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SAP 2.78/WP.137

Child labour in small-scale mining:
Examples from Niger, Peru & Philippines

Edited by Norman S. Jennings

2. Child labour in traditional mining: Mollehuaca, Peru

Zoila Martínez-Castilla ^{(6), (7)}

Executive Summary

This paper examines the work environment and health conditions of children who are engaged in mining and metallurgical activities in the context of the Mollehuaca Project. The project addresses the social, technical, production and environmental problems of traditional gold mining in the Nasca-Ocoña zone, an area of 50,000 km2.

Traditional gold mining in the Nasca-Ocoña zone

Mollehuaca, in the Nasca-Ocoña zone in the south of Peru, between the departments of Ica and Arequipa, is one of five areas in the country where traditional gold mining takes place.

The Nasca-Ocoña zone is a territory containing more than ten valleys that extend from the Pacific coast to the western foothills of the Andean mountains where, for many years, gold deposits in narrow veins have been exploited. Many of the mines date back to pre-Hispanic and colonial times. Newer mines were opened in the 1940s but were later abandoned by the mining companies for economic reasons and/or because of the threat of terrorist violence. In this scenario traditional gold mining, mainly informal, has been expanding for 20 years.

The economic crises, urban unemployment in the cities, poverty in the agricultural areas and the violence that prevailed in the 1980s gave rise to a growing social phenomena -- individual, family or collective migration to zones other than the place of origin, searching for safety and economic survival. The emergence and booming of traditional gold mining in Peru is one of the least studied of such migrations.

As part of this process a vast sector of gold miners using traditional methods has emerged, finding not only found a means to generate income and mitigate the pressing social problems but also, over the last few years, restoring small-scale gold mining activities in the region and in the country as a whole.

It is important to note that informal mining generated up to 64% of Peru's gold production in 1991-97 (table 1).

Table 1. Fine gold production, Peru (kg)

The total production of fine gold from traditional mining for was between 12-24 tonnes a year. While the proportion has fallen with the advent of large gold mines (Yanacocha and others), the quantity has remained stable at about 23 tonnes, worth about $230 million. Gold production in the Nasca-Ocoña zone, where there 7,000 traditional mineworkers, is estimated at 4.9 t/yr. ⁽⁸⁾

As this kind of mining is mostly informal and is unregulated, production data is approximate. Government estimates are based on two sources of information: production declared to the mining authorities by plants that process the mineral extracted by traditional miners but that do not partake in mine exploitation ⁽⁹⁾; and information obtained through government commissioned studies and surveys. But information derived from the Mollehuaca Project shows that the government estimates are very conservative. In the first place, the reports from the refineries are not totally reliable and there is no official supervision. As regards the surveys, many mining sites within the Mollehuaca Project have not been visited because of difficult access.

Technical processes and conditions of work

• Difficult with grave risk to health. Life expectancy is reduced: irreversible illnesses for reasons of poverty (anaemia, tuberculosis) and work (mercury poisoning and pneumoconioses).
• Mining methods date back to the middle ages: picks, crowbars and sledgehammers. Miners work in tunnels that they crawl into. They work semi-nude without adequate tools or safety or protective equipment, and are exposed to dust and toxic gases.
• Rudimentary methods of work organization and technical processes. From prospecting to trading, each miner uses his own ingenuity. Access to the mines is very difficult and transport is manual or by pack animals.
• The hazardous process of amalgamating gold with mercury is carried out in crude mills (quimbaletes) that are manually operated by young men, children and women, under conditions that are not only highly hazardous to their health but also to the environment.
• Many of the processing plants do not have operating permits and they have mining concessions which they do not exploit. So they figure legally as producers, based on the production of the traditional miners (who extracted the mineral under extremely harsh conditions using their own tools and putting themselves at risk), paying the miners very low prices.

