Meet the women who scavenge for gold at the top of the world

Meet the women who scavenge for gold at the top of the world

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Eva Chura is one of the magpies of the mountain. Living with their families in shacks in a gold shantytown in the Andes, these women make a living gleaning gold from rubble.

They are called "pallaqueras" which roughly translates as 'gold-pickers.'

. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce
Houses stand in front of snow-covered mines.

Chura came 12 years ago from her hometown of Chupa in the Puno region to La Rinconada, a settlement of around 50,000 which is believed to be the highest in the world. Five of her eight children live with her in her corrugated zinc home.

. La Rinconada, Peru. Reuters/Nacho Doce
Chura breastfeeds her three-month-old son Alizon.

The eldest is 13-year-old Natalie. Chura is still breastfeeding the youngest, a boy called Alizon, and takes the baby with her when she goes scavenging.

. La Rinconada, Peru. Reuters/Nacho Doce
Chura and another pallaquera smoke and drink anise while chewing coca leaves before a shift.

It takes Chura an hour to reach the site where the women work. When they get there, they always sit down and chew coca leaves, light two cigarettes 'for the saints' and drink a little anise for luck. "Sometimes there's gold, other times no. At the moment it's very low," she said.

. La Rinconada, Peru. Reuters/Nacho Doce
Miners walk in front of La Bella Durmiente glacier as they exit a gold mine after finishing work for the day.

The men of La Rinconada bar all women from the mines dug beneath the rock. The men say the female spirit of the mine, which is located below a glacier called La Bella Durmiente, or The Sleeping Beauty, would be jealous and angry if women were to try to steal her riches.

. La Rinconada, Peru. Reuters/Nacho Doce
A pallaquera searches for gold as she strikes rocks extracted from a mine.

So instead, the women take turns to scramble up onto piles of black scree that the men have dumped.

Teetering high above the ground, they stoop and flip over the rocks, their keen eyes scanning the lumps for a glimmer of gold. Anything promising they pocket, and take back to process and sell to black-market dealers whose stalls 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 vary but on the London market that would fetch $50 or $100. "If I'm lucky it can sometimes be 20 grams, but that's down to luck."

. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce
Chura's daughter Yaquelin, 10, smiles as she picks up a piece of ice by the entrance of their home.

The quantities each woman collects are tiny, but thousands of them are looking - some estimates say there are more than 15,000 pallaqueras in Peru.

No-one collects garbage in La Rinconada. Women and men alike risk their lives and subsist in squalor in the mountain's thin frigid air.

. La Rinconada, Peru. Reuters/Nacho Doce
Chura cleans Alizon in their room.

Life is hard, Chura says, but she is better off gold-picking.

"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."

She does get troubled – especially by the fact she has no support if ever anyone in the family falls sick.

"It is very sad to live with garbage and dirt, washing in the cold, with water from the mountain. But you tell yourself to get over it. The children give you strength and courage to work."

. La Rinconada, Peru. Reuters/Nacho Doce
Chura's son Luis Miguel plays inside their room.

She says those of her children who were born in La Rinconada aren't bothered by the conditions, but when other people visit, they don't like the smell and the garbage. "It used to be worse. The smell was stronger. Now we have grounds to play football or volleyball."

To extract gold from the rocks the men and women use mercury, a toxin which they rinse with melted ice from the glacier. The water flows down the mountain into pools, puddles and rivers.

. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce
. La Rinconada, Peru. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Left: Miners stand on a large stone called a 'quimbalete' to break down rocks they collected from a gold mine to extract gold.
Right: A man uses water and mercury to separate and extract gold from a rock.

"The water used in mining is just dumped and all the communities downstream ... which are strictly farming areas, receive polluted water to support their livestock and crops," said Federico Chavarry, environmental crimes prosecutor for the region. "These same waters carry heavy metals directly to Lake Titicaca."

