this man native of Sao Paulo. Almost two years ago, a gold washer came and asked Zé Capeta if he could prospect his plot. In november 2006, a seam is discovered. The rumour spreaded over every corner of Brazil till the southern regions of Brazil, more than 3000 kms / 2000 miles away. A few months later, speculators followed and suggested to Zéa plan of a village with a school… in other words : “development”.

The gold mine of the river Juma is illegal but can’t be closed down. The presence of the police is the evidence and the paradox of it. How to chase 3000 workers who came there to survive ? « The date of the regulation of the mine is not scheduled » reveals the police chief living permanently in the mine. His job is limited in lowering the number of brawls and thefts. To speak about the legality of the mine is taboo. It is in the neighbouring town of Apui that the senior police officer, wishing to remain anonymous, confided in a low voice at the last minute of our talk when the bus which was going to drop me more than 800 kms / 500 miles farther on the Transamazonian road had just arrived.

The bus moved away and the sight of deforestation along the Transamazonian leaves little hope of the fate of Eldorado. In Amazonia, the road and the development which is supposed to bring are the driving belt in deforestation. The garimpo do Juma has besides his own plan for a road. A path has already been opened. The mine will become later a village, then a town. The land speculators will reap the profits made those last years. And the rootless men, seing their vein shrinking away, will go somewhere else lured by a new rumour. Few of them will make the new population of Eldorado if they find a mean to support themselves.

While the old bus joggles on the dusty road, bordering meadows strewn with charred logs, I am thinking again about the two stripteases I saw two evenings in a row in the mine. Two prostitutes undressed completly on a little wooden stage. Once the male audience was overed-excited, the men made a bid on the women. The higghest bidders got the girls for the night. They will be paid in gold about two grams fo the night, that is 30 euros / 20 dollars. Those women make rounds of mines, staying only a few weeks in each of them. So those migratory women selling their bodies meet rootless men who have only gold left as a branch to cling to stay alive.

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