Gold mining surge threatens Indigenous lands in Brazil's Amazon

According to a study released by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute, gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon has multiplied twentyfold since 1985, with Indigenous lands seeing a twenty-fourfold increase. From 2016 to 2024 alone, mining on Indigenous territories expanded almost seven times, spurred by soaring gold prices that have revived a mining rush. The surge is causing extensive deforestation, mercury contamination of rivers, and worsening climate vulnerabilities for Indigenous peoples, who already face intensified droughts and heat.

In the Munduruku Indigenous Territory of Pará, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights held hearings where local leaders presented satellite evidence of renewed illegal mining and reported rising malaria, infant mortality and developmental delays linked to mercury. While Brazil's Ministry of Human Rights and law-enforcement agencies have intensified operations against illegal miners, the activity persists, moving to new sites whenever equipment is seized.