Illegal mining News

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418 stories
The proximity with non-Indigenous culture and lack of economic alternatives make some young Mundurukus turn to illegal mining.

From chickens to cassava, Brazil’s Munduruku seek alternatives to mining

Fernanda Wenzel, Karla Mendes 20 May 2025
Federal forces have been expelling illegal gold miners from protected areas like the Munduruku Indigenous Territory in Pará state. Image courtesy of the Federal Police. 

Amazon illegal miners smuggle gold into Venezuela

Fernanda Wenzel 15 May 2025
Brazilian Indigenous lawyer Kari Guajajara. Image by USAID via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).

‘We can’t talk solutions without understanding complexities: Kari Guajajara on Brazil’s Amazon

Latoya Abulu 12 May 2025
Located in the Amapá state, the second-largest red angelim ever found is 85.4 meters (280 feet) tall and has a circumference of 9.8 meters (32 feet). Image courtesy of João de Matos Filho / Prodemac.

Gold rush moves closer to Amazon’s second-tallest tree

Mongabay.com 1 May 2025
A towering tailings pile sits directly behind a residence in Poço Dantas. Image by Rebeca Binda.

In Brazil’s Jequitinhonha valley, communities share how to reduce lithium mining impacts

Amanda Magnani, Rebeca Binda 30 Apr 2025

Armed groups and junta profit as toxic mines devour southern Myanmar

Dawei Watch 23 Apr 2025
Federal forces have been expelling illegal gold miners from protected areas like the Munduruku Indigenous Territory in Pará state. Image courtesy of the Federal Police. 

Amazon illegal miners bypass enforcement by smuggling gold into Venezuela

Fernanda Wenzel 22 Apr 2025
Paulo’s killing has become the symbol of the guardians’ fight to protect Arariboia.

Mongabay investigation spurs Brazil crackdown on illegal cattle in Amazon’s Arariboia territory

Karla Mendes 11 Apr 2025

Tree rings reveal mercury pollution from illegal gold mining: Study

Bobby Bascomb 8 Apr 2025
Munduruku in the Tapajós river, next to Sawré Muybu Indigenous Land, home to the Munduruku people, Pará state, Brazil. Photo by Valdemir Cunha / Greenpeace.

What pushes Indigenous Munduruku people to mine their land in Brazil’s Amazon?

Aimee Gabay 8 Apr 2025

Peru’s rare peatland swamps at risk as illegal gold mining expands

Maxwell Radwin 26 Mar 2025
Hoatzin (Opisthocomus hoazin) near the Tapajós river, next to Sawré Muybu Indigenous Land, home to the Munduruku people, Pará state, Brazil.

Officials share strategies to stop spread of illegal miners from Munduruku land

Aimee Gabay 18 Mar 2025
Two Munduruku boys walk along a river in the Sawré Muybu Indigenous Land. Image by Anderson Barbosa / Greenpeace.

Brazil’s crackdown on illegal mining in Munduruku Indigenous land sees success, but fears remain

Aimee Gabay 12 Mar 2025
New study assesses threat to wildlife from cacao expansion in Congo Basin.

The environmental toll of the M23 conflict in eastern DRC (Analysis)

Fergus O’Leary Simpson | Lara Collart | Joel Masselink 7 Mar 2025
Logging operation in the Amazonian state of Rondônia.

Clash of worlds for the Amazon’s Cinta Larga: Interview with author Alex Cuadros

Sam Cowie 5 Mar 2025
Equipped with drones and other technologies, young people from the Yanomami Indigenous Land actively monitor their territory, which has faced a serious humanitarian and environmental crisis due to illegal gold and cassiterite mining. Image courtesy of Evilene Paixão/HAY.

Yanomami youth turn to drones to watch their Amazon territory

Elizabeth Oliveira 28 Feb 2025
Investigating the real price of Congo's gold

Investigating the real price of Congo’s gold

Elodie Toto 19 Feb 2025

Environmental & rights activists flee and hide as M23 captures DRC’s cities

Elodie Toto 18 Feb 2025

Amid bombs and chaos, Goma’s displaced residents share their fears and hopes

Ajabu Adolphe 17 Feb 2025
Congolese troops in the eastern DRC during fighting with M23 in 2013. Image © MONUSCO/Clara Padovan via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).

The key factors fueling conflict in eastern DRC

John Cannon 14 Feb 2025

Mining dredges return to Amazon River’s main tributary, months after crackdown

Fernanda Wenzel 10 Feb 2025
Artisanal miners in Rubaya area, DRC.

How illicit mining fuels violence in eastern DRC: Interview with Jean-Pierre Okenda

Ashoka Mukpo 6 Feb 2025

What’s at stake for the environment in Ecuador’s upcoming election?

Maxwell Radwin 5 Feb 2025

Indonesian scientist under fire for revealing extent of illegal tin mining

Hans Nicholas Jong 14 Jan 2025
Mist rising from the Amazon rainforest at dawn. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.

Latin America in 2024: politics, turmoil and hope

Alexandra Popescu 3 Jan 2025

An underground gold war in Colombia is ‘a ticking ecological time bomb’

Joshua Collins 31 Dec 2024
An elephant with her mahout at the project

The 10 Indigenous news stories that marked 2024

Latoya Abulu 23 Dec 2024

Researchers find high levels of mercury in Amazon’s Madeira River water & fish

Kevin Damasio 27 Nov 2024

Illegal gold mining drives deforestation in DRC reserve home to ‘African unicorn’

Ruth Kamnitzer 26 Nov 2024

‘Five years and no justice’ as trial over Indigenous forest guardian’s killing faces delays

Karla Mendes 13 Nov 2024
Illegal mining in the Munduruku Indigenous Territory in 2020. Image by Marizilda Cruppe/Amazônia Real/Amazon Watch.

Brazil sets a date to remove illegal miners from Munduruku land, more details await

Jenny Gonzales 6 Nov 2024
Amazon Rainforest

Report reveals how environmental crime profits in the Amazon are laundered

Aimee Gabay 5 Nov 2024

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