How much illegal Amazonian gold is in your phone? | Unreported World

foreign Brazil a country abundant in natural resources because natural wealth is exploited wow I just found a bottle of mercury gold mined and exported for Generations is even more in demand eighty thousand dollars just with this now Houston Technology the phones and computers that we rely on I've been on a journey through the Amazon's protected rainforest to meet gold miners illegally digging up the forest Rico and the people suffering because of it the race is on to stop the destruction and expose the companies profiting from illegal gold [Music] I'm in the state of para in the southeast of the Amazon basin this region is particularly reaching mineral resources the global fast for gold used in the technology industry has boosted illegal mining here Brazil exports a hundred tons of gold every year evidence is emerging suggesting that nearly half of Brazil's gold trade comes from an illegal source the Amazon rainforest covers a massive area of over 2 million square miles most of it lies in Brazil and under half of the rain forest here is protected or considered indigenous territory outside the protected areas there are legitimate gold mines but inside it is against the law to dig for gold in the protected kayapo indigenous territory where I am an area larger than Wells police have detected a wearing number of illegal Gold Mine insights oh what the Global Tech companies buying gold from Brazil need to be at least aware of is the damage to the rainforest ecosystem indigenous leader from an area deep in the rainforest called gorotire says the best way to get a sense of the scale of the problem is from the air foreign are illegal we fly over one of Brazil's biggest web of gold mines called Maria Bonita the quest for gold has divided the kayapo people who live here they control the land and without the permission it's difficult to mine some do make money from it but others suppose the destruction of the land ers [Music] foreign [Music] protected area is red and Zone nearly all the gold mines near here are illegal signs of the Mind in trade though are everywhere machineries bought and sold here as well as fuel to make equipment run most of the people in this town are linked in one way or another to the mining industry and many of the mine owners also live here is Rafael Martins is a federal prosecutor who has been employed to crack down on the illegal gold trade he tells me that here there are large differences in wealth between Gold Mine owners and the rest of the population economic inequality has caused social breakdown police efforts to stop illegal mining range from destroying Machinery used in the mines to now going after those buying the gold foreign Lego I want to get to the source of illegal gold trading and speak to those actually working in the mines I travel from the town of red and sound into kayapo protected land it doesn't take long to find mine we're right inside kayapo indigenous land this is completely illegal although we've been warned of the dangerous Intruders can face with some Minds guarded with weapons I've been given permission to go in this small open mind is so far removed from what we associate with gold it's dirty and dangerous work after the area was cleared of trees this speed was dug out water is pumped through to make a slurry toxic Mercury's added to bind with any gold it sinks to the bottom then collected by the miners train times typically those who do the heavy lifting are from poor backgrounds and hope this can get them Rich quickly that dream seems to have been shattered here they say they've barely seen any of the money linked to the gold industry many in Brazil hope that recently elected president Lula is serious about reading the Amazon of illegal mining unlike his predecessor bolsonaro who encouraged using the rainforest resources for profit man is the Mindless health is compromised by the toxic Mercury they use with risk of kidney failure and serious neurological problems affecting the speech inside it can be deadly the kayapo have been complaining because it has been a spike in malaria the reason why is those pools that attract mosquitoes David takes me to his village it's the children here who suffer foreign foreign [Music] wants to show me how the life source of the Amazon is being destroyed by Mercury pollution for Generations this River abundant with fish was the main source of food for the indigenous community but now mercury has made its way from the illegal mines into the river and is poisoning the fish and the people specially Franco company is Cry for Help has finally reached the corridors of power in the country's capital Brasilia the federal police have been investigating illegal gold and how it's making its way into legitimate Supply chains where the forensic building of the federal police here in Brasilia here they have a room dedicated to Gold they can tell you where the gold comes from in the Amazon and if it comes from an illegal mine or not here they analyze gold that has been seized this gives you authorities a more accurate picture of the huge scale of the international illegal gold market hi hello how are you how you doing I'm good thank you all of this stuff has been confiscated in field operations right yes and how do you know I mean the weight is yeah wow it's about 800 grams yeah that's why right here and yeah they make it this small because it's easier to carry around if I took let's say these two that are real gold right and you put these in your pocket you're traveling with seventy thousand eighty thousand dollars yep a bit more that sounds about right it's the lack of checks in Brazil which makes it so easy to learn the illegal gold you'll extract the gold and heal uh you'll try to find like a an artisanal Miner that does have a license and then he'll say hey can you write me up a receipt saying that I got this gold from your prospect with with that receding hand he goes to a broker in the police's latest operation they used all their resources to track the golds entire Journey new technology can detect the origins of the gold and soon they hope they will have enough samples to know exactly where in Brazil Seas gold came from this is the kaiapo indigenous reservation the highlighted area agent Daniel leads large operations on the ground the scale of activity he and his colleagues have seen by satellite