Case Study: Is the Gold Mining Industry in Brazil a Crime of the Powerful?

Introduction:

There has been a trail of destruction and harm following the gold mining industry in Brazil to fuel the huge production quotas of big tech and the luxurious lifestyle of the global north. As this study will explore, harm is deeply rooted in this industry and has had dire consequences for the local indigenous people and the Amazon itself. Meanwhile, until recently, there is minimal accountability or effort to minimise these harms and protect those affected.

There are multiple definitions of crimes, and different categories that those crimes can fall in to. It is important to note that each definition may have its own advantages and shortcomings and so this case study will explore gold mining in Brazil through these different frameworks and find out which is the most useful to apply. Before that, however, it is important to give a brief overview of the structure and hierarchy of the industry.

Gold Mining in Brazil:

The path for illegal gold from Brazilian mines to the consumer is a complex one. This is part of the problem as there are multiple actors and stages at which accountability for the trail of illegal gold could be found. This section will give a brief and simplified overview of the structure to later inform the sociological analysis of the harms and responsibilities of each party involved.

Firstly, illegal mining operations will employ wildcat miners to encroach on protected areas and indigenous lands to extract the metal from the ground. Due to its inherent illegality, this process is unregulated, harmful and begins the trail of harm that the gold leaves behind. Many issues arrive at this stage including: deforestation, pollution, rise in disease for locals, armed violence, drug trafficking, murder and sexual exploitation[1]. It is at this stage of the mining process that the most tangible and obvious harms are committed.

Once the product has been extracted, it is sold to DTVMs (Distribuidoras de Títulos e Valores Mobiliários, or dealers of bonds and securities), who are the only organisations authorised by the bank to purchase gold from wildcat mines. There are virtually no controls over these companies, to the point that the metals origin is self-declared and there is no further certification or evidence required. It is at this point that the systems allow the illegal gold to be laundered into the general supply of gold. A recent report from Instituto Escolhas[2] estimates that 229 tons of suspected illegal gold were sold in Brazil between 2015 and 2020, and that around half of the gold produced in Brazil has illegal origins.

From here, the gold can be distributed across the globe to any buyers. The tech and jewellery industries are key buyers of gold, and therefore are enabling the horrors that are committed in order to supply their products. Their structures and rules make the laundering of this gold easy and commonplace in order to maximise profits. Finally, the consumer is the last in this chain of actors, often unintentionally complicit in the process but nonetheless another part of the problem.

Throughout all these stages, there are countless harms being committed. First, there is the environmental impact of the mining. This includes deforestation, loss of biodiversity, contamination of water sources and more[3]. This damage is not localised to the site of the mine either, as there are thousands of kilometres of roads connecting the mines[4] and illegal airstrips[5] which also require deforestation. Furthermore, the use of mercury to separate the metal from the sediment is harmful both to the environment and the locals[6]. Studies have found that the Yanomami tribe in Brazil have higher levels of mercury[7], likely due to mining, and that even consuming fish caught near mining areas can increase these levels[8]. This can lead to cognitive issues and other health complications.

The indigenous peoples near the mines also experience other kinds of harm. Alongside the exposure to disease[9], the miners often attack the indigenous people to prevent resistance against their mining operations[10]. Even when the attacks and violence are not implicit, the presence of the miners themselves can intimidate the locals into no longer entering certain areas, restricting their communications, foraging and hunting[11]. This also continues the illegal dispossession of their land and the threats to their ways of life. It is the indigenous peoples of the Amazon in Brazil who bear the brunt of the harms caused by the gold mining industry. Unfortunately, due to the indigenous ways of life and the obstacles to accountability that the gold mining process presents, specific incidents are less likely to be reported and examined. This is one of the reasons that the law is not capable of adequate remedy and why this case study will explore the situation through multiple sociological frameworks to identify general harms and failings instead of specific instances.

From this brief and simplified overview, we can identify the key actors which create the chain of illegal gold mining and distribution and the resulting harms. The illegal miners, the DTVMs, the corporations who buy the gold and the consumer. Also central to the industry is the Brazilian state, whose legislation enables and encourages this process. As a result of all these actors, pinpointing the specific harms, responsibility and crimes can be difficult. This is why this study will employ the different frameworks used to investigate the crimes of the powerful to highlight the crimes and accountability and expose the industry for what it is.

