Peru's President Ollanta Humala declared a state of emergency in the rainforest region of Madre de Dios following reports of mercury poisoning by outlaw gold-mining operations.
Afro-Colombian protesters blocking the Pan-American Highway in southern Cauca region to protest illegal mining on their lands were violently dispersed by the riot police.
Russia is blocking release of an internal UN report that apparently shows how pro-government militias in Darfur are making some $54 million per year in gold mining.
Rights groups see an urgent threat that criminal gangs and paramilitary groups will fill the power vacuum in remote areas of Colombia as the FARC is demobilized.
Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro ordered creation of a "Special Military Zone" in the Orinoco Mineral Arc following reports of a massacre at a mining camp in the region.
Indigenous and Black communities in Colombia’s Chocó department filed a lawsuit, claiming 37 of their children died after drinking water contaminated by nearby mining operations.
Informal gold-miners paralyzed Peru's southern rainforest region of Madre de Dios for weeks to demand the overturn of executive decrees restricting their activities.
A court in China ruled that a lawsuit against ConocoPhillips China and China National Offshore Oil for a 2011 oil spill can proceed under a new law allowing NGOs to directly sue polluters.
Members of the Pemón indigenous people blocked the landing strip of Venezuela's Canaima National Park in protest of illegal miners operating on their lands.
Indigenous people and advocacy groups charge the mega-project to build a transcontinental railway through the Amazon basin would mean "genocide" for isolated tribes.
In an open acknowledgement that it cannot secure its pipeline system from plunder by criminal gangs, Mexico will no longer pump refined gasoline and diesel through the network.
Small-scale gold and emerald miners in Colombia launched a strike, blocking roads at several points across the central department of Antioquia to protest raids on their operations.
