Goldman prize winner: 'I will never be defeated by the mining companies'

Maxima Acuna de Chaupe has won a major environmental prize for defending her land from the biggest gold-mining project in South America

Environmental activism may not have been what Maxima Acuna de Chaupe had in mind when in 2011 she refused to sell her 60-acre plot of land to the biggest gold-mining project in South America.

She did not belong to any movement or organisation but she doggedly held on to her land in spite of her claims of beatings, death threats, intimidation and court proceedings, becoming a symbol of resistance in her native Peru and above all its northern region of Cajamarca which rejected the $4.8bn Conga gold mine after five demonstrators were killed in clashes with the police in 2012.