PBS News Hour

Gold mining leaves heart of Peruvian Amazon a wasteland

A decade of illegal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon has left thousands of acres of rainforest a wasteland. Unpermitted miners cleared vast sections of trees near Peru's border with Brazil and infused the land with mercury, causing an environmental disaster. But some miners have fled after Peruvian troops moved in. Special correspondent Leo Schwartz reports in the first of a two-part series.

Gold mining leaves heart of Peruvian Amazon a wasteland

8m 31s

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