Venezuela's Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of Amazonas (COIAM) issued a statement rejecting a government decree to expand mining in the rainforest region.
Mexican authorities seized a ship carrying 68,000 tons of illegal iron ore bound for China—hailed as the latest blow against the drug cartels' contraband mineral sideline.
An unknown number of miners—perhaps as many as 40—were buried alive as an illegal gold mine collapsed at El Palmar, in Colombia's southern region of Cauca.
Three were killed as thousands of independent miners blocked highways across Bolivia to protest a pending law that would impose restrictions on their cooperatives.
Informal miners have for days been blocking the Pan-American Highway on Peru's coast to protest the end of the "formalization" process for titling their claims.
Mexican authorities seized 119,000 tons of iron ore at Michoacán's Pacific seaport of Lázaro Cardenas, following tips about drug cartels exporting black-market ore to China.
Mongolian ecology activist Tsetsegee Munkhbayar was sentenced to 21 years in prison for "acts of terrorism" after his arrest at a protest against uranium mining.
France is escalating its military mission in the Central African Republic, airlifting troops and equipment to the capital Bangui ahead of an anticipated UN-backed intervention.
Indigenous leaders in Ecuador's rainforest accuse the army of forging evidence in the death of a Shuar man during an operation against outlaw gold-miners.
Following defeat of the M23 rebels in the war-torn east, the DRC is touting an imminent mineral boom in southern Katanga—despite a spreading separatist insurgency.
Peru's government has issued an "ultimatum" to small-scale miners, threatening to dynamite their equipment if they do not clear out of the remote areas where they operate.
Six dissident Aymara leaders held a hunger strike at the doors of the Bolivian congress building as lawmakers debated a bill on assigning legislative seats to ethnicities and regions.
