Study Suggests Climate Crisis Is Supercharging ‘Godzilla’ El Niños

“We are seeing a trend of stronger El Niños, and the one we have now is consistent with that trend,” said the lead author. “That is bad news for climate hazards and for people.”


A study published August 27, 2026 in the journal Science concludes that fossil fuel-driven global warming has intensified the warm phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation in the Pacific Ocean.
(Photo by Julia Cole/Science)

Jessica Corbett
Aug 27, 2026
COMMON DREAMS

As the flooding disaster in Tibet and Nepal demonstrates the deadly consequences of the climate emergency, experts wrote Thursday in the journal Science that fossil fuel-driven global heating has intensified the warm phase of a key pattern in the Pacific Ocean.

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has a warm phase, called El Niño, as well as a neutral phase and a cold one, La Niña. In June, scientists declared the start of a warm event nicknamed “Godzilla,” which helped push last month’s average global ocean surface temperature to the hottest ever recorded in July.

The current event is expected to become not only a super El Niño, but the most intense one on record—and it could contribute to 2027 possibly being the hottest year humanity has ever endured.

While ENSO is a naturally occurring phenomenon, the scientists behind the new paper studied coral skeletons from the Galápagos Islands and concluded that global warming—tied to humans continuing to burn fossil fuels—has intensified El Niño phases.

“Our findings suggest El Niño can supercharge global warming, but also global warming can supercharge El Niño—that is what we are seeing,” said lead author Julia Cole, who chairs the University of Michigan’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.

The scientist also spoke with Inside Climate News, which noted that “the first documented super El Niño in 1982-83 killed about 95% of the shallow-water corals around the Galápagos Islands, right around the time Cole began her research career.”

Based on the team’s analysis, “after the El Niño in 1982, we start seeing much more variability; it’s a lot more extreme and looks like nothing in the previous 1,000 years,” Cole told The Guardian. “What surprised me was how consistent it was. There is just such a large, distinct difference between what has been happening in the last 40 years compared to preindustrial times.”

As Inside Climate News reported:
When Cole visited the islands in 1989, many of the large mapped corals that could have served as sample material were gone, wiped out by the El Niño early in the decade and then decomposed quickly by organisms in the biologically active waters. But in 2006, her team discovered fossil coral remnants, often perched as boulders near remote east-facing coastlines, tossed inland by large waves or tsunamis.

Cole said the signal of El Niños intensified by human-caused warming would have been even stronger if the study had included the most recent occurrences. All the events categorized as super El Niños have occurred since the 1980s and have triggered flooding in East Africa, led to disease outbreaks, and intensified tropical storms. This year’s El Niño is intensifying drought in Indonesia, fueling widespread fires that are sending smoke and hazardous air pollution across Southeast Asia, Cole said. Her team is currently analyzing corals to show the changes from the El Niños in 2015-16 and 2023-24, she added.

“We are seeing a trend of stronger El Niños, and the one we have now is consistent with that trend—it’s not a fluke. We are seeing a shift where El Niño doesn’t look like what it did prior to industrial times,” Cole said. “That is bad news for climate hazards and for people, particularly those who are badly impacted and yet have done little to cause climate change.”

According to the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, consequences of El Niño include “increased rainfall across the southern tier of the US and in Peru, which has caused destructive flooding, and drought in the West Pacific, sometimes associated with devastating brush fires in Australia.”

Dalhousie University marine scientist Boris Worm wasn’t involved with the new study but told The Associated Press on Thursday that “El Niño is the most violent aspect of climate variability worldwide, with effects ranging from local fisheries collapse, to widespread coral die-offs to severe droughts, and food shortages around the world.”

Experts are already worried about the latest El Niño’s impact on food security and prices, with the United Nations World Food Program projecting earlier this month that almost 50 million more people worldwide face the prospect of acute hunger.

Pointing to late climate scientist Wallace Broecker’s warning that “the climate system is an angry beast and we are poking it with sticks,” Worm said that “human emissions are the stick, and El Niño is [one] of the ‘angry’ outbursts that can be so threatening to our collective safety.”

