Peru cracks down on illegal gold miners in Amazon

PUERTO MALDONADO, Peru — Peruvian security forces launched a massive operation this weekend to destroy illegal gold mining equipment that is damaging fragile Amazonian habitats.

Nearly 1,000 military troops and police officers, assisted by helicopters and motor boats, took part in the first day of the operation that began on Saturday and is due to last a month.

They seized 13 river dredgers pumping silt up from the riverbed and sunk, burnt or otherwise destroyed seven, the defense ministry said Sunday.

"These are no small cottage industries," Defense Minister Jaime Thorne said, pointing to destroyed Chinese-made dredgers that cost about $250,000 each.

The operation aims to track down and destroy some 300 large pieces of mining equipment, including 200 dredgers, along 300 kilometers (190 miles) of the Inambari River in the southeastern Puerto Maldonado region.

Illegal mining accounts for nearly a quarter of gold production in Peru, the world's fifth-largest producer of the yellow metal.

Peru's environment ministry has warned that illegal gold mining could spark an ecological disaster in the Amazon due to deforestation, the carving up of the riverbed and mercury contamination.

"We cannot afford to let rivers get destroyed, with fish subjected to three times the amount of mercury tolerated internationally," Environment Minister Antonio Brack said.

There is local opposition but no clashes were reported on the first day of the massive military operation.