Quality of life and environmental problems

• The communities in the area that have been established by small-scale gold miners since the end of the 1970s are highly populated but, because they are not included in the public budget, they lack basic services and local authorities.
• Almost 97% of the homes in the Huanuhuanu district where Mollehuaca is situated have no water, sewerage or electricity services. Water is supplied from wells that are in precarious conditions and exposed to contamination.
• Mollehuaca has no permanent health services. The community has set up a medical post where attention is given twice a week by personnel from the medical post in the capital of the district 6 km away and reached on foot in cases of emergency.
• The two schools that provide pre-school and primary education were created on the initiative of the community and have 152 pupils.
• Approximately 44% of the population are women of whom 13 are heads of families. All are directly or indirectly involved in mining activities. Pregnancy among girls is on the rise and among the mothers there is a high percentage of illiteracy.
• It is a desert area with scant vegetation. This natural condition is aggravated by mercury contamination of the soil and waterways in the dry gully, affecting the flora and fauna.
• Contamination of the environment by mercury vapour and mine dust is also jeopardizing the health of the people.
• There is constant deforestation due to the use of tree trunks in the traditional mills in the quimbaletes.

The working children of Mollehuaca

• In Mollehuaca 53% of the population are under19 years of age.
• 104 children aged 7-17 years have been detected working in small-scale mining or processing activities. Of these 76 are boys and 28 girls.
• The children perform the same activities as adults. The majority work as part of the family unit and do not receive any remuneration. The children consider they have a responsibility to help sustain the family.
• Some of the children aged 15-17 years live alone. They have left school and work full time. They have no family or social protection.
• The young mineworkers show mercury contamination in their blood and hair.
• The majority of the working children show a below average intellectual capacity. Moreover, they show difficulties in performing visual motor functions.
• Two thirds of the children who were tested and who showed a level of maturity below their chronological age are girls.

Introduction

Description of the area

Location

Mollehuaca is in the south of Peru, in the province of Caravelí and the department of Arequipa. It can be reached by land from Lima by travelling 615 km along the Pan American highway to the coastal village Chala, then north east for 65 km long dirt road to the village of Mollehuaca.

Mollehuaca is situated between the coastal and sub-Andean peneplains between 1,200 m (populated area) and 2,426 m above sea level (area of mining activities). The village lies in a dry gully named Huanuhuanu. The whole area is semi-desert, largely bare of vegetation. However, there are a few areas of cultivated fruits (vines and pear trees) in spaces where underground water streams surface.

The most recent seismic activity was the earthquake in November 1996 (7 on the Richter scale). Mollehuaca is situated in a zone of high seismic intensity. Moreover, the area is situated between zones that are prone to landslides and avalanches of mud and stones.

The estimated total annual rainfall is 80-150 mm; some years are completely dry. The average temperature is 18-20C. The fluctuations of day/night temperatures are accentuated due to the scant vegetation. According to ONERN (the national office for natural resources) it is characterized as a very dry, semi-warm zone (desert or barren subtropical) which poses one of the obstacles for agriculture.

The dry Huanuhuanu gully is a runoff for the Chala river that belongs to a group of rivers springing from the foothills of the Andes with sporadic rains whose cycle has not been established yet. This gully has underground streams formed by the melting snow of the Andes. The water reserves reach 1,000,000 m3 annually ⁽¹³⁾.

Given the climatic, geographical and topographic conditions in the area, the soil is dry and desert like, formed by quaternary alluvial fillings that originated from the behaviour of intermittent currents ⁽¹⁴⁾. These lands are not appropriate for intensive cultivation or other uses. In most cases the soil has little or no value for agriculture.

Mollehuaca is situated in the Yunga natural region, characterized by plains, hills, arid mountains, semi-warm climate and semi-rugged terrain. Vegetation consists of tillandsia and, on the higher plains, ephemeral seasonal vegetation. Yunga is known for frequent avalanches that occur in January-March.

Fauna consists mainly of vultures, lizards, pigeons and lizards. Before reaching the mining area of Mollehuaca, near the village of Tocota, there are indigenous trees (Prosopis), fruits such as pears, apples and figs and some light vegetation. Closer to Mollehuaca, the vegetation is reduced to Prosopis species and xerophilous vegetation.

The socio-economic situation in the Mollehuaca mining area ⁽¹⁶⁾

Background

Migration towards Mollehuaca started sometime during the 1970s driven by informal gold mining. At that time a few small mining companies were still operating and the work of the migrants was initially clandestine, subject to bribes paid to company guards. Many of the mining pioneers of those times are prosperous merchants today in the coastal towns Chala, Camaná and others.

