The vulnerability of the population to adverse environmental conditions has particular relevance to the literature of inequality in recent times. In fact, the concept of environmental justice arises from the differences that individuals face in environmental quality. This paper is an approach to this concept since it considers mining activities as potential generator of environmental liabilities, which in turn can affect the conditions under which individuals develop. Since the financial crisis of 2008, gold prices experienced significant increases in relation to previous periods and generated an increase in gold mining. In this sense, the study aims to investigate the impact of gold mining on the health of newborns in Colombia during the boom in mineral prices over the past decade. For this purpose, I use information on mining potential, international gold prices and vital statistics. Estimates indicate that higher levels of mining activities, involve an increase in the rate of babies born before 27 weeks of gestation and in the rate of low birth weight babies (born at less than 2,500 grams). Additionally I find that mining activities have no effect on the rate of fetal deaths. The results are robust to different measures of mining, including the presence of illegal mining, mining permission and volume of gold production.
