The Women Who Hunt for Gold at the Top of the World

 

Eva Chura lives in an old gold mining town high in the Andes Mountains of Peru. She works¹ with women known locally as "pallaqueras" or gold-pickers. She searches through the rocks of the Andes looking for small pieces of gold.

Twelve years ago, Chura moved to the village of La Rinconada from her hometown of Chupa. La Rinconada is believed to be the highest settlement in the world. It is home to about 50,000 people.

Five of Chura's eight children live with her in a metal structure. She walks for an hour to reach the place where local women work. When they arrive, they sit down and chew coca leaves, smoke cigarettes and drink a little alcohol² for luck.

"I don't count my husband, because he is no help as a father or a husband," she said. "I'm the papa and the mama. ... We don't want for anything. We have everything."

To remove gold from the rocks the men and women use mercury³, a toxin⁴ that they wash away with water from a nearby glacier⁵. The water flows down the mountain into rivers.

"The water used in mining is just dumped⁷ and all the communities downstream...receive polluted water" to support their farms, said Federico Chavarry. He is a lawyer and has worked on cases involving environmental crimes.

The pollution goes directly in Lake Titicaca, he said.

Titicaca is the largest lake in South America. It provides the drinking water and fish for the area's population. It is so badly polluted that the Global Nature Fund⁸, a German environmental group, named it the most threatened lake in the world in 2012.

In the past, the pieces of gold found by the women made their way to jewelers and telephone manufacturers⁹. In 2018, a Swiss company that had been taking the metal for years stopped after Peruvian government lawyers claimed the company was connected to organized crime.

Now, Chura and the others in La Rinconada say the gold supply is running out. "It's not like it used to be. That's why so many ugly things happen," she said.

"Sometimes there's gold, other times no. At the moment it's very low," Chura said.

The men of La Rinconada bar all women from the mines dug under the rock. The men believe the mine has a female¹⁰ spirit which becomes angry if the women try to take her gold. So, the pallaqueras climb onto black scree the men have dropped on the ground and search through it. They hope to find gold the men have missed.

The women take any gold they find to the black market gold dealers¹¹ whose stores line La Rinconada's main street.

"In a week sometimes I can get 1 gram or 2 grams of gold," Chura said. Black market prices often change, but that can mean anywhere from $50 to $100.

"If I'm lucky it can sometimes be 20 grams, but that's down to luck," she added.

Thousands of women search for small amounts of gold. Some people say there are more than 15,000 pallaqueras in Peru.

No one collects garbage in La Rinconada. Women and men alike¹² risk their lives and live in dirty conditions in the mountain's thin, cold air.

Life is hard, Chura said.

As the gold runs out and officials try to stop the pollution, her way of life is ending.

Words in This Story

chew – v. to use your teeth to cut food into small pieces before you swallow it

scree – n. an area of loose stones on the side of a mountain

black market – n. an illegal market

garbage – n. things that are no longer useful or wanted and that have been thrown out

toxin – n. a poisonous substance and especially one that is produced by a living thing

glacier – n. a very large area of ice that moves slowly down a slope

dump⁶ – v.

1 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

2 alcohol   

n.酒精，乙醇；含酒精的饮料

参考例句：

• The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors.法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。
• The alcohol is industrial.这些酒精是供工业用的。

3 mercury   

n.汞，水银，水银柱

参考例句：

• The liquid we can see in thermometers is mercury.我们看到的温度计里的液体是水银。
• Mercury has a much greater density than water.水银的密度比水大得多。

4 toxin   

n.毒素，毒质

参考例句：

• Experts have linked this condition to a build-up of toxins in the body.专家已把这一病症与体内毒素的积累联系起来。
• Tests showed increased levels of toxin in shellfish.检验表明水生有壳动物的毒素水平提高了。

5 glacier   

n.冰川，冰河

参考例句：

• The glacier calved a large iceberg.冰河崩解而形成一个大冰山。
• The upper surface of glacier is riven by crevasses.冰川的上表面已裂成冰隙。

6 dump   

n.垃圾场；v.倾卸，切断电源，倾倒

参考例句：

• Where can I dump this rubbish?我将这些垃圾倒在什么地方？
• They wheeled the rubbish out to the dump.他们把垃圾用车运到垃圾场去。

7 dumped   

adj.废弃的v.倾倒( dump的过去式和过去分词 )；丢下；随便堆放；释放

参考例句：

• Too much toxic waste is being dumped at sea. 太多的有毒废料在向大海里倾倒。
• They dumped his belongings unceremoniously on the floor. 他们粗暴地把他的物品摔到地板上。

8 fund   

n.基金，资金，存款，财源，贮藏；vt.提供资金，积累

参考例句：

• They decided to set up a fund for this purpose.他们决定为此专立一项基金。
• This fund may not be drawn on without permission.这笔钱非经批准不得动用。

9 manufacturers   

制造商，制造厂( manufacturer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The manufacturers in some countries dumped their surplus commodities abroad. 一些国家的制造商向国外倾销过剩产品。
• Colour TV has been more aggressively promoted as more manufacturers have joined the competition. 由于更多的厂商参与竞争，推销彩色电视机的宣传更为激烈了。

10 female   

adj.雌的，女(性)的；n.雌性的动物，女子

参考例句：

• We only employ female workers.我们只雇用女工。
• The animal in the picture was a female elephant.照片上的动物是头母象。

11 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

12 alike   

adj.同样的，相像的；adv.一样地；同程度地　

参考例句：

• The twins are so alike that I can't tell which is which.这对双胞胎一模一样，我分辨不出谁是谁。
• All stories seemed dreadfully alike,no matter who told them.看来，不管谁讲，故事都是千篇一律的。