AU

Peru is losing a battle against illegal gold mining in its rainforests

Bloomberg News | August 28, 2026 |

Even children work at illegal gold operations in Peru’s Amazon.(Image: Screenshot via YouTube)

As a military helicopter roared overhead and soldiers fired the first warning shots, six wildcat miners rushed onto a boat and tore downriver. Another plunged into the water and swam after them, leaving behind a makeshift camp that would soon go up in flames. 

The scene in a dense, remote jungle south of the Amazon was part of an operation by Peruvian troops to blow up as many engines and fuel supplies as possible. The aim was to disrupt illegal gold mines growing out of control as the precious metal’s high prices create fresh demand.

At best, this type of mission can slow the pace of deforestation and pollution. Halting it is another story. Even when operations go according to plan, it’s only a matter of days — or even hours — before miners return with new equipment, said Ronal Ramón Flores, a federal prosecutor involved in the operations.

“Mining is winning,” he said. While raids in and around Tambopata National Reserve happen only sporadically, miners work around the clock, every hour, every day of the year, he said. 

“They have the upper hand because it’s almost impossible to stop them.” 

Weaving around muddy pits carved throughout the Tambopata National Reserve, some soldiers used machetes to take apart the wooden structures miners use to sift gold from dirt. Others tore down the blue plastic sheets tied to trees that serve as walls and roofs at the camps and brothels propelling one of the region’s fastest-growing illicit economies. 

From downriver, the fleeing miners must have seen the black curtains of smoke rising from what had been their beds and gas stoves, where a headless lizard lay ready to be cooked. Clothes hung from trunks and piles of smuggled Brazilian beer cans littered the sandy ground. 

Similar scenes played out at the dozens of mining camps raided inside the reserve that day in August. Some even had bar counters and volleyball courts, signs of an entrenched and resilient population.

The surroundings of the Tambopata National Reserve have long been a hotspot for informal and illegal gold mining near Bolivia and Brazil. But today wildcat miners are plundering this supposedly protected area like never before. 

As wealthy people and governments seek refuge in gold from inflation, wars and geopolitical instability, the heyday of the precious metal has turned mining into such a magnet that, since last year, illegal miners have deforested an area equivalent to roughly 700 soccer fields within Tambopata, digging up dirty gold potentially worth millions of dollars.

“It’s easy money,” said Navy Lieutenant Commander Renato Mandiola. Some workers at Tambopata’s illegal mines can make up to $5,000 a month, he added. That’s five times the base salary of a Navy member. “Who wouldn’t go mining for that money?”

Overnight setback 

Mandiola had sent 70 of his strong men deep into the jungle as part of an operation led by the Public Prosecutor’s Office with support from US-based nonprofit Global Conservation in a bid to step up the fight against wildcatters. On the first day of the operation, in which Bloomberg embedded, the military destroyed nearly $1.7 million worth of mining equipment inside the reserve. 

“It was a success,” Mandiola said. 

But as the last light slipped between the jungle canopy, something started to feel wrong. 

One patrol didn’t make it back to the base where soldiers were supposed to spend the night before resuming operations the next day. The group had disappeared beyond radio range. They were carrying a new Starlink device but had forgotten to set it up. 

“There was a breakdown in coordination,” said Flores, Provisional Deputy Supreme Prosecutor at the Prosecutor General’s Office. He was among the missing group, along with about 15 special forces soldiers, Global Conservation’s regional head and an international photojournalist. 

They slept outside by the river that night, cold and hungry, Flores said, waiting to be rescued. “It can happen.” 

The group was found the next morning. Days later, Flores said he could not rule out that someone linked to the operation had deliberately failed to pick them up “as a form of warning or intimidation.”

When Flores and the missing group were found the next morning, they were also with a 20-year-old woman and her one-year-old son. Her name was Liz Compi. She had gone to the mining site the night before with a group of miners to check on the damage to their equipment. When the men spotted the soldiers, they fled, leaving her and her son behind — something military officials said often happens to women and children during raids.

Authorities later let her go. They said they could not tell whether she was collaborating with the illegal mining network or had been trafficked into it. The same thing happened with a 30-year-old woman who also said she cooked for another group of gold diggers. During the four-day operation, no one was arrested.

Compi had arrived in the regional capital of Puerto Maldonado from Cusco just weeks earlier, she said. She had not gotten into the university where she wanted to study education and, as a single mother, needed money. So she answered an ad for a cook and ended up making beans and other meals for illegal miners. She hoped to make about $450 a month. 

