Every year, three to five tonnes of gold are illegally extracted from the subsoil in French Guiana, spilling hundreds tons of toxic mercury into the soil and streams. In 2008, the French government launched Mission Harpie to try and end illegal gold panning and the other criminal activities linked to it. Over a thousand soldiers work in the forest searching and destroying these clandestine mines. But the illegal migrants who work there have little option but to keep sinking new mines.