Between 1980 and 1986 the population continued increasing and the first settlement called Mollehuaca was established at 2.5 km NW from the present town. In there were around 400 inhabitants. When Mollehuaca was at its peak the population was double that of today, until the police drove the miners out violently in 1986, burning almost all the humble homes.

Later these miners started returning. Initially they arrived alone to do seasonal work (campañas). Their return coincided with the decline of the mining companies which started to leave, shutting down their operations because of low prices. The state police demanded bribes from the traditional miners in exchange for allowing them to mine. At that time in Tocota, the capital of the district, police demanded money or mineral in return for allowing the miners to take out their small production. To bypass this control the miners made difficult trips over the hills at night, reaching the coast at daybreak to sell their mineral.

In 1991 terrorist groups started violent attacks in the Huanuhuanu gully, killing three traditional mineworkers among others, driving out all the mining companies that were still in the zone. This situation led to the arrival of the families, fellow countrymen and friends of those who had established themselves in Mollehuaca, and subsequently to migrants from different parts of the country. This new village of Mollehuaca is at present located on the banks or in the bed of a narrowing dry gully. Apart from it being impossible to expand, Mollehuaca is contaminated by mercury and considered to be a high risk area. The earthquake of 1996 destroyed 85% of the dwellings. Recently the El Niño phenomenon has seriously affected the population. One of the premises of a local Committee disappeared, swept away by an avalanche of mud and rocks that also covered and interrupted all the water supplies. These natural disasters accentuated the poverty of the inhabitants in Mollehuaca. There was no government aid they had to get loans in order to rebuild their homes. Government agencies (Civil Defence, Ministries of Health and Education) recommended that the population be relocated, a responsibility that was assumed by the inhabitants.

Demographic data

As mentioned, the Nasca-Ocoña mining zone, where Mollehuaca is located, has undergone intense and extensive development because of traditional gold mining. More than 40 mining communities have been formed over the last 20 years with a population of at least 15,000 people. Data from the population census is inadequate because of the remoteness of the site and the fact that many people return to their place of origin at census time.

Mollehuaca is within the territory of the Huanuhuanu district. The capital, Tocota, is 5 km SW of Mollehuaca and is the most heavily populated town in the district. But Mollehuaca has ten times the population of Tocota even though it does not figure in official statistics.

In 1997 the Mollehuaca Mining Community (Comunidad Minera Mollehuaca S.A.) sought help from the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG) to undertake a census in Mollehuaca with the aim of obtaining reliable information on the number and socio-economic characteristics of the population in connection with its relocation. It is this information that has been used in this study.

Table 2. Mollehuaca: Population distribution

Population

The ITDG census registered 1,154 inhabitants in Mollehuaca organized in ten Committees that hold 387 homes in 13 of which the head of the family is a woman.

Of the total population 585 are males and the remaining 42% female. Furthermore, 38% of the population consists of children under 14 years of age. An important fact is that there are 428 children who represent 37% of the population and of whom 281 are girls. This fact, linked to the precarious kind of mining that is performed in Mollehuaca, has brought about the need to find alternative sources of income for these children.

The population of Mollehuaca is made up of migrants coming from adjacent Andean departments and some, as in the case of Cuzco and Puno, are from further away.

Table 3. Mollehuaca: Origin of inhabitants

Peru is politically organized into 24 departments, each subdivided into provinces. The inhabitants of Mollehuaca come from 62 of these provinces with heterogeneous cultures.

Table 4. Origin (Province)

The census registered the main occupational activities of the people over the age of 15 (table 5).

Table 5. Economic activity or occupation

Almost all the homes are made of adobe or woven straw mats, with a few made from stone or other materials such as cardboard, jute, tin cans, etc.

The census showed that 125 persons are engaged in other income earning activities at home or near home. In the case of the quimbaletes (stone mills for amalgamation) they represent 13%, while 6% work at some business from home and 2% provide board and lodging (pensión).

As regards household appliances, 260 homes have a radio; 41 own a black and white television; 48 have a colour television; 14 possess kerosene refrigerators and 90 declared not having domestic appliances.

Basic services

Mollehuaca has no public services, whether potable water, sewerage, garbage collection or electricity. In the district of Huanuhuanu 97% of the homes have inadequate basic services. ⁽¹⁷⁾

Water supply comes from wells and people store it in small plastic containers; 90% of people boil the water before drinking it.

