A prominent Catholic leader in Peru’s Amazon is urgently appealing to countries that import gold to help curb illegal mining, which is severely polluting rivers with mercury as gold prices reach unprecedented highs.
Miguel Ángel Cadenas, an Augustinian priest who has dedicated three decades to Peru’s Amazon region, reports a significant increase in illegal mining activities since the Covid-19 pandemic.
He highlighted the Tigre, Nanay, Napo, and Putumayo rivers as areas where local communities face grave risks.
Scientific tests have revealed mercury levels in some fish exceeding World Health Organisation limits, while hair samples from residents analysed by experts also show alarmingly high concentrations.
“We are in a delicate situation,” Cadenas told The Associated Press. “Given that the Amazonian diet is rich in fish, we are talking about food insecurity.”
Mercury, widely employed in small-scale gold separation, contaminates water, accumulates in fish, and builds up in human bodies, leading to severe neurological and developmental damage.
Cadenas stressed that these health risks are particularly acute in the Amazon, where access to medical services is scarce.
Further research in Peru’s Madre de Dios region indicated that 43 per cent of women of childbearing age had mercury levels above WHO safety thresholds.
Similarly, hair samples from villages along Peru’s Amazon riverways showed nearly 80 per cent of residents surpassed the acceptable limit.
“The majority of people do not understand what is happening. There is barely any information,” Cadenas said. “The state should first provide good information to its own population and then sources of food that allow other alternatives — which do not exist.”
Call for gold traceability
Gold prices are soaring — analysts expect them to average around $3,675 per ounce by late 2025 with possible gains toward $4,000 by 2026, according to JPMorgan.
Analysts say weak traceability systems make it easier for illegally mined gold to slip into global markets. Reports from Switzerland and sustainability researchers focused on environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards say gold tainted with mercury in places like the Amazon is often laundered through refineries before entering jewelry, electronics or national reserves.
Cadenas, who served as a missionary and bishop before being appointed in 2021 to lead the Apostolic Vicariate of Iquitos, stressed that Peru cannot handle the problem alone.
“As long as the price of gold continues to rise, it is very difficult for a national government to manage this situation,” he said. He pointed to gold-buying nations including China, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Switzerland.
“The first responsibility should be that those countries buying gold require traceability, so that it is not possible to pass illegal gold into legality so easily,” he said.
‘Extremely serious’
Cadenas also warned of growing violence, especially against local environmental defenders in the Amazon region.
Across the Amazon, environmental defenders are frequently targeted — Colombia has led the world in killings for several years, while Peru also ranks among the most dangerous places to speak out against illegal mining and logging.
“There are people who are being threatened with death, and this seems extremely serious to me,” he said, citing reports that illegal miners in remote areas are tied to armed groups, including Colombian FARC dissidents.
Peru has at times tried to rein in illegal mining and mercury use. In 2019, it launched Operation Mercury, a military-police crackdown that sharply reduced deforestation in the La Pampa mining zone, though much of the activity later shifted elsewhere. Authorities also announced record seizures of contraband mercury, including a four-ton shipment at Callao port this year.
Still, Indigenous groups say enforcement is inconsistent, and regional governments across the Amazon warn that cross-border smuggling of mercury continues to fuel illegal mining.
International action
The city of Iquitos hosted the Amazon Water Summit last week, which the vicariate helped organise. Roughly 400 people from Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil took part in 14 workshops on topics including water and extractivism, climate change and education.
Cadenas noted that Loreto, Peru’s largest Amazonian department, has the country’s lowest access to drinking water — with about 60% of the population lacking potable water and sanitation. Peru’s Constitutional Court ruled two years ago that this amounted to an “unconstitutional state of affairs,” but he said the judgment has yet to be fulfilled.
Cadenas, who said he knows Pope Leo XIV — who spent years in Peru as a missionary and later bishop — fears the situation will worsen unless international action curbs demand for illicit gold.
“Every day that passes there are more people dedicated to illegal mining. While there isn’t serious international pressure, it will be very difficult,” he warned.
Still, he directed a personal plea to those driving the destruction.
“Earning money is fine, but it cannot be at the cost of injustice and the lives of the poorest,” he said.