is huge in 2020 Brazil exported 110 tons of gold more than eight officially produced in legal Minds we can evaluate where this deforestation is happening more aggressively it it would indicate that they're using heavy machinery to do that so it helps us planning our actions in the field by analyzing five years of Records up to the middle of 2020 this team believes they've identified Brazilian companies dealing in Gold illegally including one called chm which police believe sourced nearly a ton of illegal gold from kayapo indigenous territory foreign gold from indigenous land or even illegal sources meanwhile chimet says that when it became aware of the police investigation it immediately discontinued its relationship with chm insisting its purchases were always accompanied by documentation attesting to the lawful origin of the metal this investigation presents a huge problem for tech companies trying to verify the gold in their products last year an investigative Outlet co-reported Brazil discovered the link between Chi met and various big Tech Giants including Apple a quick search on Apple's publicly available supply list shows that she met was and still is one of its various gold suppliers Apple says its responsible sourcing standards are the strongest in the industry and strictly prohibited the use of Legally mined minerals if a smelter or refiner is enabled or unwilling to meet its strict standards they remove them from their supply chain I just received a phone call from the federal police and they've told me that they are going to bust an illegal Gold Mine inside kayapo indigenous territory the mine is in the other side of the reserve in a remote location inhabited by tribes living in voluntary isolation the police said that they're going to bust the mine now because the rainy season is about to start and they will have to wait for months and that might be too late this is a huge operation a last chance before the roads to the mines float agent Daniel has flown from Brasilia to lead the meetings it's not just the minus reaction they have to worry about one false move on the terrain could be deadly [Music] the police set off in the middle of the night and we followed them it's a seven hour Journey at least not far in we see a vehicle that the police believe is used in the protected area it will be destroyed if they can prove it foreign further on we find more evidence what we see here is there is a road that goes to the indigenous Village and there's another road that goes into the illegal mine and we can see from the tracks that the machine came from the area the Liu mining area we have anticho land now we're driving through this pristine Forest through a road that was built by illegal miners you can actually see that the rainy season has already begun the roads have already flooded and our trucks get stuck along this route the police are only too aware of the divisions in the local population some make money from allowing illegal mining others feel helpless about the destruction of the land the police speak to a passing Village chief chief Peter is said the police were here last May and seized three diggers [Music] I don't know [Music] we finally move forward and around the corner the police stop a man who struck also got stuck they believe he's traveled from one of the mines wow we just found a bottle of mercury in there so uh in the car is incredibly heavy he has a motorbike and stuff there also to um to refine gold we have found a pistol in the magazine on the mud and there were some ammunition is he going to be detained yeah today of course yeah for sure why will they use this to protect themselves against thieves or to protect themselves against the police to impose to threaten people uh-huh you know propose order so and there is uh some some killings related to the gold some uh some crimes I noticed some frustration among the police about the lack of resources for this operation the new Brazilian president is more sympathetic to stop illegal mining but to do this properly the police say they need more funding and equipment we should have been on a helicopter here we've been stuck for nearly an hour now and uh there's a Race Against Time because obviously the police they don't want the miners to realize that they're on their way and we still have like at least 15 kilometers to go Road like this despite the police best attempts they decide that it's too treacherous to get to the mine no no there are probably people there now that are isolated if they don't get attracted to come here and rescue them they're gonna stay there until they're the end of the rains raining period so for three four months yeah probably and those people are like they are in slave-like condition probably this is what we see most of the times usually while the miners are stuck in the forest working the mine owners leave comfortable lives back in the city one of the reasons why you wanted to tackle this mine is because if you leave mine operations like this they can in a few years be yeah they will spread there is actually nothing really stopping them you know the indigenous populations are they are not United enough to do this our government so far wasn't able to put up the resources together to to fight this this kind of crime so in reality there is nothing really stopping them and you will be back of course we would back at the Village Davi holds a meeting with other Chiefs from the region about the gold industry they feel their own compensation from all those who profit according yeah foreign questions the future of the Amazon and its people remains extremely uncertain the police operation is expanding and Technology improving but as I found the resources are stretched there is hope that the new government will make this a high priority but it seems a distant dream that those exploited will get compensation meanwhile the tech companies buying gold from Brazil should now at least be aware that All That Glitters Is not necessarily legal gold [Music]

Channel: Unreported World

Views: 18,370

Keywords: Unreported world, unreported world documentary, unreported world, brazil, gold, amazon, gold mining, gold rush, illegal gold mining, investigation, police, Apple, tech, tech companies, world news, international news, business, pollution, environment, poisoning, food poisoning

Id: nkPOuxYS3Fk

Length: 23min 47sec (1427 seconds)

Published: Fri May 12 2023