“That’s pretty good money,” she said. According to Mandiola, other workers at illegal camps can make that much in a single day.

The roadblocks 

While Peru is best known for its massive copper mines, it is also South America’s No. 1 gold producer. Mining accounts for 60% of the nation’s exports, with the formal industry increasingly battling for control of mineral-rich territory with informal and illegal actors.

Illegal gold exports from the country topped an estimated $11.5 billion in 2025, according to the Lima-based think tank Peruvian Institute of Economics. That’s more than six times the level a decade ago and 55% higher than the previous year. 

Around the Tambopata National Reserve, the latest illegal mining boom has roots in the late 2000s, as the global financial crisis drove up gold prices and a new highway attracted miners and opened easier routes to neighboring countries. Illegal miners have been inside the reserve for at least a decade, but deforestation has never reached the levels seen today.

Some of Tambopata’s dirty gold is smuggled out through the borders with Bolivia and Brazil, while some of it enters the legal trade, Flores said. In the latter case, a controversial certification system called Reinfo is part of the problem. It was designed to bring informal miners into the legal economy but, according to its critics, ended up creating a way to simply launder illegal mining into the legal market.

In downtown Puerto Maldonado, entire streets are geared toward this underground economy. Shops sell the same engines, generators, and blue plastic sheeting that miners use at their camps. Nearby are money-exchange shops whose names include the word “gold” in Spanish, English or Quechua, and buy illegally mined gold. Everyone there knows whether the price of the metal is going up or down, and whether the military is carrying out operations in the jungle.

Over the past decade, Peru’s relentless presidential turnover has made it hard to sustain a coordinated, long-term strategy against illegal mining. Corruption has made things worse. Just last month, police officers and a former prosecutor who worked in the Tambopata region of Madre de Dios were arrested for allegedly tipping off illegal miners about raids, helping them keep their operations running.

Budget is another big problem. Authorities are fighting a thriving illegal industry while struggling to pay for even the basics.

“The Public Prosecutor’s Office does not have a single dollar in its budget” for tackling illegal mining, Flores said, wearing a uniform he had to buy himself. “It is shameful that we have to scrape together money just to feed the armed forces.” 

Newly inaugurated President Keiko Fujimori has promised to put more resources into fighting organized crime and insecurity, and a bigger role for the armed forces. She has said the military will lead operations in areas under states of emergency, in place for crime in Tambopata until earlier this month, and dozens of other districts nationwide. 

But Fujimori has laid out no concrete plan to tackle illegal mining so far. Her critics remain skeptical, pointing to her influential party’s efforts in recent years to court small-scale miners in Congress, backing repeated extensions of Reinfo that allows them to operate without full environmental or operating permits.

“There is not much trust,” said Julio Cusuriche, an Indigenous leader from Madre de Dios, adding that military actions will never be enough without sustainable economic alternatives for locals. As long as illegal miners operate unchecked, he warned, communities surrounding Tambopata will remain exposed to mercury pollution as diggers use the toxic metal as the cheapest way to separate gold from ore. 

Fujimori’s team didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Back from last week’s operation, prosecutor Flores was blunt: the hit was “almost nothing” compared with the scale of illegal mining within the national reserve. To retake control of the area, operations “must be permanent and destroy absolutely everything,” he said. 

“Otherwise, it will be nothing more than a show of state presence, and that is completely insufficient.”

(By Carla Samon Ros)

CU

AI date center boom, power grids strengthen investment case for copper

Bloomberg News | August 28, 2026 |

Data center. Stock image.

Copper is having a moment. It may be a long one.

The metal has hit record highs in 2026 and is currently up 15% since the start of the year, trading above $14,300 a ton on the London Metal Exchange.

Behind the the recent price action is a powerful longer-term story. Copper is essential to everything from power grids and electric vehicles to renewable energy and the rapidly expanding network of data centers needed to support the boom in artificial intelligence.

And the world is going to need a lot more of it. Analysts at S&P Global project copper demand will rise 50% to 42 million metric tons by 2040 from 28 million tons last year. Supply is looking increasingly tight. The same study estimates a supply deficit of 10 million metric tons by 2040 due to soaring demand and mining constraints.

