Reuters earlier this month reported that Brazil has gone high tech in cracking down on illegally mined gold. It is definitely something that the Ali administration should look into as not only could it offer protection to vulnerable communities and protected areas, it could also help to dissuade droves of illegal miners who are routinely evicted from Yanomami lands in Brazil and then flood into Guyana’s gold fields.
While gold is notoriously difficult to trace, Reuters reported that that has begun to change. A police programme called “Targeting Gold” is creating a database of samples from across Brazil that are examined with radio-isotope scans and fluorescence spectroscopy to determine the unique composition of elements.
The technique was pioneered in mining by University of Pretoria geologist Roger Dixon to help distinguish between legal and stolen gold. The programme developed in partnership with university researchers includes the use of powerful light beams from a particle accelerator at a Sao Paulo lab to study nano-sized impurities associated with gold, whether dirt or other metals like lead or copper, that help to determine its origins.
Humberto Freire, director of the Federal Police’s recently-created Environment and Amazon Department, said the technology allows scientists to analyze “the DNA of Brazilian gold.”
“Nature has marked the gold with isotopes and we can read these unique fingerprints with radio-isotope scans,” Mr Freire said, according to Reuters. “With this tool we can trace illegal gold before it gets refined for export.”
The programme has seen an increase in gold seizures since President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office last year — up 38% in 2023 from 2022, according to government numbers seen by Reuters. New Brazil central bank gold market regulations, including mandatory electronic tax receipts for all trades and tightened monitoring of suspect transactions, have also helped, according to Mr Freire.
“We estimate that around 40% of the gold that is extracted in the Amazon is illegal,” he told Reuters.
It is now known what the figure here is but the threat from illegal Brazilian and other miners is real. Last month, North Rupununi indigenous community leaders and the Iwokrama Inter-national Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development issued a joint communique on illegal gold mining and renewed their commitment for the active co-management of the Iwokrama Forest.
Chair of the North Rupununi District Deve-lopment Board (NRDDB), Mike Williams along with the leadership strongly condemned any form of illegal gold mining within Iwokrama. The release said this practice has seen participation of some errant community members along with other Guyanese, Venezuelans and Brazilians.
Also in November, the Wapichan Wiizi Women’s Movement and the South Rupununi District Council expressed deep concern over mining activities in Wapichan wiizi, especially at Marudi Mountain in Region Nine.
They called on the government to immediately suspend mining operations in the Marudi area. The statement from the women’s movement said that mining at Marudi Mountain is occurring through an agreement between the Rupununi Miners Association (RMA), the government, and the Aurous mining company. The women’s group said that they were never consulted about and never had the chance to participate in this agreement and this is a clear violation of their right to Free Prior and Informed Consent.
Since the agreement was signed, the women’s group contended that the RMA has invited hundreds of Brazilians to mine at Marudi, without any regulation or oversight.
“We believe many are miners from Yanomami territory, who have come here after being evicted from Brazil by President Lula. There is no transparency about what is happening at Marudi. We do not receive information about operators, their permits, or their practices. It is not clear who holds the permits to pursue mining operations, nor whether the miners are following any of the restrictions and regulations set forth by the GGMC and the EPA. We call on the government to demonstrate transparency by sharing the details of mining operations, the names of the permit holders, and all documents that the operators have submitted to the EPA and the GGMC”, the women’s group urged.
This conflict repeats itself in other communities across the country such as Chinese Landing and Tasserene and is reflected in the shadowy illegal exportation of gold which has attracted US sanctions on two gold dealers here.
The Ali administration should also take cognizance of other trends in this region as it relates to gold mining and not be blinded by the shine that gold miners have seen in the lucrative price for the metal on the international market.
In light of the rising demand for gold and minerals and the inherent risk to the environment, Colombia recently called for a binding international agreement to ensure traceability, transparency, and accountability across the entire minerals value chain – from mining to recycling. It hopes for an agreement by next year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Brazil.
Unveiled during the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in Colombia, this proposal follows the recommendations of the UN Secretary-General’s Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals.
In a recent Project Syndicate column in Stabroek News, Mauricio Cabrera Leal, Bogota’s Deputy Minister of Policy and Regulation at the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development said the proposal aims to bolster due diligence, promote corporate accountability, and establish a global market for essential clean-energy inputs.
At its core is a commitment to promote the responsible extraction of minerals and metals without abandoning environmental and biodiversity goals, Mr Leal said. To that end, Colombia’s proposal was accompanied by a joint voluntary declaration on responsible mining practices that outlined a series of concrete steps, including the formation of an ad hoc intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder working group.
Mr Leal pointed out that illegal gold and mineral mining in the Colombian Amazon and along the Pacific coast – often controlled by armed criminal groups – has contaminated water sources with mercury and endangered local and indigenous communities.
Opacity surrounds the gold mining industry here. The latest report of the Guyana-Extractive Indus-tries Transparency Initiative has cited non-compliance by a significant number of companies in supplying information to corroborate revenues due to the state. Irresponsible handling of mercury and environmental degradation are also some areas still to be addressed.
The Ali administration has extended enormous concessions and benefits to the gold industry without setting exacting standards on licit mining and protection of the environment. It is time that it balances the scales.
