Garimpeiro

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Garimpeiro is the name in Portuguese for mostly illegal and informal gold prospectors in the Brazilian Amazon . The term is also used for unauthorized diamond prospectors in Angola .

The informal extraction of gold and other precious metals or stones is subject to strong fluctuations, which are particularly determined by the world market price of gold. For example, the population of the municipality of Itaituba increased from 40,000 to 100,000 in one year (1984) due to a gold rush. In 1990 the number of Garimpeiros in Brazil was estimated at 400,000, spread over 2,000 “Garimpos” (mines).

In some cases, the informal extraction of gold is associated with serious social and ecological problems. In particular, the use of mercury to bind the gold ( amalgam process ) leads to pollution of the water - the metal accumulates in the food chain and thereby particularly damages the inhabitants of the banks, who mainly feed on fish. In the settlements of the Garimpeiros - often far away from developed settlements - the sanitary conditions are mostly precarious, diseases spread among the Garimpeiros as well as among the traditional population in the area - often indigenous peoples .

The Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado documented the situation in the Garimpos.

literature

  • Benno Kroll, photos: René Burri: Garimpeiro . In: Geo-Magazin. Hamburg 1978,5, pp. 82-98. ("In the Brazilian jungle on the Rio Tapajós, 12,000 poor devils are looking for gold."). ISSN  0342-8311

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