That supply-demand imbalance has strengthened the investment case for copper. Betting on copper doesn’t have to mean buying the metal itself, or trying to identify the one mining company that will strike it rich. Jon Lapp, founder and financial planner of Haven Financial Advisors, recommends limiting a dedicated copper allocation to 1% to 3% of a portfolio, with 5% as an upper limit for someone with a high risk tolerance.

Here are some ways investors can approach the theme.

Want Copper? Buy Copper

The purest way to buy copper is, well, buying copper. That means owning piles of copper sheets, bars and rounds in a physical warehouse. But given the metal’s low value-to-weight ratio compared with gold or silver, owning a valuable amount of copper can come with substantial storage and insurance costs, as well as security risks. And because retail markets for physical copper are relatively illiquid and underdeveloped, investors may face wide bid-ask spreads or have to find and vet private buyers themselves.

So the slightly less direct way would be buying the United States Copper Index Fund (ticker: CPER), which invests in copper futures. The exchange-traded fund tracks the commodity and is fairly liquid, with about $750 million in assets. It’s up 14% since the start of the year.

Still, futures contracts expire, and funds like CPER have to periodically “roll” their positions by buying futures. The underlying structure of the futures market means that the ETF can sometimes incur costs while doing that, and so its return can diverge from changes in the spot price of copper. CPER is also a commodity partnership, meaning investors receive a Schedule K-1 tax form, which adds another wrinkle at tax time, according to Lapp.

Lapp also views it as a tactical vehicle rather than a permanent portfolio holding. “At today’s prices, I would invest in several installments and establish a rebalancing rule in advance,” he said. “If the position grows well beyond its target, trim it rather than allowing it to become too dominant in your portfolio.”

A few factors to consider when picking copper ETFs include the type of assets the fund is exposed to, trading volume and expense ratios, country and operating risks, concentration of top holdings and taxes, said Jason Katz, managing director and senior portfolio manager at UBS Financial Services Inc.

Picks and Shovels

Another way for ordinary investors to benefit from higher copper prices is through the companies that dig it out of the ground. When copper prices rise, miners can enjoy an amplified benefit: The price they receive for their product increases, while some of their costs don’t rise nearly as quickly. 

For individuals comfortable with single-stock holdings, Freeport-McMoRan Inc. provides significant copper exposure with large-scale operations, Lapp said. But it also exposes investors to considerable operational and geopolitical challenges, with operations in Indonesia, US, Peru, Chile and Spain. Southern Copper Corp. is another established producer, but it brings jurisdictional and controlling-shareholder risks, he said.

Outside of the US, Barclays strategists, including Hannah Greenberg, identified Antofagasta Plc, First Quantum Minerals Ltd. and Anglo American Plc as copper mining companies that are best positioned in the next two years to benefit from the AI boom.

Mike Casey, president at American Executive Advisors, also favors financially strong, diversified producers rather than smaller mining companies with limited financial resources. The Solactive Global Copper Miners Index, which includes international companies active in the exploration, mining and refining of copper, has gained about 35% since the start of the year.

“Companies with high-quality reserves, low production costs and strong balance sheets can provide leveraged upside when copper prices rise, but that leverage works both ways,” he said. Aside from Freeport-McMoRan and Southern Copper, he highlights BHP Group, Rio Tinto Plc and Teck Resources Ltd. for research.

And the opportunities aren’t limited to companies pulling copper out of the ground.

An emerging source of  demand for copper comes from the highly conductive metal’s essential role in AI data center buildouts. So another way is to invest in companies that make mining equipment and components for electric grids, as well as the utilities and renewable energy producers along the copper supply chain, said Jeff Judge, managing partner at Chesapeake Financial Planners. He has started pointing clients toward the broader infrastructure angle and companies such as Eaton Corp., Vertiv Holdings Co. and Quanta Services Inc.

“It’s a more diversified way to ride the theme,” he said. “Buy the story, not the ticker.”

Spread your bets

A mine can flood. A government can change the rules. A new project can cost far more than expected. On top of that, labor strikes, cost overruns, currency moves, political intervention and management mistakes can all hurt a mining company’s shares even when the commodity itself is doing well. So for many financial advisers, investing in a diversified copper or mining fund is the preferable approach.

