The lure of even a few specks of gold compels Elizabeth Mosquera awake before dawn to slog to a muddy pit, where she wades ...

As gold prices have skyrocketed, criminal groups once solely dedicated to the trafficking of drugs and arms have moved into illegal mining. The activity has become one of the most lucrative criminal ...

Colombia’s deforestation dropped 33% in early 2025 compared to last year, with significant reductions in Amazon national ...

In Colombia, illegal mining manifests as a tangled web comprised of local production, export, and smuggling from neighboring Venezuela. Revenues from these various operations fuel guerrilla groups ...

Indonesia has revoked the permits of several mining companies in Raja Ampat following public outcry over environmental damage in the eastern islands. But local police said rumours of residents burning ...

Luis Pardo, director of the think tank Colombia Punto Medio and a former employee of the Colombian state mining authority, agrees. “The fight against illegal mining makes no sense,” he says.

Colombia is preparing a series of new legal reforms to tackle illegal gold mining, after seeing seizures of illegal gold increase by over 6,600 percent last year. However, with falling gold prices and ...

Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos on Thursday declared a war on the $2.5 billion illegal mining industry in the country. “Illegal mining is causing us more harm than other enemies” the president ...

Colombia’s illicit mining industry, like the far-flung operation that police raided late last year, generates about $2.4 billion a year in criminal cash — three times more than the country’s ...

just a few kilometers from Colombia’s Guainía department, illegal mining shakes the region’s economy while devastating the environment. The absence of the government is obvious. According to ...

Violence in Colombia’s main gold mining region escalated after Defense Minister Ivan Velasquez declared “total war” on illegal mining on March 1. The announcement almost immediately triggered a miners ...

Luis Pardo, director of the think tank Colombia Punto Medio and a former employee of the Colombian state mining authority, agrees. "The fight against illegal mining makes no sense," he says.