Titicaca is the largest lake in South America, a vital source of drinking water and fish for the surrounding population. Waste from gold-processing adds to pollution by run-off from surrounding cities and untreated sewage. In 2012 a German non-profit, the Global Nature Fund, named it the world's most threatened lake of the year.

. La Rinconada, Peru. Reuters/Nacho Doce
A girl stands behind the counter of a shop which buys gold from miners.

The fragments of gold these people produce have, at least in the past, made their way into supply chains of firms including phone makers and jewellers. In 2018 a Swiss refinery that had been taking the metal for years stopped after Peruvian prosecutors alleged the company that collected it was a front for organised crime.

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

. La Rinconada, Peru. Reuters/Nacho Doce
A mannequin dressed in miner's clothing, hangs above a house as a warning to deter thieves.

Miners have been shot dead in the tunnels; young women are trafficked into brothels; fights are common.

When police or other authorities come to town to try to enforce the law or restrict mining, they have been threatened by miners with the dynamite used to blast open the tunnels. The women join the protests too - some say the men force them to.

Now there is less gold in the mountain, the men drink a lot more, she said. "They spend more time in the bars than working."

Chura's daughter Natalie helps her. "She's like a son," she says. "But I'm afraid of the things that might happen to her."

To view Reuters special report click here.

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Slideshow

The shadow of a miner is cast onto a rock as he enters a gold mine.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

The shadow of a miner is cast onto a rock as he enters a gold mine.

Miners drink anise and chew coca leaves before a shift.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Miners drink anise and chew coca leaves before a shift.

A miner fills up a tube made from newspaper with dynamite powder to be used for setting off explosions inside a gold mine.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A miner fills up a tube made from newspaper with dynamite powder to be used for setting off explosions inside a gold mine.

Miners use a drilling machine to search for gold in a gold mine.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Miners use a drilling machine to search for gold in a gold mine.

Miners walk past a shrine as they make their way towards a gold mine. The shrine is intended to offer protection and security to those entering the mine, because of the dangerous conditions that these men are working in, often risking their lives.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Miners walk past a shrine as they make their way towards a gold mine. The shrine is intended to offer protection and security to those entering the mine, because of the dangerous conditions that these men are working in, often risking their lives.

A miner chews coca leaves which are often used as a remedy to ward off altitude sickness.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A miner chews coca leaves which are often used as a remedy to ward off altitude sickness.

A miner holds coca leaves.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A miner holds coca leaves.

Zinc houses stand in La Rinconada.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Zinc houses stand in La Rinconada.

A woman hangs clothes up to dry by the entrance of her home.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A woman hangs clothes up to dry by the entrance of her home.

Men who work as miners play football in front of La Bella Durmiente glacier.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

Men who work as miners play football in front of La Bella Durmiente glacier.

A miner is treated by Doctor Nelson and a nurse for a head injury that he says he received from thieves attempting to steal gold from him, at a health centre.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A miner is treated by Doctor Nelson and a nurse for a head injury that he says he received from thieves attempting to steal gold from him, at a health centre.

A miner has his hair cut at a hairdresser.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A miner has his hair cut at a hairdresser.

A man sews a boiler-suit that will be used for other miners.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A man sews a boiler-suit that will be used for other miners.

A miner sits on his bed as he writes in a notebook in his room.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A miner sits on his bed as he writes in a notebook in his room.

A woman buys chicken at a shop.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A woman buys chicken at a shop.

A miner waits for a food vendor to cook him some chicken that he bought on a street.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A miner waits for a food vendor to cook him some chicken that he bought on a street.

A miner has his photograph taken by a woman as he stands between a sign that reads 'duchas calientes' (hot showers) and a snowman.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A miner has his photograph taken by a woman as he stands between a sign that reads 'duchas calientes' (hot showers) and a snowman.

A boy poses for a photograph at the entrance of his school.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A boy poses for a photograph at the entrance of his school.

A family visits the grave of a relative at a cemetery.
. La Rinconada, PERU. Reuters/Nacho Doce

A family visits the grave of a relative at a cemetery.