As sewage services are non-existent, the majority use open ground to relieve themselves; only a few make use of latrines.

Candles and lamps are used by 70% of the population, while 27% buy electricity from generators for 3-5 hours daily, costing S/ 2 per day (equivalent to approximately $0.7 a day or $20 per month). During the census only two people declared that they were owners of generators, but, based on the number of homes that were buying electricity more generators exist.

There are no permanent health professionals in Mollehuaca. The community set up an area for a medical post. A basic health programme promoted by the diocese of Caravelí procured basic equipment. Twice a week people can see a doctor, obstetrician, nurse or technician (alternatively) from the medical post in Tocota, the capital of the district 6 km away, mostly reached on foot.

Education

Five per cent of heads of household or spouses have university education, more males than females. Twenty-three per cent of the male heads of families completed secondary school, compared with 13% of their wives. Five males and 27 females are illiterate.

In Mollehuaca there is one pre-school centre (3-5 year olds) founded in 1990, operating in one room with 55 registered children and only one teacher who is also the director. In the same year a primary education centre was created with four classrooms and 112 students taught by four teachers and grades 1-6.

No secondary schooling is available. The children who are able to continue with their studies after primary school have to do so out of Mollehuaca. Due to economic factors, a great percentage of the children who finish primary schooling cease studying and start working, mainly in mining.

Characteristics of traditional gold mining in Mollehuaca

Mine exploitation

Mining in the Mollehuaca area covers about 3,000 hectares. In 1990-97 ore that was supplied to three of the four existing processing plants, came from traditional miners. The company owning the oldest processing plant that had the monopoly in the Huanuhuanu gully, had to start to mine on its own concessions because of a decrease in the production by traditional miners.

Small-scale mining starts for economic reasons, holding out the prospect of making money in the short term and enabling the miners to return to their place of origin. The majority have no knowledge of mining and learn from relatives or friends. Without technical training they work in a rudimentary fashion.

Extraction method

The geological mineralization of narrow surface veins determines underground exploitation. After prospecting and identifying a vein that may have potential, excavation of tunnels using basic tools such as sledgehammers, picks, shovels and crowbars commences. Tunnels are often no more than 70 cm in diameter, extending 40-50 m. Excavation stops when there is insufficient air in the tunnel. Very few galleries are higher than 2 m.

Organization of work

Work is done alone or in groups of up to ten persons, sometimes as partners; in some cases the "owner" of the site pays workers in "cans" filled with ore.

Because of the distance between the mines and their homes (up to 15 km), work is organized in daily shifts of 10-12 hours, or in stretches of up to 15 days. In the latter case the miners climb the mountain carrying the equipment for staying overnight and food for the stay.

Mechanization is almost non existent, except when rock perforation is done with pneumatic drills and explosives. Work is done manually with picks, hammers and shovels. In the larger galleries (up to 1.2 m) some miners use wheelbarrows to transport the ore out of the tunnel.

The ore is brought down from the mountain on donkeys that the miners rent from the villagers for the equivalent of $22 per tonne of ore (33 cans). Each donkey carries two cans each weighing about 32 kg.

Processing and trade

The miners take their production to crushers and quimbaletes (stone mills) to start another stage in the production cycle in Mollehuaca. The quimbaletes are amalgamation installations consisting of concave stone or concrete basins on which a large rock with protruding wooden spokes is placed. The previously crushed ore, water and mercury are placed in the stone mill and agitated until an amalgam is formed. The owner of the ore takes his amalgam and pays the proprietor of the stone mill a part of the mineralized tailings which could contain as much as 25 gm/t of gold.

The amalgam is burned, weighed and sold. In Mollehuaca the price paid for gold varies. For "yellow gold" buyers pay an amount similar to the international price. Their earnings are derived from fraudulent weighing.