Organised Crime:

A good starting point to inspect the crimes of the gold industry would seem to be to focus in on the party which appears to cause the most obvious harm, the illegal miners. This would also have the advantage of aligning with the conception of crime as being an action which is against the laws of the state and so the traditional legal avenue could be used as a remedy. However, there are some key drawbacks to this approach as well.

To explore the advantages and disadvantages of applying this framework it is important to explore the development of the idea of organised crime. Traditional ideas about organised crime focused on need to clarify the meaning of the term ‘organised crime’ and settled on three key dimensions[12].

• Organised crime is concerned with the provision of illegal goods and services
• Organised crime is mostly predatory crimes which are planned, co-ordinated and repeated with multiple perpetrators
• Organised crime has a close relationship between the overworld and underworld

There are some advantages to applying this same thinking to the gold mining industry in Brazil. Firstly, we can envision the underworld as the illegal mining operations and wildcat mines and the overworld as the corporations and state which help to launder and sell the illegal gold. This allows us to separate the actors and therefore the contributing actions which lead to the harms. Most of the direct violence can be attributed to the underworld and the political and corporate parties are highlighted as parties which aid in this violence through their actions. Deconstructing the situation in this way can help identify which actors and actions should be prevented, highlight the intentional nature of the process and consider more than just direct actions which lead to harm.

However, there are also key limitations of this definition in terms of this case study. Firstly, gold itself is not an illegal product and only some mining operations are illegal. This highlights the first problem of this framework; since gold is not always an illegal product, how is it decided when the mining of it is classed as a crime? The simple answer is to follow the laws of the state, but if we consider that the state is part of the enabling overworld it would be totally irrational to rely upon its own definitions of crime. For example, as will be explored when further examining the role of the state, Jair Bolsonaro’s government has drafted and pushed through a plethora of legislation to attempt the legalisation of mining of indigenous land, weaken the power of environmental agencies and reduced fines for environmental harms[13]. This traditional definition neglects to consider the position of the state in both defining crime and partaking in organised crime.

Therefore, to better understand the role of the state, Woodiwiss’ approached the issue of organized crime by exploring the systems that had created the opportunity for the industry[14]. For example, the extent to which the US driven globalisation created the perfect conditions for organised crime. Instead of focusing on defining organised crime, it can instead be beneficial to consider what has enabled these crimes. For gold mining, this has the same advantages of being able to consider the roles of the state and corporations but de-emphasises the role of the ‘illegal’ actors. This allows the theory to step outside of the restrictions of state-defined illegality and take a more zemiological approach to exploring crime.

This then allows us to understand that the focus is better placed on the enabling factors of the overworld than the actors in the underworld. For example, one of the key issues in this area is the lack of regulation, which has been encouraged by the expansion of neoliberal capitalism. The companies have largely been trusted to self-regulate and so the result is a system where disclosure of origin is a matter of trust and easy to abuse. This is also a reality that has been encouraged by state-regulation, or the lack thereof.

Secondly, we can understand that the problem is of a systemic nature. The organised crime element of the gold mining industry exists as a product of capitalism and its ideas. In fact, one of the many issues with capitalism is the idea that the inevitable over-accumulation of capital will lead to geographical expansion to exploit new areas, also known as the ‘spatial fix’[15]. This has been developed and understood through the lens of organised crimes to describe the idea that globalisation has led to the spreading of neoliberal ideas of crime across the globe to normalise certain types of crime, the laundering of gold for example, but to criminalise others such as the activities of the wildcat miners. This theory shows the importance of considering who is defining crime and links back to the idea that the very roots of organised crime centre on certain types of activities. It also highlights the globalised and borderless nature of organised crime, as it is not just Brazil that faces a crisis of illegal gold mining but a large amount of the Amazon. For example, the impact of gold mining in Colombia has been explored previously[16].

So, when considering the gold mining industry in Brazil through the sociology of organised crime there are some key takeaways. Firstly, this lens is limited in offering a solution to the crimes of the industry other than sweeping changes to reverse the perfect climate that neoliberal capitalism has created for organised crime to thrive. Secondly, it is imperative to understand that the state and elites often lead the narrative when it comes to defining crime and do so to suit their agenda and enable their ordinary business to be conducted outside of the common understanding of crime. Once we understand this, we can then apply a more zemiological approach to understanding crime by the harm that has been caused and follow Woodiwiss in exploring the wider factors that enable organised crime and remove the focus from the individual actors and perpetrators. In other words, the focus should be on exposing the overworld to simultaneously disempower the underworld. Following this, it seems vital to analyse the roles of the corporate actors and the state in the gold mining industry.

