A miner holds an amalgam of mercury and gold he mined after working a 28-hour shift at an illegal gold mining process in La Pampa, in Peru's Madre de Dios region. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

An informal miner works to separate flecks of gold from the sandy, alluvial soil, using mercury to bind inside the crater of a gold mine process in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A jet stream of water passes above two miners known as “Maraqueros” who remove stones and chunks of tree trunks that have been released with the aid of a rustic type of hydraulic jet known locally as a “Chupadera”, in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. The Chupadera aims powerful jet streams of water at earth walls, releasing the soils that hold the sought after flecks of gold. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Prisaida (2) sits in the shallow waters of a polluted lagoon as her parents mine for gold nearby, in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. The lagoon emerged as a result of miners bombarding the earth with jet streams of water in search of gold. The miners know they will be soon be evicted, Peru's government declared all informal mining illegal. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

After it stopped raining, Johan tied his father's raincoat around himself while playing in the front yard of their temporary home next to their satellite TV dish at a mining camp in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. It's not just miners who are threatened with economic catastrophe from the government's campaign to wipe out illegal mining operations, said a mining camp cook. For every miner there is a family that eats because he works, she said. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Miners known as “Maraqueros” ready a rustic type of hydraulic jet known locally as a “Chupadera”, after hauling the device about 16-meters deep into a crater at a gold mine process in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. A new threat now looms for the estimated 20,000 wildcat miners who toil in huge scar of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A mining camp lines the horizon in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. Since artisanal gold mining took hold in La Pampa, miners began carving a lawless, series of ramshackle settlement out of the Amazonian jungle territory in 2008. The artisanal miners, who know they will be soon be evicted, are working up to the last minute after Peru's government declared all informal mining illegal. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A miner uses a boot to fill with water the radiator of a rustic type of hydraulic jet known locally as a “Chupadera”, used to to mine for gold at a gold mine process in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Miners swish sands on special carpets, filtering for gold pieces that fall into the pool of water at their feet, in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. The carpets are removed from a rustic sluice-like contraption that capture the gold deposits, with the aid of a rustic hydraulic mining machine, known locally as a “Traca”. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A miner rests on top of a rustic sluice-like contraption layered with pieces of carpets to capture the gold deposits from water sediment in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. Engine noise is the characteristic sound of this Amazonian jungle territory. There are no trees, only hills of moved earth and artificial ponds of brown water where gold is mined. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A miner continues his search for gold in mud-drenched clothes inside a crater at an illegal gold mine process in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. The government claims that the informal miners have destroyed the surrounding forests and polluted the environment by using mercury in the gold extraction process. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A rope hangs around the trunk of a tree at a illegal gold mining process in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. An estimated 20,000 miners toil in this malarial expanse of denuded rainforest known as La Pampa. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A motortaxi delivers a cargo of mattresses to a mining camp in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A miner naps near his workstation in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. Thousands of artisanal gold miners sweat through the 28-hour shifts and endure, for a few grams of gold, the perils of collapsing earth, limb-crushing machinery and the toxic mercury used to bind gold flecks. They chew coca leaf, a mild stimulant, to ward off the fatigue that can lead to fatal accidents. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A s*x worker who is employed by an informal bar playfully sticks out her tongue while posing for a photo, outside her place of her employment in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. Since artisanal gold mining took hold in La Pampa, miners began carving a lawless, series of ramshackle settlement out of the Amazonian jungle territory in 2008. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A miner melts an amalgam of gold and mercury to burn off the mercury in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. This rudimentary process of extracting the gold from the amalgam, releases mercury vapors, adding to the contamination that is resulting in the deforestation of thousands of acres of the Amazon rainforest. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Wildcat miners wait their turn to melt their amalgam of gold and mercury to burn off the mercury in the temporary home of a gold buyer in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A s*x worker who is employed at an informal bar waits for customers in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. Life is cheap in the mining camps. Deaths go unrecorded and the mercury miners use to bind gold flecks compounds the risks. Tons of the toxic metal have been dumped into rivers, contaminating fish, humans and other animals and plants. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

No one knows how much gold Madre de Dios contains, but Peru as a whole ranks sixth globally and first in Latin America in gold production. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A s*x worker sits with potential customers at the informal bar “La Rica Miel” or Delicious Honey in English, in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. Wildcat miners began arriving in 2008, populating shantytowns carved into the jungle along the interoceanic highway where coerced prostitution and tuberculosis now thrive. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

A miner roughly estimates his handful of gold he mined, after working for over 24-hours in La Pampa in Peru's Madre de Dios region. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)