Challenges of an informal economy

Last week Thursday I visited a community of gold miners which was started about 24 years ago by a few pioneers. It is truly a sort of "wild west" as we can imagine was created 100 years ago or so in western US and Canada. This community, "Minas Santa Cruz", now counts about 2,000 people and its economy is 100 % informal. In the oficial Colombian economy they sort of "do not exist" and one can wonder who buys their mined products. But let' start with the early morning travel there...

With about 20 people in two "chalupas" (the typical river passenger speedboats used for public transport in this huge Rio Magdelena river delta where there are very few roads), we left shortly after 6 in the morning. Seeing the sunrise over the river made this day already special....

After an hour on one of the main river branches we went into a smaller branch and literally zig zagged our way to our destination. If you look carefully at the photo above you can see the other "chalupa" in front of us (sorry, I don't have a professional camera, but I hope you get the idea).

We are now close to our destination. The mountain range in the horizon of the photo above is where
"Minas Santa Cruz" is located. On the left you can maybe see a few military boats. Behind the trees is an army camp. The military control the area as good as they can since about 5-6 years. Before that this region was during a decade controlled by guerillas and bandits.

When you get out of the "chalupas" this sign welcomes you, and you can see some of the many wooden shacks in which people live. The community has a clear "pecking order". The miners who arrived in the early days are organized in an association and are already more "established". The newer arrivals live in very poor conditions until they have earned some (informal) income with their work which can be gold mining, small scale agriculture or trading and services.

This is one of the first pioneers who arrived here. He was in fact never a miner and has made his living on starting small stores for materials the miners needed. Currently he is the President of the local miners association. It was amazing to hear the stories of how this community developed over the years, how they lived under extremely difficult circumstances during the height of the guerrilla warfare in this region and how they now try to slowly "normalize" their lives. The association had put money together to build a school for the youth. Just before they could open, the building started cracking because under the school informal miners were digging tunnels to find minerals. It became apparent that it was not safe to have children in these school building. As a result they now teach the kids in all sort of provisionary places (see photo below) and they are scheduling to move the entire community to a location nearby. Where the community grew "organically", the ground is rich in minerals, so people want to explore it further. There has been zero "city planning".... But let's have a look at the cracked buildings and where the school kids get their classes because of that:

 

 

 

This is a small playground for the kids. It was entirely constructed with recycled materials and it was one of the social projects of a CSR team (Corporate Social Responsibility) of a new mining company called "Ashmont". This company was founded about 6 years ago by investors from both Canada and Colombia. They arrived in Minas Santa Cruz three years ago, and they have official mining papers. They have done mostly geology work the past two years to determine the potential and to plan for their exploration and production. They will start a plant by the end of this year, and this plant will be a "closed system" (no waste). "Ashmont" decided to start already to work with the community on social projects, environmental awareness campaigns and health assistance. It was encouraging to see this Ashmont team of young professionals (most of them with MBA and other high education degrees) work here with so much passion for social inclusion. Once the Ashmont plant starts operating it will not only be the very first "formal/legal" company in town, but also the first "clean mining" operation. We met for a few hours with Ashmont and my SENA colleagues to start brainstorming about project synergies. A lot of good action will result for this community, where not only the mining operations, but also all the little stores, workshops and restaurants are "informal". No business or income taxes are paid, and therefore the government does not have much to work with in order to offer essential services. There is a long way to go for the people in Minas Santa Cruz.......

 

Let's have a look at the variety of mining operations. There are a few larger operations with 10-20 miners working together. They have somehow found financing to buy equipment and below are some photos. The mining experts in our group observed that these machines are mostly outdated and only achieve about 40 % efficiency in seperating the gold and other minerals from the rocks. They also cause a horrendous amount of pollution through the use of mercury. And then there are all sort of real "artisanal" miners who go undergound in very unsafe conditions or who do the famous pan handling in open spaces and on the river side. Let's start with a few photos of the largest operation in town:

 

 

These rotating cylinders are filled with metal balls which seperate a fair amount of the minerals from the rocks. Mercury and water is used in this process. Then the materials ends up on big shaking tables where the seperation continues:

 

 

 

 

Here you see the gold in the middle been shaken to the middle part of the table and then end up deposited seperate from the rock and water waste. The waste water has the grey color much influenced by the chemicals such as mercury used in this process. Now have a look below at the photo where that waste water goes:

 

 

The pig does not seem to mind, but maybe one bad day he becames breakfast, lunch or dinner for people in the community and they will get the mercury in their system that way. The waste water flows to the river, where pan handling miners try to seperate a bit more of the gold from the water, and then the mercury integrates in the large Magdelena river. The fish get the mercury in their bodies and again, people eat that later. The mercury and other chemicals of course also badly impact the eco-system of the river delta, and now have also started to impact the coral reefs of the atlantic ocean coast of Colombia. It is a true chain of misery. And this kind of informal mining is exploding at the moment, because the region is so rich in minerals. The Colombian government works very hard to regulate the industry, but they have to deal with about 50 years of informality and illegality, so it will take time. Training and better education are of course also crucial ingredients, and we all know that takes really generations before it has a real impact.

 

At this larger operation they talked me into going in one of the mine shafts. I can't believe I actually did that with my mild claustrofobia. This is the mine shaft I entered for about 100 meters:

 

 

 

Entering this shaft for which I was about 25 centimeters too tall, was a terrifying experience. Outside it was already 35-40 degrees celcius. Inside even hotter. I just can't imagine how people can work under such circumstances. The miner who accompanied me into the mine had started when he was 11 years old and had done it for over 30 years. Here is one of the spots where they cut out the rocks:

I was glad to leave the mine shaft again.... I must admit that I almost ran out....

Below are some photos of miners who work in even worse conditions:

The signs of eco-system destruction are just all around you. Yet, these people make a living by hard work. How can you blame them if there are seemingly not much alternatives. In order to do "clean and planned mining" the miners need significant investments. Chicken and the egg problem. And as long as the world market keeps buying gold as an essential component for so mcuh of what we produce and consume, we are ALL together guilty of this eco-system destruction.....

The social team of Ashmont is already every day working in this informal economy to slowly make some positive changes. SENA is also already on the ground. On the right of this photo is a SENA instructor who lives three months in the community to deliver a technical course on environmental management. Behind him is an instructor who teaches topography in a nearby similar community. In the middle is Sandra, the regional coordinator for the south of Bolivar in SENA. Sandra is a mining engineer who herself worked underground 6 years. She married another mining engineer, Alvaro, who works for the provincial ministry of mining. Together they lived in this area for 8 years and becausee of that they have the trust and confidence of many local leaders. On the left is Bibiana who is a regioanl director of SENA and with whom I do most of my work this year in our EFE program.

I will close this post with this photo. Nobody in the world should have to make a living going down in such a dangerous place. I have tears in my eyes when I write this. It is an emotional experience to see this and to visit this community. It is one thing to seee it on TV in a documentary. It is another experience to walk around in it. We are all part of this, whether we realize it or not. Training and education will be the only way out of this in so many ways dangerous informality. One day....

My next blog will show the historic city of Cartagena. Such a contrast. You find it all here....