Gold Mining as a Corporate Crime:

To define what constitutes corporate crime, Tombs and Whyte created a list of offences that fit into this category[17]. This involves corporate theft and fraud, crimes against consumers, crimes against workers and crimes against the environment. From the harms mentioned in the first section of this case study, we can see that perhaps the most applicable category here is crimes against the environment from the impact of the mining. However, there seems to be no category in which the harms caused to the indigenous peoples of the amazon can fit. This shows a limitation to this conception of corporate crime. There is undoubtedly a crime being committed by the corporations in funding the illegal miners who create these harms, but it would not be recognised by Tombs and Whyte. It seems important that third parties can be recognised as victims of corporate crime to ensure that companies can be held accountable in industries such as this.

The corporate actors in gold mining can be separated into the DTVMs and the corporations who buy and use the gold. This section will analyse the differences and similarities in responsibility between the two groups.

In Brazil, the law dictates that newly mined metal needs to be transported and commercialized through a legally authorized institution which is called a DTVM. In theory, these DTVMs can only buy gold from land that is authorised but the reality is that the responsibility for authentication is on the sellers and there is a presumption of legality. Similarly to organised crime, the sociology of corporate crime teaches not to look at the bad actors who create the harm, but the wider factors which enable this. Pearce further separated these wider factors as first and second order causes[18]. A first order cause is an empirical and identifiable factor which leads to a crime, where a second order cause is less tangible and underlying process. In this situation, the intentional lack of authentication for legal gold fits neatly into Pearce’s idea of a first order cause. This allows it to be viewed not as some accidental loophole which is exploited by a few bad actors, but rather seeing that it is the result of the combined efforts of the state and the corporations to make the laundering of illegal gold easy, cheap and accessible. This is an important step in holding the companies accountable for their actions applying pressure to increase the scrutiny in the industry.

The next step would be to look at why the companies are able to get away with such inadequate checks and examine the second order causes in Brazil which have allowed this industry to thrive through crime. Central to this is the profit motive that is viewed as the prime directive of a corporation. The DTVMs can export more gold and make more money if they accept gold from illegitimate sources by not asking any questions about its origin, so why would it not? Further to this, across the globe there is the lack of adequate information or coverage about the harm caused by this process and this results in the uninformed complicity of the consumer across the globe. This is where the application of sociological frameworks can help to shine a light on the harms and the reasons for the harm to combat this lack of awareness.

In some cases, however, there is intentional ignorance to this reality. This is arguably the case for the tech industry and other companies who buy the gold from the DTVMs. In some jurisdictions, these huge companies are forced to disclose their suppliers[19] and there are visible links to the illegal gold market. The first order causes for these companies are their own internal structures which allow for this sourcing of gold. This includes internal pressure to supply the product, a lack of training or awareness to avoid illegal gold and the amount of gold required for the products. The aforementioned second order causes also apply here, showing that the responsibilities for the crimes committed in the gold market can be equally attributed to both the DTVMs and the multitude of companies that buy from them.

This separation of first and second order causes offers more framework for finding solutions to the crimes committed in this industry. The specific first order causes can be acted upon, such as shifting the burden for the authentication of origin of the gold onto the DTVMs and the companies who buy from them. The individual companies could also have their structures analysed to suggest specific reforms to each one. The second order causes can then be understood to guide wider societal change. However, for all these solutions some state involvement would be required as companies have consistently proven that they cannot be relied upon to self-regulate when it would interfere with their profit motive. At the same time, the state is equally complicit in this industry as the legislation is highly permissive with those who falsify gold’s origin, thus exempting buyers from any responsibility.

As a result, it is important to view the situation as a state-corporate crime to understand the extent of the role of the state before relying upon it for solutions.

Gold mining as a State-Corporate Crime:

The Brazilian state has, both through its policies and negligence, played a key role in shaping the gold mining industry into the harmful sector that it is today. In president Jair Bolsonaro’s government alone there was a pattern of policies which[20]:

• weakened environmental protection agencies
• defunded environmental protection agencies
• reduced fines for environmental crimes
• attempted legalisation of mining on Indigenous land

To explore why it would do so, it is important to consider Tilly’s[21] work which shows that the modern nation state formed alongside the rise of capitalism and so should be viewed as a capitalist, classed state. Whilst the state presents itself as neutral, it is biased towards the interests of capital. This not only allows an understanding as to why the state facilitates the many harms of the gold mining industry but also explains how the state will always refuse to identify the harms committed and label them as crimes as this would conflict with the interests of capital and hinder the primitive accumulation of the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon.

