Key facts
- Brazil's federal police operate a "gold lab" using forensic science to trace gold origins.
- The technique, "gold fingerprinting," analyzes trace elements to identify illegal mining from protected areas.
- This initiative aims to combat deforestation and mercury contamination in the Amazon.
- The method helps authorities prosecute individuals and organizations involved in illicit gold trade.
- Legal loopholes are being exploited to launder gold extracted from Indigenous lands and protected zones.
Brazil is deploying forensic science to combat illegal gold mining in the Amazon, a practice that accelerates deforestation and causes dangerous mercury contamination. At the National Institute of Criminalistics in Brasilia, federal police have established a "gold lab" to analyze gold samples and determine their origin. This "gold fingerprinting" method, developed since 2019 with universities, examines trace elements like silver and copper absorbed by gold deposits to identify if the metal was illegally extracted from protected areas.
Federal police forensics expert Gustavo Geiser explained that the technique uses advanced tools such as X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. If forensics prove gold was illegally mined, it aids police in building cases and pursuing charges. Criminals often use fraud to introduce illegally mined gold, as well as cattle and timber, into legal markets. A recent surge in gold prices has intensified mining activities in the Amazon, with Amazon Mining Watch estimating nearly 1.2 million acres of rainforest cleared for mining globally since 2023, including over half a million acres in the Brazilian Amazon.
Brazil's Federal Court of Accounts has indicated that mining permits granted to small-scale miners may be used to legitimize gold from protected areas. Greenpeace reports detail "ghost mine" scams where legal mine activity is absent while illegal operations thrive on adjacent protected lands. In response, a federal court in Para has ordered institutions like the Central Bank and National Mining Agency to implement effective gold traceability, and federal prosecutors are suing the National Mining Agency for insufficient oversight, calling permits a front for laundering gold extracted by criminal organizations.
Geiser believes the gold lab is crucial for combating crime and strengthening global gold supply chains, providing legitimacy to financial reserves. While specific numbers of arrests are unavailable, crime networks are reportedly expanding their laundering operations to neighboring countries. Regional nations are enhancing cooperation through the Amazon International Police Cooperation Center. Illegal gold mining, though a smaller driver of deforestation than agriculture, inflicts nearly irreversible environmental damage, particularly through mercury contamination of water sources and fish.