The owners of the stone mills sell their tailings to metallurgical plants, two of which were installed in the zone specifically to process this material. Until 1993 there was only one plant in Mollehuaca and it is accused of cheating the traditional miners, taking advantage of the innocent sellers, falsely laying claim to the mining concessions in the whole gully, and obliging the small-scale miners to sell their production at less than a tenth of the real value. When the international gold price was at $385/oz, the value of one tonne of ore containing 15 gm of gold (deducting the cost of processing) should be $137.50, but the plant never paid more than $34 per tonne of ore (in national currency), no matter what its gold content was. Some workers sent samples of their ore to laboratories in Lima, three of which contained 45-60 gm/t. ⁽¹⁸⁾

Miners from Mollehuaca realised they were being cheated when buyers from a plant 40 km away offered to buy at much higher prices. Conflicts arose between the two plants and one took also legal action against the traditional miners who, in 1994, formed the Comunidad Minera Mollehuaca S.A. (CMM) to protect themselves.

Production

There are no production records for the area. CMM is still delineating the resources and developing a mine in one area in Mollehuaca. Until 1997 all production was by traditional miners working independently. Based on the 110 t/day of material that is processed in the metallurgical plants (Chacchuille belongs to Cia Minera Caravelí; Minera Belén and Mollehuaca owned by CMM) it is estimated that the small-scale miners extract 3,300 tonnes of ore per month.

About 55 kg of gold per month is refined in Lima from mines in Mollehuaca. A further 7.5 kg is processed by other means ⁽¹⁹⁾, making an annual production of about 750 kg (worth about $7 million). About 12 kg of silver is also produced each month (worth about $2,000).

Employment

There are about 815 self-employed miners and stone mill workers in the area, plus about 70 wage earners in the three processing plants.

Legal status of small-scale gold mining

As mentioned, mining production is generated by self-employed traditional miners working informally on several concessions. Peruvian legislation does not cover traditional mining, although it involves thousands of workers. Formalizing small-scale mining is a long costly procedure, from legally constituting a company to obtaining the mining rights and complying with all the labour, mining, tax and other legal obligations. A group of small-scale miners who are disposed to operating formally, are subject to the same obligations as an international mining company, whether it may be procedures, deadlines or paying the renewal of the mining concessions. There is no special tax regime for small-scale mining. Mollehuaca Mining has estimated that 45% of their revenues goes in taxes and payment for mining rights

According to the Ministry of Energy and Mines, "98% of traditional miners are operating on existing rights assigned to formal miners who are not carrying out exploration or exploitation activities."

CMM is one of five companies formed by traditional miners. It is a trading entity operating as a corporation. It comprises 268 shareholders -- all traditional miners. The company has five mining concessions in an area of 2,400 ha. Nevertheless, the system of independent production referred to above is maintained. CMM owns a cyanide processing plant (CIL) with a capacity of 20 t/day. Four of the workers are shareholders in this company. It has difficulties in expanding due to a lack of capital and technology, a situation that could be alleviated if the state offered assistance. Many of the CMM partners work independently on the concessions of their company and "sell" their production to the processing plant of their own company.

One of the challenges that CMM is facing is how to change the culture and sense of independence of traditional miners so that their operations can be formalized. Moreover, economic problems have affected plans for development that include the gradual incorporation of the partners in technology, safety and social security programmes.

Child labour

Working children

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child considers every human being below the age of 18 to be a child. The ILO considers work performed by those under the age of 17 to be child labour.

In Mollehuaca child labour is part of community life, whether in mining activities or in trade, services and others, to augment the family income or for themselves.

The principle source of reference for this paper is a census taken in June 1998 (by EKAMOLLE, an institute for sustainable development) to identify the beneficiaries of the Programme to Gradually Eradicate Child Labour in the Mining Settlement of Mollehuaca, sponsored by IPEC-ILO. The census identified 148 working children, 17 of whom, aged 15-17, live alone or with non-relatives -- friends, fellow countrymen, or pay for board and lodging. They are children who have become adults and independent, leaving behind their schooling. They went to Mollehuaca to find work. These children are the least accessible and 14 of them were not prepared to divulge any information.

Thirteen of the 148 children came from single parent families where the head of the family is the mother, whereas 118 children live with both parents. In 90% of the families there are 1-3 children; while in the remaining 10% there are 4-10 children.

Child labour in mining

Age and gender

Children start working in mining from the age of six. The participation of boys is double that of girls.

