OldBillinUT
Full Member
- Feb 7, 2004
- 153
- 11
Gold Rush Tears Up a Patch of the Amazon
By MICHAEL ASTOR
AP
This is Eldorado do Juma, scene of Brazil's biggest gold rush in more than 20 years.
Drawn by a Brazilian math teacher's Web site descriptions of miners scooping up thousands of dollars in gold, between 3,000 and 10,000 people have poured in since December, cutting down huge trees, diverting streams and digging ever-deeper wildcat mines, in an area that only months ago was pristine rain forest.
Hundreds of mud-covered men with picks and shovels hack at the earth, marking their tiny plots with tree branches and string. Others feed dirt into wooden troughs and the residue into pans. A lucky few will end up with tiny nuggets and flakes of gold to sell for $530 an ounce in the town of Apui, about 50 miles north.
This is even better than Serra Pelada. I've been mining all around the Amazon since 1978 and this is the best I've ever seen," said Joao Leandro de Azedo, 70, overlooking his stake from a hammock.
Azedo said he has panned some 70 ounces of gold worth a total of $19,000 since arriving 17 days ago, including 17 ounces in a single day.
Half the proceeds went to the man who staked out his plot, and 8 percent more to Jose Ferreira da Silva Filho, who claims to own the entire "garimpo," or wildcat mine.
Gilmar Predebon reckons his gold store in Apui buys about 70 ounces of gold a day and molds them into gold ingots. He figures the mines generate between 200 and 230 ounces a day overall - "a good amount of gold but nowhere near as much as you'd expect, considering all the talk."
By MICHAEL ASTOR
AP
This is Eldorado do Juma, scene of Brazil's biggest gold rush in more than 20 years.
Drawn by a Brazilian math teacher's Web site descriptions of miners scooping up thousands of dollars in gold, between 3,000 and 10,000 people have poured in since December, cutting down huge trees, diverting streams and digging ever-deeper wildcat mines, in an area that only months ago was pristine rain forest.
Hundreds of mud-covered men with picks and shovels hack at the earth, marking their tiny plots with tree branches and string. Others feed dirt into wooden troughs and the residue into pans. A lucky few will end up with tiny nuggets and flakes of gold to sell for $530 an ounce in the town of Apui, about 50 miles north.
This is even better than Serra Pelada. I've been mining all around the Amazon since 1978 and this is the best I've ever seen," said Joao Leandro de Azedo, 70, overlooking his stake from a hammock.
Azedo said he has panned some 70 ounces of gold worth a total of $19,000 since arriving 17 days ago, including 17 ounces in a single day.
Half the proceeds went to the man who staked out his plot, and 8 percent more to Jose Ferreira da Silva Filho, who claims to own the entire "garimpo," or wildcat mine.
Gilmar Predebon reckons his gold store in Apui buys about 70 ounces of gold a day and molds them into gold ingots. He figures the mines generate between 200 and 230 ounces a day overall - "a good amount of gold but nowhere near as much as you'd expect, considering all the talk."
Upvote
0
