Bolivia’s central bank has generated more than US$3 billion in badly needed hard currency by purchasing domestically mined gold for local currency, shipping it to Turkey for refining, depositing the bullion in London vaults and then swapping it for dollars, according to people familiar with the operations and public statements from the bank. The manoeuvre has become the government’s principal source of foreign exchange as gas export revenues collapse and international reserves dwindle. The dollars obtained are being channelled to repay sovereign bondholders and finance fuel imports, easing immediate balance-of-payments pressures and keeping subsidised energy flowing despite mile-long queues at petrol stations. With official reserves hovering near multi-decade lows, the central bank’s gold flip has provided an emergency lifeline that analysts say is critical to staving off a default in the short term. The strategy is drawing scrutiny from miners and environmental groups, who say weak oversight is encouraging the extraction of gold from ecologically sensitive areas of the Amazon using mercury-intensive methods that contaminate rivers and threaten Indigenous communities. Cooperative miners, who supply about 94 % of Bolivia’s production, warn that the rush could accelerate deforestation and illegal activity unless the government tightens traceability rules. The gold gambit underscores the depth of Bolivia’s economic strains ahead of Sunday’s presidential vote, where polls show two opposition candidates leading amid double-digit inflation, bread shrinkflation and widespread shortages of dollars, fuel and basic staples. Observers from the Organization of American States and more than 25,000 police officers are being deployed to oversee the ballot as voters weigh the cost of the current model against promises of sharp policy shifts.