However, in the face of this theory Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva just won the election in Brazil and he labelled Bolsonaro’s governments actions in enabling the gold mining in the Amazon as a genocide[22]. Does this mean there will be change and that the state can pioneer it? The government has already revoked a Bolsonaro decree that allowed for ‘artisanal mining’ of gold on indigenous land[23] but this is far from solving the problem. The state cannot act to fix the problem alone whilst is borne out of the specific political climate and structures of the modern nation state. Furthermore, the lobbying of the mining industry will always work against positive change.

So, the crimes of the gold mining industry should be understood as being committed both by the corporations involved and the state. Kramer and Michalowski noticed that the crimes of the powerful research had separated crime based on which of these parties were responsible but often both parties were involved[24]. The crimes of the gold mining industry fit into their definition of a state-facilitated corporate crime, as they exist due to the failure of the government regulatory institutions to restrain deviant business activities. They argued that this occurred either because of direct co-operation between the parties or because they simply had shared interests and goals. Michalowski and Kramer labelled described these motives as catalysts for action and separated them into pressures of goal attainment, the availability and attractiveness of illegality and the absence of social control mechanisms. Here, both parties are interested in maximising profit and meeting global demand for gold. As a result, they have often colluded to maintain the industry in its unregulated state. This results in an identifiable crossover in motive between the state and corporations which can be targeted to prevent the crimes.

As a result, viewing the crimes of the industry as state crimes highlights the idea that the state will always be unable to remedy to the failures and crimes of the gold mining industry as it is biased towards the interests of capital. Whilst recent progress has been made, further action is needed if there is to be real and lasting change. Viewing the issue as a state-corporate crime then shows that the crimes exist because of the aligned goals of the state and the corporations, leaving a few key factors which create the climate for the crimes to occur.

Conclusion:

Unfortunately, this leaves this study to conclude that the criminal underworld, the corporations and the state are all unable to regulate the industry and prevent the multitude of harms it commits. So how can the industry change? The sociology of state-corporate crime appears to point most clearly to what change is needed: a reduction in the availability and attraction of illegal gold mining, reduced pressure to meet such high demands and more social control mechanisms. The continuing problem, however, is how to bring about these changes without relying on the state and corporations themselves. The state cannot be trusted to enforce stricter regulation, the corporations will always operate by pressuring itself to produce evermore and the social control mechanisms do not exist at the combined will of the state and the capitalist elite.

One area that this study did not explore was the colonial history of the gold mining industry in Brazil. In fact, Brazil’s colonial and modern history is deeply interconnected to the production and export of gold[25]. The historical Portuguese control of the industry and the legal demands for one fifth of the gold[26] would certainly fit into Atile’s framework for the analysis of colonial crimes but would seem to provide little recourse that is relevant in preventing the modern harms of the industry. However, I suggest that the catalysts for action identified by the state-corporate crime model could be traced back to the colonial industry. If the demand for the product and lack of social control could be attributed in part to the colonial powers, this would then also position the modern global north as responsible for the current crimes of the industry. Equally, the global north is arguably in the best position to accept responsibility and work towards a more ethical consumption and understanding of the industry, forcing it to change by altering the catalysts for action. Boycotts could reduce the allure of illegal mining; widespread awareness could lead to stricter social control mechanisms; and a more ethical approach to consumption could lower the pressures for goal attainment.

Therefore, the solution to the crimes of the gold mining industry in Brazil may be to look outside of the actors within the state and examine the wider structures which facilitated and created the industry as it is. Perhaps the actors who are most able to initiate change are the citizens of the global north who are the main consumers of the gold. Combining their responsibility with the insights of the state-corporate crime framework highlights a path to a more ethical gold mining industry in Brazil and help to hold the powerful to account for their crimes.

