Illegal mining News

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COP17: Open letter urges governments to keep extractives out of protected areas

David Akana 23 Oct 2026

Another mining-linked pollution incident raises alarm over Zambia’s Kafue River

Chisapi Kumbutso 22 Oct 2026
Illegal gold mining activity in the Pamong Besar River, Sangir, South Solok. Photo: Vinolia/Mongabay Indonesia.

Deadly gold rush continues as latest landslide kills four in Sumatra

Vinolia 22 Oct 2026

Anatomy of a land grab: the law, likes, and legislator behind an Indigenous land invasion in Brazil

Aimee Gabay, Elisângela Mendonça 19 Oct 2026
The Kila gold mine, on the northern edge of Nigeria’s Gashaka-Gumti National Park, before its closure in July 2026 by Nigeria’s National Park Service and the Africa Nature Investors (ANI) Foundation, with support from the Nigerian military. Image courtesy of the Africa Nature Investors Foundation.

Nigeria drove thousands of gold miners from a national park. But can it keep them out?

David Akana 17 Oct 2026
The Makhado mine’s coal-handling and processing plant (CHPP). Image courtesy of MC Mining.

South African coal mine advances amid legal challenge and mounting water concerns

Elaine Mills 14 Oct 2026

Lawmakers in Suriname call for investigation, stricter oversight amid new mining activity

Maxwell Radwin 9 Oct 2026
Mineral traders watch on as antimony ore is transferred from Myanmar trucks to Thai trucks at the Pheung Khleung border crossing. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay.

Myanmar’s polluting mines selling to China through Thai companies

Gerald Flynn 1 Oct 2026
Pratap Singh Chundawat via his Facebook page.

Pratap Singh Chundawat rescued a leopard from a well. He died in the line of duty, aged 40

Rhett Ayers Butler 30 Sep 2026
Environmental agents use satellite imagery analyses and on-site inspections to identify the flow of illegal wood, such as this seizure from the Cachoeira Seca Indigenous Territory, using timber credits. Image by IBAMA via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0).

To tackle environmental crime, track profits through the whole supply chain (commentary)

Robert Muggah, Ilona Szabó de Carvalho 25 Sep 2026
Illegal miners at work in the Atewa Forest Reserve, Ghana. Image courtesy of A Rocha Ghana.

Illegal mines threaten biodiversity and drinking water in Ghana’s Atewa Forest

Mabel Adorkor Annang 21 Sep 2026

Bolivia’s mining law overhaul raises environmental and community concerns

Maxwell Radwin 16 Sep 2026

Since US intervention, Venezuela’s illegal mining crisis has only worsened, critics say

Maxwell Radwin 15 Sep 2026
Gold mining

Can mining gold be sustainable?

Felipe Esparza 11 Sep 2026

Riverside families in the Amazon change meals as mercury poisons staple fish

Karla Mendes 8 Sep 2026

In Peru, mercury leaves a toxic footprint on those who depend on a river

Elizabeth Salazar Vega 8 Sep 2026

Mercury threatens over 160 communities in Bolivia’s Beni River basin

Iván Paredes Tamayo 8 Sep 2026

New analysis maps mercury threat to 951 Amazon communities in three countries

Alexa Vélez, Vanessa Romo, Daniela Quintero Díaz 8 Sep 2026

Marine conservation collides with mining in Indonesia’s biodiversity-rich Moramo Bay

La Ode Risman Hermawan 4 Sep 2026
A Yanomami Indigenous child plays among the wreckage of a Brazilian Air Force aircraft at the Surucucu airport. Image courtesy of Fernando Frazão/Agência Brasil.

Scientists use mining data to build malaria alert system in the Amazon

Fernanda Wenzel 1 Sep 2026
A Sumatran orangutan.

Gold miners breach a crucial refuge for rescued Sumatran orangutans

Junaidi Hanafiah 31 Aug 2026

‘Devastating’ rush for critical minerals has little to do with green energy: Report

Victoria Schneider 27 Aug 2026
Rainstorm over Pillcopata in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett Butler/Mongabay.

Plans of Peru’s new administration spur concern among environmentalists

Aimee Gabay 25 Aug 2026
Dead fish in the Kafue River near the town of Luanshya, Zambia, a day after the tailings dam spill, Feb. 19, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Richard Kille.

A mine polluted a Zambian river in 2025: Residents continue to live with the impacts

Victoria Schneider 13 Aug 2026
Rokar Koang Commune, Kandal Province (Cambodia). Sand mining barges extract sand from the Mekong, May 2022.

Cambodia’s banned sand trade with Singapore appears to be back

Andy Ball 11 Aug 2026
Gold extraction site

Brazil’s mining agency under fire over corruption and omission probes

Fernanda Wenzel 4 Aug 2026

Nicaragua’s gold boom is now encroaching on protected areas and Indigenous land

Maxwell Radwin 3 Aug 2026
Río Huaypetue gold mine in Peru. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

The global gold rush consuming the Amazon (commentary)

Robert Muggah 30 Jul 2026

How can Indigenous knowledge reshape AI development?

Mongabay.com 30 Jul 2026
A mine site at Samreboi, Western Region, Ghana in 2022. Image courtesy of Erastus Asare Donkor

Ghana’s High Court sentences politician to 20 years in illegal mining case

Mabel Adorkor Annang 24 Jul 2026
Western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus), Nzérékoré, Guinea. Image by augustofaustino via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Leaked study warns of irreversible damage from iron ore mine in Guinea UNESCO site

Josef Skrdlik, Oliver Dunn 24 Jun 2026

Illegal miners adapt their strategies in Yanomami Amazon territory

Rubens Valente 17 Jun 2026

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