“Single-name mining risk can wipe out the copper thesis overnight,“ Judge said, adding that he never recommends individual mining stocks as a core holding. “A broad materials or copper-focused ETF is the right entry point for almost everyone. It gives you the theme without betting on one CEO’s execution.”

That’s where the Global X Copper Miners ETF (COPX) comes in. Holding about 40 copper mining companies and with an expense ratio of 0.65%, the fund has total assets of $8.7 billion, meaning it has ample liquidity. The iShares Copper and Metals Mining ETF (ICOP) offers similar global exposure with a lower 0.47% expense ratio, but it is smaller and less liquid.

Another rule of thumb Judge uses: If you can’t explain why a particular company should outperform its competitors, you probably don’t have a reason to own it instead of a fund.

There is also an important difference in time horizon. Exposure through copper ETFs or futures contracts is likely to require closer attention to inventories, Chinese demand and monetary policy, and may make more sense as a six-to-18-month position, Katz said. Investors can typically hold copper miners and mining ETFs for about 12 months to 36 months, while electrical equipment, grid and infrastructure companies may warrant a three-to-five-year holding period.

Financial advisers may wince reading this next idea, but investors willing to take an even more speculative approach can wager on copper through prediction markets. Kalshi offers short-dated contracts tied to whether copper will close above a specific price level at a particular time, with daily, weekly and monthly copper markets available. Polymarket offers similar markets, as well as event-driven bets connected to the industry, including whether copper cable will face certain tariffs by specific dates. 

(By Zijia Song)

Codelco posts stronger profit on copper rally as mine disruptions drag on output

Reuters | August 28, 2026 |

El Teniente underground. (Image courtesy of Codelco | Flickr.)

Chilean state miner Codelco on Friday reported sharply stronger first-half earnings as higher copper prices outweighed weaker production and higher costs, while new Chief Executive Jorge Gomez said the company’s priority was to restore productivity after setbacks at key mines.

Codelco reported pre-tax profit of $1.97 billion for the first half of 2026, up more than fourfold from the $429 million posted in the same period a year earlier.

Its own copper production fell 11% to 564,000 metric tons, down from 634,000 tons a year earlier, mainly because of operational restrictions at El Teniente, lower output at Chuquicamata and weaker ore grades at Ministro Hales.

The weaker output also pushed up costs. Codelco’s direct cash cost rose 7% to 231.6 cents per pound, though the company’s realized copper price jumped to 653.2 cents per pound from 461.7 cents a year earlier, helping lift earnings.

Codelco did not mention its 2026 output forecast in the report. It had previously targeted 1.33 million tons to 1.36 million tons for this year, though Chairman Bernardo Fontaine said earlier this month that the company’s current production trend made the target difficult to achieve.

The results come as CEO Gomez seeks to reverse years of production declines while dealing with the fallout from operational disruptions at El Teniente and a review of the miner’s investment priorities and debt burden.

(Reporting by Natalia Siniawski and Natalia Ramos; Editing by Kylie Madry)

 

Chile Exposes How Organized Crime Turns Stolen Copper Into Transnational Revenue – Analysis

A secondary tunnel at El Teniente, the world’s largest underground copper mine, located in the Andes Mountains of central Chile, is seen on November 20, 2025. (Photo: Chilean National Copper Corporation)

 August 25, 2026

Diálogo Américas

By Guillermo Saavedra

Key Takeaways:

• Operation High Voltage in April 2026 produced Chile’s largest-ever copper seizure: 187 metric tons of stolen material, 25 arrests, and raids on 49 sites after a five-year scheme that trafficked nearly $917 million in stolen copper and fraudulently claimed over $55 million in export tax refunds.
• The network infiltrated legitimate trade and tax systems—burning, stripping, and crushing copper before exporting it (mainly to China via Chilean and Peruvian routes)—and relied on lawyers, tax specialists, and transnational logistics to give illicit shipments the appearance of legality.
• Copper theft has evolved into a sophisticated, supply-chain-wide threat driven by strong global (especially Chinese) demand; addressing it requires stronger legal classification of the crime, cross-border cooperation, financial oversight, and tighter export controls beyond isolated police actions.

Months of coordinated investigative work culminated in the largest seizure of stolen copper in Chile’s history. Operation High Voltage, carried out in April 2026 by the Investigative Police (PDI), the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Internal Revenue Service, and the National Customs Service, led to simultaneous raids on 49 locations across seven regions of the country.

