The 52.8 tons of the precious metal that it indicates was mined irregularly corresponds to more than half of the gold produced in the country last year, most of which is mined directly in the Amazon.
The data, obtained by Efe, belongs to the study on the origin of gold conducted by the Escolhas Institute since 2015, using a methodology that analyzes official data and satellite images produced by the Mapbiomas network.
Gold exports earned the country about 5.3 billion euros last year, an increase of 6% compared to 2020.
According to official figures, Brazil sold about 103.9 tons of gold abroad last year, while the total production of the precious metal in 2021 amounted to 97 tons, which is 7% less than exports.
“There was 6.7 tons of gold that was not entered into any national production record, that is, it was not washed away,” said Larissa Rodriguez, portfolio manager at the Skolhas Institute.
Brazil sells nearly all of the gold it produces abroad, and the main buyers are Canada (31%), Switzerland (25%), and the United Kingdom (15%).
“This means that these countries have no way of not being polluted with indigenous gold or environmental crimes in the Amazon,” he stressed.
Gold in Brazil is mainly mined by informal or artisanal mining known as ‘garimbo’. In contrast to centuries past, today’s “garimpo” use giant backhoe loaders and often operate in a “savage” manner, using mercury to facilitate the search for polluted mineral 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 the country’s land use with satellite data.
The problem, which has grown successively in recent years, is attributed by environmentalists to the permissibility of the law and the lack of control of the government of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
The president, who took office in 2019 and is now seeking re-election, is advocating the exploitation of the Amazon’s natural resources, including indigenous reserves, and loosening controls on activities such as mining and the timber trade, much of which is illegally transported in the region.
MIM // LFS
Lusa / end
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