Mining has long been associated with environmental pollution, ecological degradation, and adverse health outcomes in nearby populations. This study addresses whether proximity to large-scale mining operations negatively affects child survival rates in surrounding communities. Specifically, I examine the Yanacocha Mine, located in the province of Cajamarca, Peru, which is the largest gold mine in South America. To investigate this question, I applied a difference-in-differences framework using census data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series International (IPUMS International) for the years 1993 and 2007. These two data points allow us to compare child survival rates before and after the 2004 expansion of the Yanacocha mine, but there is a limitation. The census does not follow the same individuals, so we cannot rule out the possibility that migration occurred, with the healthier population moving in while the unhealthy population moved out. My findings show that child survival rates increased by 5.3 percentage points in treated provinces compared to 4.9 percentage points in control provinces, resulting in a difference of 0.4 percentage points. This indicates a small positive effect, suggesting that the negative pollution effects were offset by potential socioeconomic benefits from the mine. I attribute this outcome to three primary factors. Severe health risks, like death, are most associated with long-term mercury exposure, meaning children may be sick but only die from mercury poisoning when they are older. Newmont Corporation, the mine's owner, is the largest gold mining company in the world, meaning they have to keep a sustainable international appearance. The Yanacocha mine is not only strictly monitored by the Peruvian government (unlike illegal artisanal mines), but Newmont has dedicated millions of dollars to sustainability efforts around the mine to attempt to offset the negative impact. Finally, Aragon and Rud (2013) concluded that the Yanacocha mine has a positive impact on the income and economy in the surrounding provinces, meaning there would be more industrialization, leading to better access to health care, sanitation services, and many more improvements that would help child survival rates.
