What The Mine Gives, The Mine Takes" is an art and research project examining the devastating impact of gold mining in the Venezuelan and Guayanese Amazon, particularly in the context of the Orinoco Mining Arc — a large-scale extractivist plan launched by the Venezuelan state in 2016 to exploit the region's gold, diamonds, coltan, and other minerals.

The project takes its title from a popular regional saying, which the author links to the indigenous worldview surrounding Oro'epuru, a patron deity of minerals believed to punish those who extract resources without respecting nature. This phrase encapsulates a broader predatory logic embedded in exploitation and socio-ecological destruction.

At the heart of the project is the use of mercury and cyanide in gold mining — toxic substances that poison communities, contaminate water and air, and devastate protected ecosystems. Indigenous groups, environmentalists, and organizations like SOS Orinoco have denounced these harms, as well as the rising criminal and territorial violence in the region.

The author argues that the scale of this crisis — ecological, geopolitical, anthropological, and existential — demands more than conventional analysis. The project therefore proposes a "sensitive and critical cartography" of what it calls a massive ecocide, bringing together perspectives from different hemispheres, cultures, and languages.