References:

Andreoni M and others, ‘The Illegal Airstrips Bringing Toxic Mining to Brazil’s Indigenous Land’ The New York Times (2 August 2022) <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/02/world/americas/brazil-airstrips-illegal-mining.html> accessed 17 April 2023

Ashe K, ‘Elevated Mercury Concentrations in Humans of Madre de Dios, Peru’ (2012) 7 PLOS ONE e33305

Barak G (ed), The Routledge International Handbook of the Crimes of the Powerful (1st edition, Routledge 2015) <https://www.vlebooks.com/Product/Index/628978?page=0>

‘Blood Gold: Complicity in Destruction V | Amazon Watch’ (19 September 2022) <https://amazonwatch.org/news/2022/0919-blood-gold-complicity-in-destruction-v> accessed 7 March 2023

‘Brazil’s Illegal Gold Rush Is Fueling Corruption, Violent Crime and Deforestation’ (Mongabay Environmental News, 14 January 2022) <https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/brazils-illegal-gold-rush-is-fueling-corruption-violent-crime-and-deforestation/> accessed 8 March 2023

Costa MA da and Rios FJ, ‘The Gold Mining Industry in Brazil: A Historical Overview’ (2022) 148 Ore Geology Reviews 105005

Elton C, ‘Brazil: Illegal Mining Has Caused Indigenous “Genocide”, Lula Says’ (euronews, 23 January 2023) <https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/01/23/brazil-president-lula-accuses-bolsonaro-of-genocide-after-gold-mining-causes-indigenous-de> accessed 7 March 2023

Gerson J, ‘Gold Mining Is Poisoning Amazon Forests with Mercury’ (Scientific American) <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gold-mining-is-poisoning-amazon-forests-with-mercury/> accessed 17 April 2023

‘Gold Mining And Violence In The Amazon Rainforest’ <https://forensic-architecture.org//investigation/gold-mining-and-violence-in-the-amazon-rainforest> accessed 7 March 2023

Harvey D, ‘Globalization and the “Spatial Fix”’

‘How Gold Mining in Brazil Is Connected to Hundreds of Deaths – DW – 01/26/2023’ (dw.com) <https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-how-gold-mining-is-connected-to-hundreds-of-deaths/a-64526442> accessed 7 March 2023

‘In Brazilian Amazon, Mining Harm Comes from beyond Just the Mines, Study Shows’ (Mongabay Environmental News, 24 November 2022) <https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/in-brazilian-amazon-mining-harm-comes-from-beyond-just-the-mines-study-shows/> accessed 17 April 2023

Instituto Escolhas, ‘Raio X Do Ouro: Mais de 200 Toneladas Podem Ser Ilegais’ (2022) <https://www.escolhas.org/wp-co... uploads/Gold-under-the-microscope-more-than-200-tons-of-brazilian-gold-are-potentially-illegal.pdf>

Instituto Socioambiental, ‘Yanomami Under Attack: Illegal Mining on Yanomami Yndigenous Land and Proposals to Combat It’ (2021) <https://acervo.socioambiental.org/sites/default/files/documents/yad00613_en.pdf>

Lampe KV, Organized Crime: Analyzing Illegal Activities, Criminal Structures, and Extra-Legal Governance (1st edition, SAGE Publications, Inc 2015)

‘Lula Tightens Brazil’s Gun Controls and Curbs Gold Mining in Amazon’ Financial Times (2 January 2023)

Michalowski RJ and Kramer RC (eds), State-Corporate Crime: Wrongdoing at the Intersection of Business and Government (None ed edition, Rutgers University Press 2006)

Pearce F and Tombs S, Toxic Capitalism: Corporate Crime and the Chemical Industry (1st edition, Routledge 2020)

Siqueira-Gay J and others, ‘Strategic Planning to Mitigate Mining Impacts on Protected Areas in the Brazilian Amazon’ (2022) 5 Nature Sustainability 853

Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States, A.D. 990-1990 (1st edition, Wiley-Blackwell 1993)

Tombs S and Whyte D, The Corporate Criminal: Why Corporations Must Be Abolished (1st edition, Routledge 2015)

Vega CM and others, ‘Human Mercury Exposure in Yanomami Indigenous Villages from the Brazilian Amazon’ (2018) 15 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 1051

Woodiwiss M, Gangster Capitalism: The United States and the Global Rise of Organized Crime (Constable 2005)

[1] ‘Blood Gold: Complicity in Destruction V | Amazon Watch’ (19 September 2022) <https://amazonwatch.org/news/2022/0919-blood-gold-complicity-in-destruction-v> accessed 7 March 2023.

[2] Instituto Escolhas, ‘Raio X Do Ouro: Mais de 200 Toneladas Podem Ser Ilegais’ (2022) <https://www.escolhas.org/wp-co... uploads/Gold-under-the-microscope-more-than-200-tons-of-brazilian-gold-are-potentially-illegal.pdf>.

[3] Juliana Siqueira-Gay and others, ‘Strategic Planning to Mitigate Mining Impacts on Protected Areas in the Brazilian Amazon’ (2022) 5 Nature Sustainability 853.

