Brazil's mining agency let wildcat miners use legal permits to launder illegal Amazon gold, federal auditors found

In Acórdão 1469/2025 (2 July 2025) Brazil's Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) found that the National Mining Agency (ANM) automatically renews small-scale gold-mining permits (PLGs), does not sanction holders who never start or report extraction, and does not cross-check annual mining reports against gold-purchase invoices, letting gold mined illegally, including on Indigenous lands, be passed off as legal. The TCU ordered ANM to begin, within 90 days, proceedings to cancel permits where an individual's total permitted area exceeds the 50-hectare legal limit and to computerize gold-origin records within 180 days, and opened ongoing monitoring.