The operation resulted in the arrest of 25 people — including the organization’s leaders and key operatives — and the seizure of 187 metric tons of stolen copper, along with weapons and vehicles. “This is the largest seizure ever made in our country’s history for this type of crime,” then Undersecretary of Public Security Andrés Jouannet said.

A five-year scheme that exploited trade and tax systems

Between 2020 and 2025, the international criminal organization trafficked nearly $917 million worth of stolen copper, according to the PDI’s National Headquarters for Combating Theft and Criminal Hotspots. During the same period, it fraudulently obtained more than $55 million in export tax refunds. Rather than operating outside the system, the network infiltrated Chile’s legitimate commercial infrastructure, introducing stolen copper into legal supply chains while evading detection.

María Angélica de Miguel, acting regional prosecutor for the Los Lagos Region, described the method used to conceal the copper’s origin: The stolen material was burned, stripped, and crushed to eliminate any trace of its source before being exported to buyers in China through logistics networks that included northern Chilean ports. According to South China Morning Post, investigators also identified routes that passed through Peru, underscoring the network’s cross-border reach. The scheme illustrates a level of logistical, legal, and financial sophistication that extends far beyond conventional criminal activity.

Criminal sophistication: Lawyers, tax specialists, and transnational networks

International analyst Guillermo Holzmann told Diálogo that the Chilean case reflects a broader regional trend rather than an isolated incident. “We are currently witnessing an evolution of criminal gangs toward a level of sophistication that is frankly impressive in terms of how quickly their illegal businesses adapt to the characteristics of different markets,” he said. “The demand for natural resources is the most profitable source of income for these organizations.”

Holzmann said the sophistication of these networks lies not only in identifying the profitable markets but also in building supply chains capable of meeting demand while minimizing legal risk. To achieve this, criminal organizations rely on legitimate professional services — including law firms and tax specialists — to navigate regulatory requirements, exploit legal loopholes, and give illicit transactions the appearance of legitimacy.

Holzmann also pointed to the growing presence of Chinese criminal groups involved in these activities.

“There is a proliferation here of Chinese criminal groups and gangs carrying out most of these criminal activities. The question is whether they have backing or some kind of relationship with Beijing […],” Holzmann said. “These gangs subsequently sell these resources to the Chinese legal system, so there is a cover that allows this to happen.”

He added that legal shortcomings also contribute to the problem. “Copper theft thrives mainly because many of these operations are not adequately classified as crimes in the legal or criminal systems of these countries,” Holzmann added. “Establishing liability, filing charges, and, particularly, securing convictions is a very complicated process.”

Chile as the forefront of an expanding criminal threat

Operation High Voltage represents the largest case uncovered to date, but it is part of a broader pattern.

In December 2025, the PDI dismantled a criminal organization responsible for a series of violent copper thefts targeting mining operations in northern Chile. Earlier that year, Operation Oro Rojo dismantled another international network responsible for stealing more than 50 metric tons of copper cables and other materials, which were later exported to markets in India and Belgium.

The problem extends back several years. In 2023, armed criminals stole 12 containers of Codelco copper from the Port of San Antonio in one of the country’s largest copper heists. A year earlier, gangs repeatedly targeted freight trains carrying copper from northern mines to Pacific ports, forcing some mining companies to shift shipments from rail to road because of the security risk.

TT Club, a specialist insurer serving the global freight transport and logistics industry, warns that copper theft now affects every stage of the supply chain, extending well beyond cargo in transit to include storage yards, terminals, warehouses, and production facilities.

“Over the past decade, copper theft has evolved from an opportunistic crime to a persistent threat to supply chains, driven by the metal’s value, the involvement of organized crime, and vulnerabilities in transportation and storage controls,” the insurer states. “We are seeing a significant and accelerating increase in both the frequency of incidents and their financial impact, which reinforces the need to consider copper as a high-risk cargo.”

The economic incentives driving these crimes are unlikely to diminish. During the World Copper Conference in Santiago in April 2026, a researcher from the Chinese state-owned company Minmetals Corp projected that China’s copper consumption could grow by an average of 3.7 percent annually, reaching nearly 23 million metric tons by 2035 — a 43 percent increase from the 16 million recorded in 2025.