[4] ‘In Brazilian Amazon, Mining Harm Comes from beyond Just the Mines, Study Shows’ (Mongabay Environmental News, 24 November 2022) <https://news.mongabay.com/2022/11/in-brazilian-amazon-mining-harm-comes-from-beyond-just-the-mines-study-shows/> accessed 17 April 2023.

[5] Manuela Andreoni and others, ‘The Illegal Airstrips Bringing Toxic Mining to Brazil’s Indigenous Land’ The New York Times (2 August 2022) <https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/08/02/world/americas/brazil-airstrips-illegal-mining.html> accessed 17 April 2023.

[6] Jacqueline Gerson, ‘Gold Mining Is Poisoning Amazon Forests with Mercury’ (Scientific American) <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gold-mining-is-poisoning-amazon-forests-with-mercury/> accessed 17 April 2023.

[7] Claudia M Vega and others, ‘Human Mercury Exposure in Yanomami Indigenous Villages from the Brazilian Amazon’ (2018) 15 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 1051.

[8] Katy Ashe, ‘Elevated Mercury Concentrations in Humans of Madre de Dios, Peru’ (2012) 7 PLOS ONE e33305.

[9] ‘How Gold Mining in Brazil Is Connected to Hundreds of Deaths – DW – 01/26/2023’ (dw.com) <https://www.dw.com/en/brazil-how-gold-mining-is-connected-to-hundreds-of-deaths/a-64526442> accessed 7 March 2023.

[10] ‘Gold Mining And Violence In The Amazon Rainforest’ <https://forensic-architecture.org//investigation/gold-mining-and-violence-in-the-amazon-rainforest> accessed 7 March 2023.

[11] Instituto Socioambiental, ‘Yanomami Under Attack: Illegal Mining on Yanomami Yndigenous Land and Proposals to Combat It’ (2021) <https://acervo.socioambiental.org/sites/default/files/documents/yad00613_en.pdf>.

[12] Klaus Von Lampe, Organized Crime: Analyzing Illegal Activities, Criminal Structures, and Extra-Legal Governance (1st edition, SAGE Publications, Inc 2015).

[13] ‘Gold Mining And Violence In The Amazon Rainforest’ (n 10).

[14] Michael Woodiwiss, Gangster Capitalism: The United States and the Global Rise of Organized Crime (Constable 2005).

[15] David Harvey, ‘Globalization and the “Spatial Fix”’.

[16] Gregg Barak (ed), The Routledge International Handbook of the Crimes of the Powerful (1st edition, Routledge 2015) Chapter 27 <https://www.vlebooks.com/Product/Index/628978?page=0>.

[17] Steve Tombs and David Whyte, The Corporate Criminal: Why Corporations Must Be Abolished (1st edition, Routledge 2015).

[18] Frank Pearce and Steve Tombs, Toxic Capitalism: Corporate Crime and the Chemical Industry (1st edition, Routledge 2020).

[19] ‘Blood Gold: Complicity in Destruction V | Amazon Watch’ (n 1).

[20] ‘Gold Mining And Violence In The Amazon Rainforest’ (n 10).

[21] Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States, A.D. 990-1990 (1st edition, Wiley-Blackwell 1993).

[22] Charlotte Elton, ‘Brazil: Illegal Mining Has Caused Indigenous “Genocide”, Lula Says’ (euronews, 23 January 2023) <https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/01/23/brazil-president-lula-accuses-bolsonaro-of-genocide-after-gold-mining-causes-indigenous-de> accessed 7 March 2023.

[23] ‘Lula Tightens Brazil’s Gun Controls and Curbs Gold Mining in Amazon’ Financial Times (2 January 2023).

[24] Raymond J Michalowski and Ronald C Kramer (eds), State-Corporate Crime: Wrongdoing at the Intersection of Business and Government (None ed edition, Rutgers University Press 2006).

[25] ‘Brazil’s Illegal Gold Rush Is Fueling Corruption, Violent Crime and Deforestation’ (Mongabay Environmental News, 14 January 2022) <https://news.mongabay.com/2022/01/brazils-illegal-gold-rush-is-fueling-corruption-violent-crime-and-deforestation/> accessed 8 March 2023.

[26] Marco Aurélio da Costa and Francisco Javier Rios, ‘The Gold Mining Industry in Brazil: A Historical Overview’ (2022) 148 Ore Geology Reviews 105005.