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In March, IBAMA dismantled an illegal mining operation in the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Territory in Roraima. This image from Operation Xapiri shows rocks resulting from bedrock blasting. After being crushed, the ore is processed using cyanide to separate the gold from other minerals.

Cyanide ponds from illegal mining threaten Amazon Indigenous territory

Elizabeth Oliveira 2 Nov 2026
Tesifying at a hearing, Mayerly López from Colombia, Marco Manobanda, an Indigenous fish-farmer from Las Naves, Ecuador. Image courtesy of Earthworks.

Environmental defenders testify about attacks in Latin America linked to Canadian mining companies

Annie Burns-Pieper 31 Oct 2026

In Suriname’s Amazon, the Wayana community struggling to keep gold miners at bay

Maxwell Radwin 29 Oct 2026
A man standing amidst mining pits raises a pickaxe; his companion directs dirty water from a hose towards his feet. Image by Élodie Toto for Mongabay.

Ghana targets end to raw mineral exports by 2030 to boost local industry

Awudu Salami Sulemana Yoda 29 Oct 2026
A watercolor by the Indigenous Wayana, Aimawale Opoya.

Suriname’s rich archaeological history may hold keys to conservation

Peter Speetjens 28 Oct 2026
Copper mine in Chile. Image by Tom Hegen

Photographer Tom Hegen’s aerial eye reveals the true scale of the critical mineral age

Carolyn Cowan 28 Oct 2026

New report maps widespread criminal presence across six Amazonian countries

Aimee Gabay 27 Oct 2026
Robson Mura, of the Mura Indigenous community, watches the sunrise at the Moyray village in Autazes, Amazonas state, February 2025.

Canadian-backed potash mine in Brazil has dried up sacred Amazon springs, say residents

Aimee Gabay 26 Oct 2026

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
Dinghies used for halibut fishing in Greenland. Image courtesy of Caroline Bouchard via Wikimedia Commons (free to use).

‘A decision to decide’: Greenland moves to suspend seabed mining until 2029

Shanna Hanbury 22 Oct 2026
A squirrel monkey in the Amazon.

Extractive industries threaten global goal to protect 30% of nature by 2030, report finds

Aimee Gabay 21 Oct 2026
A deep-sea cucumber among polymetallic nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. Image courtesy of ROV-Team GEOMAR/ROV KIEL 6000/GEOMAR.

US deep-sea mining claims in Pacific’s high seas now rival the area set aside by international regulator

Elizabeth Claire Alberts, Andrés Alegría 20 Oct 2026
Nigeria's Parks chief, Ibrahim Musa Goni. Photo, African Nature Investors Foundation.

Nigeria’s parks chief stresses conservation gains amid struggle to protect wildlife

David Akana 20 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 village of Bento Rodrigues in the aftermath of the Mariana mining disaster in Minas Gerais, Brazil, in 2015, showing destroyed buildings caked in mud and a lot of debris.

Climate change could send more toxic mining waste into coastal waters, study warns

Madeline Shaw 16 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
A man shovels sand into bags on Mahera beach. Image by Patricia Sia Ngevao.

As sand becomes more valuable, Sierra Leone’s Mahera Coast grows more vulnerable

Patricia Sia Ngevao 13 Oct 2026
Satellite imagery from Planet Labs captured October 2024 shows gold mining-related deforestation along the Ituri River in the DRC that runs through the southern portion of Okapi Wildlife Reserve.

Protected areas are not for mining: Interview with WWF’s Nadège Nzoyem

David Akana 13 Oct 2026

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

Maxwell Radwin 9 Oct 2026
Dead fish at Hippo Pool, north of Chingola, where the Kafue River narrows into a shallow valley. Image by Victoria Schneider for Mongabay.

Despite legacy court case, Zambian Vedanta mine pollution continues

Victoria Schneider 8 Oct 2026
A brown clockfig in South Africa’s Gariep Valley. Image © pietermier via iNaturalist (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Rare Southern African succulent listed as critically endangered amid mining threat

Victoria Schneider 5 Oct 2026
Myanmar mines

Myanmar’s mines pollute Thai rivers

Juan Maza 4 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
A mother Philippine eagle, Aya, and her young, Cabuaya, at Mount Hamiguitan in their nest in 2005.

Philippine eagle habitat study maps mining risks and conservation priorities

Keith Anthony Fabro 30 Sep 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

Philippines is the deadliest country in Asia for environmental defenders, report finds

Naina Rao 28 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

Peru faces hearing over threats to uncontacted Indigenous groups in the Amazon

Maxwell Radwin 24 Sep 2026

US contractors reportedly purchase tin from company accused of illegal Amazon mining

Mongabay 23 Sep 2026
A herd of vicuña in Salar de Chalviri, Bolivia

Copper boom fueling energy transition puts Earth’s wildlands at risk

Gerry McGovern, Sue Branford 22 Sep 2026

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