Brazil produced more than 52 tons of gold with traces of illegality in 2021, an increase of 25% compared to 2020, which represents a new record in the country, according to a study published by the Escolhas Institute.
The 52.8 tons of the precious metal that show signs of having been irregularly mined correspond to more than half of the gold produced in the country last year, most of which is mined directly in the Amazon.
The data, to which the Efe agency had access, belongs to the study on the origin of gold that the Escolhas Institute has been carrying out since 2015, using a methodology that analyzes official data and satellite images produced by the Mapbiomas network.
Gold exports won the country around €5.3 billion last year, an increase of 6% compared to 2020.
According to official figures, Brazil sold around 103.9 tons of gold abroad last year, while the total production of the precious metal in 2021 was 97 tons, 7% less than what was exported.
“There were 6.7 tons of gold that did not go through any national production registry, that is, it was not even washed,” said Larissa Rodrigues, portfolio manager of the Escolhas Institute.
Brazil sells practically all the gold it produces abroad, and its main buyers are Canada (31%), Switzerland (25%) and the United Kingdom (15%).
That means that these countries have no way of not being contaminated by gold stained with indigenous blood or environmental crimes in the Amazon,” he stressed.
Gold in Brazil is mainly extracted through informal or artisanal mining known as “garimpo”. Unlike centuries ago, today’s “garimpo” uses gigantic backhoes and often operates in a “profane” way with the use of mercury to facilitate the search for metals, polluting rivers.
In 2021, this type of mining covered 91.6% of the explored area in the Brazilian Amazon, according to the Mapbiomas network, which maps land use in the country with satellite data.
The problem, which has grown consecutively in recent years, is attributed by environmentalists to the permissiveness of the law and the lack of control by the government of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
The president, who came to power in 2019 and is now seeking re-election, defends the exploitation of natural resources in the Amazon, including in indigenous reserves, and relaxed controls on activities such as mining and the timber trade, which in his most are made illegally in the region.
Source: Observadora