Table 6. Age and gender of children working in mining

Schooling

Working boys between the ages of 16 and 17 do not study. Children aged 6-15 attend primary school in Mollehuaca or secondary school in the nearby village of Relave.

The work of the children, not being independent but rather part of family work, is performed after school hours at weekends and during vacations. This deprives children of recreation time.

Work performed by children

The children do the same work as adults. There are also additional tasks, such as taking food to the miners, that are exclusively done by children.

Children working in the tunnels are exposed to very harsh conditions. Such work could entail working underground for 1-2 weeks, eating and sleeping at the mine entrance and working day and night with short rest periods. They use chisels, sledgehammers and picks that require a considerable strength and that are not designed to be used by children.

Working with stone mills exacts tremendous effort. A child who partakes in this activity can start at 03.00 and finish at 18.00, spending on average 15 hours balancing on a piece of wood put through a large boulder, rocking it continuously. But this is not the main problem. The gravest danger is contact with mercury during the process of mixing ore, water and mercury. The children are in contact with the mix throughout the shift without any kind of protection. They are also exposed when they remove the amalgam and, should the child accompany his parent when the amalgam is burned, the risk of contamination by mercury vapour is extremely high (figure 1).

Figure 1. Quimbalete

Rancheros are the children who take prepared food to the mines. It could be for their fathers or because their mother provides this service to the miners. This work is assigned to the younger children, but because of their size, it is extremely taxing. It involves climbing hills carrying water and food. The 6-10 km round trip is covered on foot and takes up to seven hours.

Burreros drive donkeys to the mine entrance, load the minerals onto them and drive the loaded donkeys down again. The children have to also feed and attend these animals.

Table 7. Working children according to age/occupation

Remuneration

Children over 15 years of age who work independently receive similar compensation to that of adults when hired by a "works owner" or the proprietor of a stone mill. In the former case they receive a can of mineral per day, in the latter daily wages.

In most cases the children perceive work as part of their family responsibilities. This "need to work" is culturally instilled by the parents in order to help pay for their clothes and school needs. In these situations the children do not receive any payment whatsoever.

Nutrition

The semi-arid Mollehuaca gully does not produce any fruit or vegetables. All groceries, fruits and vegetables have to be brought in from the nearest coastal towns. Thus, the cost of living is very high and consequently, due to existing economic limitations, nutrition is poor.

The independent working children usually eat at the pensiones (board providers). The children who live with their families eat at home. In both cases their staple food is based on carbohydrates (bread, noodles and potatoes). Their diet lacks vitamins, proteins and minerals.

Safety and health

Illness and mortality in Mollehuaca

The primary cause of morbidity corresponds to respiratory ailments, followed by illnesses associated with diarrhoea.

Table 8. Most frequent illnesses

In the 12 months prior to the census (June 1996 - June 1997) 18 deaths were reported; accidents (27.8%) being the principal cause.

Table 9. Causes of death

Occupational health and the environment

Over 90% of the population are aware of the risks of mine work to their health, remarking that accidents and contamination are the worst threats, each accounting for 35-40% of all risks.

Traditional mining with neither technical knowledge nor basic safety measures, together with the indiscriminate use of mercury, causes occupational illnesses that were verified by the Ministry of Health that commissioned CMM to perform a study ⁽²⁰⁾. The highlights of the study are set out below.

Table 10. Occupational exposure to mercury at the stone mills, Mollehuaca. February 1996

(Maximum permissible limit: 0.01 mg/m3 of air)

The average mercury concentration in the work places is 0.077 mg/m3, almost eight times higher than the maximum established by Peruvian Law (0.01 mg/m³) ⁽²¹⁾.

Table 11. Atmospheric mercury contamination, Mollehuaca, February, 1996

(Recommended limit: 10mgHg/m ³)

The results show that there is significant mercury contamination of the atmosphere at some sites causing air quality problems for the population. The average of 10.4 mgHg/m3 in the air (in 24 hours) exceeds the limit recommended by the Pan-American Health Organization and the World Health Organization for industrial areas (Publication 362).

The Study included laboratory tests to determine the level of mercury in the blood. Sixty-two of the people who were tested had an above normal mercury level (0.5 g/100ml). An above air of 39% of the population.

