And so, while that company reportedly has a legitimate licenses to mine in the area, the FCD recently encountered illegal gold panning in some very remote areas of the Ceibo Chico. On last week Wednesday, An FCD team went out with personnel from the Joint Forces Unit. Members of PACT and the National Protected Areas Secretariat also accompanied the part. The group went to the Ceibo Chico Conservation Post to assess the damages occurring at these remote areas.
The area where they went was located on the highlands of the Chiquibul/Maya Mountains, and a survey around the entire area showed clear signs that Guatemalan gold panners were operating the area, some 5 kilometers from the Conservation Post; that represents about 6 hours of hiking, and the area that they are targeting is located some 12 kilometers away from the Western Border.
Based on the investigations, the FCD found that the panners were opening trenches as deep as 10-12 feet in search of gold. They found other signs of human interaction such as garbage, bottles, cans, old clothes, batteries gloves, and plastic pans used for panning gold.
After encountering how determined these gold panners are and how much damage they are causing, the FCD is recommending that the Joint Forces Unit conduct 2-3 day operations at a time. The plan would be to arrive, detect and plan raids to choke off the escape routes of the gold panners. The FCD estimates that between 100 to 150 Guatemalans are gold panning in the highlands of the Chiquibul Maya Mountains.
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