Nearly half of permitted small-scale gold mines in a corner of the Brazilian Amazon are likely fronts for laundering gold mined elsewhere, including protected areas and Indigenous territories, a new investigation suggests.
Between 2022 and 2026, 263 of the 540 licensed artisanal mining operations in the Tapajós River Basin, or 49%, reported gold sales not commensurate with the actual mining activity.
Satellite imagery analyzed by investigative outlet InfoAmazonia revealed that most of the mining activity in the Tapajós region was happening outside the permitted mining sites, including inside protected areas and Indigenous territories. Roughly 70% of activity was happening within a 10-kilometer (6-mile) radius of the permitted sites, which suggests illegal mining operations may be using the cover of these permits to launder illegal gold into the formal market.
The findings are consistent with reports of mercury contamination in the region, which has harmed Indigenous and riverine communities who depend on the rivers for water, food and transportation. Mercury is common in both legal and illegal gold mining operations, despite a prohibition on its use.
The investigation also found permits intended for small-scale, low-impact gold mining were being used by larger, industrial-scale operations. The mining permits were originally designed to be a simplified authorization for individual miners, but are increasingly used for industrial mining that uses heavy equipment, dredging and illegal mercury.
For the investigation, InfoAmazonia helped develop a platform called VEIO, or Verification and Investigation of Gold Origin. It cross-references mining and deforestation data with mineral production taxes and gold export figures.
VEIO’s analysis found the volume of gold reported through small-scale mining permits was 10 times higher than extraction estimates gleaned from scientific studies. Those studies estimate small-scale miners extract about 20 grams of gold per hectare (0.26 ounces per acre).
Of around 9,000 mining applications in the Tapajós Environmental Protected Area, which allows limited gold extraction, more than 6,250, or 69%, were for small-scale operations. However, the investigation found just 21 individuals were behind more than half of those requests, suggesting larger operations are happening on the ground.
The report identified one such license holder as José Antunes, a lawyer who chairs the Environmental Law Commission of the Brazilian Bar Association in Itaituba municipality, Pará state. He holds 162 small-scale mining licenses, adding up to more than 8,000 hectares (about 20,000 acres). Between 2022 and 2023, he reported 64 million reais ($13 million) in gold sales from 31 blocks.
There’s no trace of mining in some areas reported as active, while satellite imagery shows mining activity spilling over into other areas outside the licensed zones.
Read the full story by InfoAmazonia here.
Banner image: Fisherman from the Sawré Muybu Indigenous Territory with his catch from the Tapajós River. Image courtesy of Luis Ushirobira/InfoAmazonia.
Credits
This story first appeared on Mongabay
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and Mongabay, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.