Operation High Voltage demonstrates that transnational organized crime no longer operates solely on the margins of the formal economy. Increasingly, it infiltrates legitimate commercial systems, by exploiting financial, tax and logistical mechanisms normally associated with lawful businesses. As copper becomes increasingly vital for electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, telecommunications, advanced manufacturing, and defense systems, protecting critical mineral supply chains is emerging as both an economic and national security priority for producing countries.

Strong global demand suggests these criminal incentives will persist. Addressing the threat will require more than isolated law enforcement operations. It will depend on stronger legal frameworks, cross-border judicial cooperation, enhanced financial oversight, and tighter export controls. Chile’s experience offers both a warning and a model of coordinated interagency action that other critical mineral-producing countries in the region would benefit from studying.

• This article was published by Diálogo Américas

About Diálogo Américas

Diálogo Américas is a professional magazine published by U.S. Southern Command as an international forum for security issues in Latin America.

View all posts by Diálogo Américas →

ICYMI

Colombia gold mine collapse kills 13 workers

Cecilia Jamasmie | August 20, 2026 |

Illegal mining camp in Colombia. (Image courtesy of the Colombian Military Forces | X.)

At least 13 workers have been killed and another seven injured in a landslide at an open pit gold mine in southwestern Colombia, in one of the country’s latest deadly mining accidents.

The incident happened on Wednesday night when a slope collapse at the mine located in a rural area of Policarpa, in Nariño department, according to local authorities. Firefighters, residents and emergency crews using excavators searched the site until about 2 a.m. Thursday, when officials said all those reported missing had been found.

Authorities initially received reports of an explosion, but later determined that a landslide had caused the disaster, according to Radio Caracol. The Nariño governor’s office has not said whether the gold operation held mining permits or was operating illegally, an important distinction in a region where authorities regularly target unauthorized mines linked to armed groups and environmental damage.

Witnesses said four of those killed belonged to the same Indigenous family. Residents said about 50 people, most of them members of the Quillacinga Indigenous group, regularly worked at the mine near Policarpa.

Informal mining

Deadly accidents are a recurring risk in Colombia’s mining sector, particularly at unlicensed operations where workers extract precious metals without formal oversight or safety controls. An estimated 200,000 to 400,000 people participate in artisanal mining across the country, with many families relying on sales of gold and gemstones for income.

Illegal gold production presents a broader challenge. Criminal organizations, including armed groups and drug cartels, have used gold mining as a source of revenue, moving production through intermediaries and disguising its origins with apparently legitimate documentation before it enters international supply chains.

The risks extend beyond mine sites. A recent New York Times investigation found that Colombian gold linked to criminal networks entered the supply chain of the US Mint, which under federal law must use US-mined gold for its investor-grade coins.

Previous investigations and enforcement actions have also traced Latin American gold, including supplies originating in Peru and Ecuador, to North American refiners and traders after illicit material was mixed with legitimate production or exported using falsified documents.

Peru aims for $33 billion mining pipeline as Fujimori cuts red tape

ECO,HEALTH & SAFETY REGS

Reuters | August 20, 2026 | 

Keiko Fujimori. ( Screenshot from Euronews report.)

Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori’s government expects mining investments of at least $33 billion over its five-year term, the prime minister said on Thursday, as the major copper-producing nation aims to speed up project approvals.

Prime Minister Luis Galarreta told Congress that the government under Fujimori, who took office in July, plans to authorize 240 exploration and extraction projects this year.

Galarreta said private companies would drive the investment. The government’s role would be to ensure legal certainty, predictable permitting and timely decisions.

He said officials would focus on reducing delays and eliminating overlapping procedures without weakening environmental or social standards.

The government has framed the mining push as part of a broader effort to encourage responsible investment while improving execution of major projects.

On trade, Galarreta said Peru would keep open markets as state policy. As well, Fujimori’s government will work this year on a free-trade agreement with Hong Kong, while pursuing new agreements and promoting regional exports.

The treaty was signed in 2024 in Lima, but has yet to take effect. Galarreta said Peru’s longer-term goal was to strengthen its role for trade, investment and services linking South America with the Asia-Pacific region.

(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Daina Beth Solomon)