A study published on Tuesday indicates a surge in illegal gold mining in the Amazon rainforests as gold prices hit an all-time high. Brazil is the 14th biggest producer of gold in the world as output increased post the COVID-19 pandemic when international prices for gold hit the roof.
“From 2020 to 2021, there was a 44-percent increase in the amount of illegal gold produced,” stated the study. Furthermore, the Federal University of Minas Gerais reported that out of the 112 tonnes of gold produced in Brazil the year 2021, 7% was illegal and 25% was only potentially legal. This trend continued through the first six month of 2022.
According to a satellite monitory of the INPE, which is a national space agency, 121 square kilometres of the Amazon Rainforest had been cleared to pursue illegal mining of gold within the region. 23% of this mining deforestation was conducted in legally protected areas of indigenous reservations and other conservative areas. These criminal miners have brutally attacked indigenous inhabitants in certain areas, putting the peaceful rainforest atmosphere into a state of peril. What’s worse is the fact that chemicals used to extract the gold have polluted rivers in the areas which are utilised by inhabitants for drinking.
A study found the vast majority of Brazil’s illegal gold output – 98 percent – came from three municipalities in the northern state of Para, with the Kayapo and Munduruku Indigenous groups particularly hard-hit.
Environmental activists and other prosecutors have urged President Jair Bolsonaro and his government to establish stricter protocol and regulation to prevent this illegal activity from continuing. Another study showcases the environmental and social damages done through this procedure of mining, amounting the total compensation for it to come to about $7.5 billion dollars from January 2021 to June 2022.
