Brazil's illegal gold mining wreaks havoc on Amazon

Illegal gold mining continues to wreak havoc on the Amazon Rainforest, activists say, causing deforestation and polluting pristine streams and rivers with mercury and other toxic chemicals. Despite recent efforts by the federal government, using the army and IBAMA (Environment and Natural Resources Brazilian Institute) in joint operations of finding and shutting down illegal miners, the lure of gold continues to bring eager prospectors to the vast jungle region.

The Amazon biome contains 93% of all gold mining in Brazil, according to MapBiomas, a research initiative formed by a network of NGOs, universities and technology companies. Between 1985 and 2020, the area mined in the country grew six times, from 31-thousand acres to 206-thousand acres.

Now, gold-digging sites occupy more area than mining industries, advancing into environment conservation areas and Indigenous land. The top 10 municipalities with the biggest gold mining activity are located in the south of the state of Pará and north of Mato Grosso state. After the Federal Government built the BR-163 roadway, cutting through Para State, a flood of miners and loggers entered the region.

"I'm not a thug. If we steal, we get arrested. If we work, we get arrested. What will we do for a living?" asked a gold miner working in an illegal site inside a conservation area.

Older miners say they have been mining for decades, and with prohibition they'd have no other form of income. From 2010 to 2020, illegal mining inside conservation areas grew 301%, according to MapBiomas, and 495% inside indigenous land. According to National Mining Agency estimates, around 30 tons of gold worth some 4.5 billion reals ($1.1 billion) are illegally traded in the state of Para annually. That is around six times more than the amount legally declared.

Even legal mining is largely unregulated, according to Eco Watch and other activist groups, with those operations tending to be much larger and destructive. While small mines are covered by the forest a couple of years after activities end, mines where backhoes are used, leave irreversible damage, with stirred soil that becomes sterile. The federal government launched a joint operation with the army and IBAMA between July and August 2021 to prevent environmental crimes in indigenous land, conservation areas and State land in the states of Pará, Amazonas, Mato Grosso and Rondônia.

The task force closed down mining camps, burned down bulldozers and mining machines, and seized fuel and tools used for mining. But the effort has fallen short, and illegal miners continue to slash their way through virgin rainforest, adding to the region's deforestation problems and impacting the environment.