10 Illegal Mining Camps Are Dismantled in the Brazilian Amazon

On Monday, the Brazilian Federal Police announced that it had destroyed ten illegal mining camps during a four-day operation in the the Amazon basin.

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The operation focused on an "environmental devastation scenario" equivalent to 118 football fields, located in the Campos Amazonicos National Park and the Tenharim Marmelos Indigenous Land in the northern state of Rondonia.

The Police stated that two hydraulic excavators, 11 drainage motors, 4 power generators, and 8 vehicles were destroyed, with a total value of US$1.6 million, but no arrests were reported.

Twenty federal officers, eight officials from the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Preservation, and two aircraft from this organization, participated in the operation.

During the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro's government (2019-2023), illegal mining experienced significant expansion throughout the entire Amazon region, contaminating rivers with mercury and threatening the livelihoods of Indigenous peoples.

Two weeks ago, Justice Minister Flavio Dino declared that there has been a "continuous operation" against illegal mining since January, resulting in the destruction of 323 camps and the blocking of approximately US$400 million from accounts linked to this activity.

The Yanomami ethnic reserve has been one of the main fronts in this fight, with 200 camps dismantled and nearly 20,000 miners expelled in the first three months of the year.