Brazilian Mining Agency Maintains Permits in Amazon Despite Gold Laundering Indicators

An investigation by InfoAmazonia found patterns of illegal gold laundering in the Tapajós River basin in Pará state. The report examined data from Brazil’s National Mining Agency, or ANM, and identified irregularities in mining permits known as Garimpeiro Mining Permits, or PLGs.

The contamination stems from mercury used in gold mining that enters the rivers and food chain, according to the research. Aleckson, who was born with cerebral palsy, requires continuous care and consumes fish from the Tapajós River like others in the Munduruku communities.

The PLGs were created in 1989 to regulate mining during the Tapajós gold rush. They were intended for small-scale, low-impact operations. Decades later, the permits are used for industrial-scale extraction involving heavy equipment, dredges and mercury, the investigation reported.

Oversight agencies have warned the ANM about irregular use of PLGs for more than a decade. In 2022, the Comptroller General of the Union uncovered illegalities in an audit. The following year, Operation Sisaque by Brazil’s Federal Police, Federal Revenue Service and Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office exposed a large gold-laundering scheme relying on PLGs in Tapajós.

In 2025, the Federal Court of Accounts identified structural flaws that enable gold of illegal origin to be legalized. Between 2022 and 2026, of the 540 PLGs that declared gold sales in the Tapajós River basin, nearly half, or 263, showed no evidence of extraction consistent with the reported volumes.

This suggests the permits may be used to launder gold extracted illegally elsewhere. Roughly 70 percent of the mining activity in the region lies within 10 kilometers of the PLGs that declared gold production. Nearly 60 percent of the gold from legalized mining in Brazil has passed through a Tapajós PLG over the past four years.

The declared production in the basin during that period totaled $2.03 billion, or 10 billion Brazilian reais. The information comes from the VEIO platform, developed by InfoAmazonia in partnership with Instituto Dados and with support from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

The platform cross-references mining and deforestation data with mineral production taxes and gold export figures. PLGs allow gold to be declared as legally sourced and enter the formal market with a stamp of legitimacy. Without them, gold from illegal operations would require transport through clandestine routes, often across borders.

Selzler, president of the Minuano Cooperative of Miners and Prospectors, previously headed the Cooperativa dos Garimpeiros do Brasil. Members of that cooperative were investigated in Operation Sisaque for gold laundering. Selzler reported selling $548,780, or 2.7 million Brazilian reais, in gold in 2023 through a PLG whose area shows no signs of extraction.

Minuano, founded in 2022, began declaring production in 2024. It has declared roughly $9.76 million, or 48 million Brazilian reais, in gold production linked to two PLGs inside the Tapajós Environmental Protection Area. The cooperative operates there without authorization from the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, or ICMBio.

The declared volume in these PLGs exceeds by a factor of 10 the extraction estimates from studies, which suggest around 20 grams of gold per hectare explored. The two PLGs are part of eight held by the cooperative inside the protected area. Seven are contiguous along the Creporizinho River.

Satellite images show the operation functions as an integrated whole despite being divided into parcels of up to 50 hectares, the maximum allowed under an ANM resolution issued in 2025. This arrangement allows large-scale extraction under simplified environmental requirements issued by the city government of Itaituba.

Mining has altered the river’s course. Danicley Aguiar, coordinator of Greenpeace Brasil’s Indigenous Peoples Front, said the PLG is a “sham document” that sustains the system. “It is environmentally impossible for these permits to meet even minimal conditions.

Yet they continue to exist because they are part of a structural problem,” he stated. The investigation indicates that decisions and omissions by the Brazilian government have contributed to the ongoing mercury contamination affecting Indigenous communities in the Sawre Muybu territory and neighboring areas.