Kayapo Chief Plans Operation to Remove Wildcat Gold Miners from Bau Indigenous Territory

Indigenous chief Bepdjo Mekragnotire is preparing to lead Kayapo warriors into the Bau Indigenous Territory in Para state to remove wildcat gold miners. Bepdjo, 45, spoke on May 21 in the village of Pykany inside the Menkragnoti Indigenous Territory. He said his group will enter without knowing exact numbers of miners.

“We don’t know how many prospectors are inside, we just get there and see,” he said. Four years earlier the Kayapo expelled almost 200 prospectors from the same area. In February guns were drawn when Bepdjo’s group encountered miners in a canoe; the warriors removed 24 people.

Bepdjo said high gold prices drive repeated incursions. “The miners are stubborn. They enter by any means. Because today the price of gold is very high,” he said. ” Jair Schmitt, acting president of IBAMA, said the agency concentrates on territories facing the most critical situations because it cannot maintain a presence everywhere.

He added that confronting organized crime groups is the greatest difficulty. Nilton Tubino, appointed by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government to protect Indigenous territories, described a “new gold rush” pushing miners deeper into the jungle. In the past three years IBAMA has destroyed more than 690 excavators, 1,300 barges and 80 aircraft worth almost $800 million.

Amazon Mining Watch reported that 223,000 hectares were affected by mining in Brazil from 2018 to 2025, nearly 80 percent of it illegal. The Escolhas Institute said Brazil produced 71 tons of gold in 2025, exported mainly to Canada, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

On May 28 or 29 the United States designated the Primeiro Comando da Capital and Comando Vermelho as terrorist organizations after both expanded operations into the Amazon.

Larissa Rodrigues of the Escolhas Institute said gold previously exported openly is now smuggled through Guyana or Venezuela. Danicley de Aguiar of Greenpeace Brazil said gold taken from protected areas is likely laundered through “ghost mines” that hold permits but show no extraction activity.

Fernando Lucas, president of the Federation of Gold Miners’ Cooperatives in Para, said many miners want legal operations but face regulatory barriers and called for an organized, sustainable model.

Takagmoro Kaiapo, 25, son of the former chief, described internal divisions. Some residents moved across the river after disputes over mining. He said miners offer money, cars and other incentives that tempt young people.