Sixty-two per cent of the people examined had occupational mercury absorption; 17% were anaemic; and 4% were affected by chronic lung diseases. One case of second degree silicosis was found.

Working children and occupational safety and health

Considering the dangers that have to be faced in mining, the children working in mining in Mollehuaca do not use any kind of personal protection while working, despite being exposed to hazardous situations such as tunnels collapsing, rock slides, falling, and the worst, exposure to mercury due to direct contact or by inhalation of mercury vapour.

The children are aware that they need some sort of protection, but the baize they use to cover their noses, the material or knitted hats to protect their heads from the sun or the rag cushioning they use as elbow and knee protectors when crawling in the tunnels, are ineffective. The absence of adequate protection, together with the lack of safety measures in the workplace put the working children in a highly precarious situation.

In 1996, under the Mollehuaca Project and as part of the Children and Adolescent Programme, in addition to the diagnostic study on contamination and health, other sensitizing and training activities on risks and safety in mine work were carried out a first step to procuring safety equipment specifically for the children who are exposed to mercury while working. It is clear that existing hazards are accepted by the children as normal conditions in mine work, i.e. "...being a miner is accepting the risks ...". This is one explanation why the masks, gloves and rubber boots that were given to the children were only used for a short period of time. They found the masks in particular to be uncomfortable; moreover, they were mocked by the rest of the community.

Occupational health of the children

The studies show that mercury contaminates both the environment and the workplaces in Mollehuaca; dust contaminate the work places too. Mercury and accidents are the major hazards faced by the working children in Mollehuaca. Of the 102 persons from the working population who were tested by DIGESA - Ministry of Health, 54% were aged 7-17 and all of them were not exposed to mercury and showed evidence of it in their blood and hair.

The area has no occupational health prevention or monitoring services. Monitoring cases of mercury absorption has to be carried out by specialists and laboratories in Lima.

Children's life and work environment has other negative repercussions, such as the impact on their intellectual capacity. Of the children aged 7-12 years who were evaluated, 66% had an intellectual capacity below that considered to be average according to the Raven test. For 13-18 year olds, 77% were below average (table 12).

Table 12. Level of intelligence of 7-12 year olds, Mollehuaca. February, 1996

As to short-term memory, children in the 7-13 year old group showed no deficiencies, whereas 13% of the 13-17 year olds exhibited short-term memory deficiency.

As far as visual motor coordination was concerned, 17% of children aged 7-12 had slight to moderate difficulties, compared with one child (5%) with a slight malfunction in the 13-17 year age group.

Among the children aged 7-12 years, two-thirds of the group that showed a level of maturity below their chronological age were girls (table 13).

Table 13. Level of maturity among 7-12 year olds, Mollehuaca. February, 1996

Working children in Mollehuaca show evidence of mercury absorption and an altered intellectual capacity.

Peruvian laws and child labour

In principle, the State upholds and safeguards the rights of the child.

• Article 17 of the Constitution of Peru, promulgated in 1993 makes reference to compulsory pre, primary and secondary schooling. Article 23 stipulates: "Work, in all its forms, is subject to priority attention from the State, especially protecting working mothers, minors and the disabled".
• The Child and Adolescent Code only mentions that "...working children under the age of 12 years are under the protection of the State."
• The General Mining Law does not establish a minimum age for work in surface or underground mines. Moreover, it does not contemplate restrictions or penalties regarding child labour in the mines. It is important to note that this law does not recognize the existence of traditional mining, where child labour is intensely concentrated, and therefore does not regulate it.
• Labour legislation, with its variety of provisions, only establishes as a general norm the prohibition of child labour under the age of 18 years in high risk work. It is understood that this also circumvents work in mining. In any event, it is not explicit.
• The Penal Code, as regards child labour, stipulates as an infringement of the law "...exploitation of children who are compelled to work". In this case, legal action is taken when a complaint is filed. The case is investigated by public authorities who decide whether or not to take action.

Official supervision

The mining sector is supervised under both labour and mining laws and regulations.

