Before going to the gold mine, I made inquiries about the degree of safety at Eldorado do Juma, the nickname given to this mine in the State of Amazonas, 350 km south of Manaus, owing to the rush of thousands of gold miners who have come here since the discovery of the first vein in November 2006. “No, you aren’t a garimpeiro [gold washer], don’t fear anything. But don’t dare to buy gold, they would kill you to rob you!” I was warned in the nearest town. This news, barely comforting, brought me to the question: are the miners that bedeviled by gold ?
Luis Carlos is lying down on the white bed of the hospital in Apui, the nearest town to the garimpo (the gold mine), his face swollen, he says nothing. Earlier that day, the 43 year old Brazilian lost his hand during a brawl. Because of the dry weather, the men did not work all morning, so they started drinking cachaça very early, a very strong sugar cane alcohol. Too much! And as the sun reached its zenith, the quarrel which had been going on for weeks between Luis and his fellow worker degenerated. His colleague tried to cut Luis’ throat with a long machete, but Luis stopped the blade with his wrist, and his hand fell, severed from his arm. Luis like 3,000 other 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 did not favor him. So far he had lived on an imaginary salary, the dream of what he could earn if he discovered a vein of gold. This is life in the Eldorado. The gold washers grin and bear it when it is hot and humid, when they catch malaria, or when they see their children growing up without an education.
Gold fever in the Brazilian Amazonia seems straight out of a western film, but the explanation behind it is understandable. With the recent economic instability, the value of gold shot up 30% in 2007. In those conditions, the search for the precious metal by both the gold miner and the financier is a normal reaction, gold being a safe investment. Numerous gold mines have opened or reopened. Even the infamous garimpo of Serra Pelada, which Sebastiao Salgado photographed in the 1980’s, when it had been exploited for more than 20 years, has just reopened. More than 10 hectares of rainforest have been devasted at Eldorado do Juma, some people have named it the new Serra Pelada. The soil has been dug out more than 25 meters (82 feet) deep causing irreversible deforestation.
First, men in groups of five to ten cut down the vegetation. Then the area is partially flooded with water from a Juma River tributary which will dry up when it does not rain. The mud is then pumped though fire hoses onto a washing ramp which receives the mixture onto two indented slopes. Gold settles in the grooves and every two to four days, gold washers gather a compound of earth and gold. Washers then use a sand pan to filter the compound leaving only the precious specks of gold. At Eldorado do Juma, as the specks are large enough and usually of high quality (around 99% pure), additional filtering processes are not necessary.
Piani Ro, 49, owns an extraction machine and employs four workers. After four days work it is time to collect the “booty.” Altogether there are 97 grams, which is not much. The workers will leave with six grams each, that is 90 euros, (70 dollars). As the owner, Piani will keep 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 claims it for himself and defends it. Zé Capeta, real name José Fereira, was the first man to set foot on the Juma River lands where he does not currently live. Almost two years ago, a gold washer came and asked Zé Capeta if he could prospect his plot. In November 2006, a vein was discovered and the rumor spread to every corner of Brazil including the southern regions of the country, more than 3,000 kilometers (2,000 miles) away. A few months later, speculators followed and proposed to Zé a plan of building a village with a school, in other words development.
The gold mine of the Juma River is illegal but cannot be closed down. The presence of the police is evidence of the paradox of its existence. How can you chase away 3,000 workers who now depend on the mine for survival? “The date of the regulation of the mine is not scheduled,” reveals the police chief living permanently at the mine. His job is limited to lowering the number of brawls and thefts. “To speak about the legality of the mine is taboo,” confides a senior police officer in the neighboring town of Apui, wishing to remain anonymous, in a low voice at the last minute of our talk with the arrival of the bus, which was going to drop me more than 800 kms (500 miles) away on the Transamazonian road.
The bus drives away and the sight of deforestation along the Transamazonian leaves little hope for the fate of Eldorado. In Amazonia, the road, and with it the development, are the driving force behind the deforestation. The garimpo do Juma has its own plan for a road. A path has already been opened. The mine will eventually become a village, and then a town. The land speculators will reap the profits made in those last years. The rootless men, seeing their vein shrink away, will go somewhere else lured by a new promise of riches. A few of them will make up part of the new population of Eldorado if they are able to find a means to support themselves.
While the old bus drives down the dusty road, bordering fields strewn with charred logs, I think back to the two stripteases I saw two evenings in a row at the mine. Two prostitutes undressed completly on a little wooden stage. Once the male audience became overexcited, the men bid on the women. The highest bidders got the girls for the night. They would be paid in gold, about two grams for the night, approximately 30 euros (20 dollars). Those women make rounds of the mines, staying only a few weeks in each of them. These migratory women selling their bodies meet rootless men, each chasing a dream they believe can be found in the gold under the Amazon.
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