According to a report released on Tuesday, the significant increase in gold prices has sparked a spike in illegal mining in Brazil, much of it in the Amazon rainforest.
Brazil was the 14th-largest producer of gold in the world last year, but production has increased significantly since the coronavirus outbreak drove prices to all-time highs.
According to a study from the Federal University of Minas Gerais, at least 7% of the 112 tonnes of gold mined in Brazil last year was illegal, and 25% of it may have been (UFMG).
The amount of illegal gold generated increased by 44% between 2020 and 2021, according to the report.
It discovered that the trend remained mostly unaltered in the first half of 2022.
In Brazil’s Amazon, where mining-related deforestation set a record of 121 square kilometres (47 square miles) last year, lucrative gains are fueling a gold rush, according to satellite monitoring by the national space agency, INPE.
According to the report, Indigenous reservations, conservation areas, and other officially protected lands accounted for at least 23% of the Amazon’s mining-related deforestation, which is a crucial buffer against climate change.
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