• Labour. This is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Labour which verifies compliance with labour obligations in all companies. There are regular and official supervisions, the latter solicited by the interested party. Regular official supervision should be undertaken twice a year. However, this is not put into practice. CMM, for example, has never been visited by the relevant inspectors. In any event, labour inspection is only directed at companies. The law does not contemplate intervention of the Ministry of Labour in mining areas such as Mollehuaca where work is performed in an individual and independent manner.
• Mining. Here supervision is carried out by private auditing enterprises that have been delegated to inspect on behalf of the State. Inspection includes safety and health and the environment. Since there is no minimum age in the mining law, the question of minors working in the mining centres is not addressed. As in the case of labour inspection, the law only refers to enterprises, so the zones where traditional mining work is performed are not covered.

In conclusion, child labour is in principle protected by the State. In practice, however, no preventive or restrictive measures are taken. The only time the State intervenes is when a case is brought before the judicial system.

Tackling the child labour problem in traditional mining in Peru

The extent of child labour in traditional mining centres should be evaluated. Data on location, numbers, ages, risks, health, and education should be collected. The survey of informal mine camps that was undertaken by the Ministry of Energy and Mines in 1997 could be taken as a starting point.

Mining legislation should be revised and expanded to include traditional mining. It should also facilitate the formalizing of small-scale miners. This measure is indispensable since the complex reality of small-scale mining cannot be ignored. By incorporating traditional mining into the mining law it will be included in the national legal framework, safeguarding workers' labour, social and economic rights and, especially, safeguarding the rights of the child.

Pilot programmes that focus on each of the four zones where traditional mining is expanding the quickest should be developed and implemented. They should include education, health, environment and the generating of supplementary family income alternatives to child labour. This approach would be in line with the existing programme gradually to eradicate child labour in the mining camps of Mollehuaca that is sponsored and financed by IPEC-ILO.

Aguilar Romero, Ida y Ana Granados Soldevilla. Resultados del Censo de Población y Vivienda de Mollehuaca. 16 pp. ITDG. 1997.

Arroyo Aguilar, Ruth. Diagnóstico de las Condiciones de Vida, Salud y trabajo de los Niños Mineros Artesanales de Oro.22 pp. Instituto Salud y Trabajo. 1995.

Centro de Servicios y Transferencia Tecnológica de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Estudio de Impacto Ambiental Para la Instalación de una Planta de Cianuración.Elaborado para la Comunidad Minera Mollehuaca. 238 pp. 1995.

INEI-UNFPA. Perú: Mapa de Necesidades Básicas Insatisfechas de los Hogares a Nivel Distrital. Tomos III y IV. Lima, Agosto 1994.

Martínez, Zoila. Una propuesta de solución a la minería artesanal aurífera en el Perú. 43 pp. No publicado. 1995.

Mercado P., Luis y otros. Estudio Hidrogeológico para Localización de obras de Captación de Aguas Subterráneas.35 pp. Comunidad Minera Mollehuaca S.A. 1995.

Ministerio de Energía y Minas. Proyecto Minería Artesanal y Pequeña Minería. Sub Proyecto: Ica-Arequipa-Ayacucho. 10 pp. 1997.

Ministerio de Energía y Minas. Energía y Minas. Compendio de Legislación. Normas Legales. Tomo I . 590 pp. Editora. Trujillo, 1995.

Ministerio de Salud-Dirección General de Salud Ambiental. Informe del Estudio Evaluativo Realizado a Trabajadores de la Minería Artesanal de Extración de Oro en la Localidad de Mollehuaca, Caravelí, Arequipa. 27 pp. 1996.

Rejman, Miryam, Gonzales, Francisco y Silvia Pinto. Diagnóstico Situacional del Distrito de Huanu Huanu. 7 pp. No publicado. 1995.

Solidaridad y Desarrollo Integral S.A. Proyecto de Promoción y Desarrollo de los Productores Auríferos Artesanales deel Distrito de Huanu-Huanu. 24 pp. Proyecto presentado al Fondo de Contravalor Perú-Canadá. 1995.

Universidad Nacional San Antonio Abad del Cusco. Minería Aurífera Informal. Encuesta Minera. Ica, Ayacucho y Arequipa. 1997.

Villachica León, Carlos y otros. Estudio sobre minería Informal y medio Ambiente en los Departamentos de Ica y Arequipa. Proyecto de Análisis, Planeamiento y Ejecución de Políticas (PAPI). 187 pp.Convenio Gobierno Peruano-USAID. 1995.

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