This river in Guyana is polluted due to the illegal exploitation of gold

Brut America

Ludo, Hugo and Jonathan, youtubers behind the Le Tatou channel, went to Guyana to follow the trails of illegal gold miners. And this is what they found...

Transcript

00:00This mercury is present in water, but also in fish, that we can't eat anymore.

00:30So we just arrived on the illegal mining site, and just by looking behind me, you realize how disgusting it is what they are doing.

00:36The guys, they have demolished everything, they have broken everything to settle here.

00:39They don't dig mines or stuff like that, it's really the gold that is on the surface.

00:42They bomb water at an immense pressure just to drop the sediments that are hanging.

00:48And the gold that is in it, of course.

00:50Then, they put mercury to amalgamate, to recover, to reunite all the minerals.

00:55Then, they put mercury to amalgamate, to recover, to reunite all the minerals.

00:58Then, they put mercury to amalgamate, to recover, to reunite all the minerals.

01:01And make some kind of pancakes.

01:08So here we are on a barge that belonged to the Garimperos.

01:11They pump all the bed of the river, so all the sediments, with this kind of huge pump.

01:15And in fact, the sediments will come out right here, by the end of the pump.

01:19We just have to scratch the mats, they put mercury to amalgamate the gold, and then we recover it.

01:23And except that behind you, you made a bastard trace, you spit out all the sediments.

01:26Music

01:50In this region, it's 13 tons of mercury that are released every year in nature.

01:54Mercury will contaminate the whole ecosystem, and therefore, humans.

01:57Music

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