Walls caked in murder victims’ blood & women raped at gunpoint… inside brutal goldmines supplying rings on YOUR finger
RAIELE was brutally raped and killed by an illegal gold mining group in her room deep in the Brazilian bush when she was barely 26 years old.
According to her sister Railane, she battled so hard for her life that her blood was all over the walls.
She refused to accompany him when he offered her money. He pursued her till he located her.
After all the beating that killed her, there were no bones or other remnants.
The unfortunate mother is among the numerous casualties of the South American country’s wild west gold rush.
Women in this area of the Amazon jungle run the risk of being beaten or killed by gold prospectors.
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The clandestine world of the illegal gold miners known as garimpos has been revealed by a recent BBC program.
Poor women who work in bars or as chefs are more likely to become prostitutes.
Additionally, some people who refuse to have sex with the guys are brutally murdered, as the new show Sex For Gold exposes.
Brazil’s government has been working to address the issue of illegal gold mining, which has resulted in deforestation and contaminated waterways with mercury used in the extraction process.
Raiele is not the only young woman who suffers because mining gangs are violent and well-armed.
The BBC 100 Women season’s World Service documentary exposes the horrifying lives of other laborers.
Sex workers slain deep in amazon rainforest
Violent Gangs
The mother of seven Dayane, 34, explains that she began working in the mines at the age of 12.
She worked as a cook, bartender, sex worker, and washerwoman.
When a miner threatened to shoot her, she fled in terror.
According to Dayane, the ladies there are severely humiliated and slapped across the face. There is a risk of assault for the women who work in bars.
When I told him I wasn’t going without money, a person burst through the door as I was sleeping in the bedroom and put a gun to my head.
They want to own women, and they pay.
Nevertheless, Dayane was thinking of going back to work in the mines to make enough cash to start her own company.
Known as Gold Nugget City, the brothels and bars in the mines close to Itaituba are merely wooden shacks.
The documentary team had to drive over eleven hours over dirt roads to reach the village.
“There is no one coming to help you if it rains and you get stuck,” producer Emma Ailes tells The Sun. Some of these ladies travel by boat or small plane to reach the mine, which is accessible by road.
It feels quite untamed and unruly.
The communities around the mines are as undeveloped as the highways leading to them, and they are far from civilized.
“The living conditions in those mines are really basic; they have to bring in a cooker and a generator for electricity, but you’re really living in the open air and next to an open bit mine,” Emma continues.
Malaria, mosquitoes, and a very difficult manner of living are all present.
Gold Rush
After obtaining the most valuable metal, the male miners return from the jungles, where they frequently operate in tiny groups with only one digger.
In these places, gold nuggets are utilized as money instead of cash since they are abundant.
Carranca, a Thai who discovered the exploitation, witnessed this firsthand in Itaituba.
“You’re probably going to pay in gold if you’re going to buy beer in a bar,” she says.
Some miners choose to use it for women’s close companionship.
According to brothel madam Natalia, sex workers can make as much money in a day as a minimum-wage Brazilian does in a month.
She has a large bed and an opulent, tiled bathroom.
“The girls who work dictate that I want to be paid in gold, one, two, or three grams,” says Natalia.
However, since my quota has been reached, she is also thinking about leaving.
Because working at the garimpos is too risky, Luanna, a friend of Raiele’s, chooses to work at the pubs in the city.
It’s said that you can’t get angry in the gold mines.
When you lose your rage over anything, they take you out and kill you there.
According to another sex worker, women are much more at risk in the mines than men are.
She remarks: I live in the mines and was born there, but I’m terrified to stay there anymore.
Every day, a greater number of women than males pass away.
Bloody bounty
In spite of this, many of the women who work in the mines are carrying on their mothers’ and grandmothers’ traditions.
The gold is their sole chance to spare their children from a similar fate, despite their desperate attempts to end this generational cycle.
Three-quarters of Brazil’s illicit gold is produced in the state of Par, where Itaituba is located.
The Escolhas Institute estimates that almost 74 million Brazilians are involved in the illicit trade, and a large portion of this bonanza ends up in Europe.
Emma said that a large portion of this also ends up in the UK.
“It’s the ring on your finger, it’s the gold in your phone,” she explains.
Unbeknownst to you, the gold has come from sources that support the cycle these ladies are living in.
The military and armed police have been dispatched by the authorities to destroy the apparatus and remove the hidden excavation.
Approximately half of the more than 4,470 wildcat mining locations in the Amazon are located in Brazil.
How much illegal gold is in the UK?
According to the think tank Instituto Escolhas, more than 90% of Brazil’s gold exports to Europe originate from regions with illicit miners.
Additionally, the UK is one of the top three buyers of Brazilian gold, along with Canada and Switzerland.
The illegal garimpos are small-scale, rudimentary activities, despite the fact that there are significant regions of industrial mining in Brazil that are legal and frequently state-funded.
According to a think tank report, 1.5 metric tons of gold worth over 73 million that were shipped to the EU may have been connected to the garimpos.
However, according to data from the World Wildlife Foundation, just 9.5% of Brazilian gold mining sites could be proven to be entirely legitimate.
In the UK, a large portion of the exchanged gold finds its way into jewelry and electronics.
Because supply chains are opaque, it is impossible to determine the precise amount of this gold that is linked to the illicit Amazonian mining.
Before reaching our shores, gold goes through a number of processes and is frequently combined with gold from other sources.
However, a large amount of gold is unavoidably linked to the exploitation and misery of the garimpos, given the high percentage of illegal gold going out of Brazil and the large amount of gold imported into the UK from Brazil.
Gold is frequently found on legally protected indigenous territories.
As part of Operation Greed, which aims to sever relationships with the illegal mining industry, Brazilian police have seized jewelry and expensive cars.
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However, with so much money to be earned, the risky business is unlikely to be eliminated.
Sex for Gold will be available on BBC iPlayer, BBC News Channel, and BBC World Service YouTube on Saturday, December 7, and Sunday, December 8.
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