New production plant - in the middle of the Peruvian jungle?

I came across a newly built production facility in the Peruvian jungle. Unfortunately I cannot find it on Google Earth, as the imagery there is a little older, but you can see it on zoom.earth. Does anyone know what kind of facility this is? There is clearly no road access, no river access, and it appears to have a water pumping station (located on the river approximately 1,800 meters to the south east). I do not see any signs of pipelines either...meaning that whatever they are producing is likely being taken out by helicopter. All that equipment was likely flown in as well...any ideas?

As this is my first post, I apologize in advance if I missed a rule or guideline. Thanks!

- J

Attachments:

New Production Facility...for what.kmz (988 B)

Sept 21, 2017 23:04:21 GMT jfroda said:

...As this is my first post, I apologize in advance if I missed a rule or guideline. Thanks!...

nothing have been missed, only we are to welcome and thank you to share this interesting find!

still nothing I could find, but have bookmarked this post and will be waiting with trust around here on GEC Forums!

best!

g

Sept 21, 2017 23:04:21 GMT jfroda said:

I came across a newly built production facility in the Peruvian jungle. Unfortunately I cannot find it on Google Earth, as the imagery there is a little older, but you can see it on zoom.earth. Does anyone know what kind of facility this is? There is clearly no road access, no river access, and it appears to have a water pumping station (located on the river approximately 1,800 meters to the south east). I do not see any signs of pipelines either...meaning that whatever they are producing is likely being taken out by helicopter. All that equipment was likely flown in as well...any ideas?

As this is my first post, I apologize in advance if I missed a rule or guideline. Thanks!

- J

No Offense,

You posted this screenshot from "Zoom Earth" even though its not from Google Earth.
Google Earth Location (KMZ FILE) doesn't show the facility, but its only viewable on "Zoom Earth" 

Sept 26, 2017 5:43:55 GMT ET_Explorer said:

Seems "Zoom Earth" shows more, than what Google Earth shows.

I think it depends on where you look. Around my hometown for example ZE displays an ancient (7 years old) aerial/satellite imagery, while GE still provides an only two months old aerial data.

Also we should to book this situation as an advantage: different map-engines providing different databases for us to browse, and two databases are more than one...(:

if zooming out from 'plant-view', one can easily catch sight of this minerals mining area along a neighbouring river (50kilometers to E at 13° 2'43.31"S,  70°29'52.42"W)


photo by ggermana at panoramio

Rio Huaypetue mine is a large open-pit gold mine.
It has been estimated that at the peak of production in 1998, some 2 percent of the world's annual gold production may have come from Huaypetue.

Due to the remoteness of the area in the Peruvian Amazon where the mine is located the mining operations are poorly regulated, with many reports of child labor and environmental damage. According to some reports children as young as 12 work in the mines, with government officials describing slave-like conditions and estimating that in certain sectors, 50 percent of the workers are boys under 18. Working conditions are hard with 10- to 12-hour days and many workers suffering from malnutrition. As part of the mining process mercury is used to separate the gold, with the mercury in some cases mixed by hand before being burned off. Children exposed to the substance suffer the risk of brain damage.

The surface mining operations have sprawled to cover over 100 square kilometers, an area previously covered by primary rainforest. Mercury contamination from the mines is widespread, posing a risk for fish and other aquatic life downstream of the mine. The sediment and runoff from the mine can be traced for hundreds of kilometers along the river.

Rio Huaypetue Gold Mine.kmz (1.46 KB)

hopefully what we can see at J's coordinates on ZE is not a first volunteer for such a nice job...):

I figured that using the Zoom Earth imagery might bring up an issue, but from what I found online, there was no better place to discuss what this could be. 

Unfortunately, there is a lot of gold in the ground in the Peruvian jungle and the Rio Huaypetue mine has caused much deforestation and environmental damage. There is a LOT of illegal mining that occurs in this region, even in this mine itself (as has been reported). 

However, the facility at the coordinates I sent looks to be very professional and not indicative of illegal mining, nor that of a legally operated gold mine from my experience (I have visited a few of the largest legally operated gold mines in Peru). That being said, it is possible that this is the first stage of development and that they have not begun mining operations...if that is the case, watch the jungle around this facility to start looking like the area around the Rio Huaypetue mine

- J

Sept 26, 2017 7:00:40 GMT syzygy said:

Sept 26, 2017 5:43:55 GMT ET_Explorer said:

Seems "Zoom Earth" shows more, than what Google Earth shows.

I think it depends on where you look. Around my hometown for example ZE displays an ancient (7 years old) aerial/satellite imagery, while GE still provides an only two months old aerial data.

Also we should to book this situation as an advantage: different map-engines providing different databases for us to browse, and two databases are more than one...(:

Exactly. In this case the Zoom Earth imagery (also used by Bing Maps) was recent enough to show the facility. The corresponding Google Earth imagery for location -12.9943 -71.0067 dates back to 2012, apparently too old.