Billions of dollars in gold illegally extracted from Amazon rainforest

Billions of dollars worth of gold is still being extracted illegally from Brazil’s Amazon ‌rainforest, Reuters writes, referring to a study by nonprofit watchdog Greenpeace.

Lula pledged upon taking office in 2023 to eliminate illegal gold mining from Indigenous lands ​and protected areas after years of expansion encouraged by far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro. Last ​year, Brazil’s Federal Police seized a record 447 kg of illegally mined ⁠gold.

But as gold prices hit record highs amid intense geopolitical instability, the Greenpeace study found that miners ​have adapted by using permits from places with no mining activity to falsify the origin of illegally ​mined gold.