This story has been supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Carrying a shovel on her shoulder, Nely Flores walks quickly on the beach. “Before the guards from the mine come and cause problems for us,” she says. She soon stops: “There’s the wetland, and here, only 20 meters away, we can see that the tailings are still out here, polluting the sea and all of the species that live in this area.” Flores picks up her shovel and begins digging. She digs up a heap of sand mixed with reddish-orange soil. It’s just a minuscule fraction of the 785 million metric tons of mining waste that the mining company Southern Copper tossed into Ite Bay for more than 35 years, damaging a critical fishing area on Peru’s southwestern coast. For the residents of Ite, mining has brought nothing but tragedy. In other Peruvian cities where U.S.-funded mining companies also operate, many residents fear a similar fate. In Arequipa, reports from environmental and health authorities warn that the Cerro Verde copper mine, run by Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., is polluting the air and the subsoil. In the northern region of Piura, pollution from the Miski Mayo phosphate mine, run by The Mosaic Company which then sells the product to the Brazilian market, is affecting nearby populations and the area’s artisanal fishing industry. Southern Copper’s heavy metal cocktail Some 60 years ago, Southern Copper established its Toquepala and Cuajone mines, in the regions of Tacna and Moquegua, respectively. Several…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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