Transformations in artisanal and small-scale gold mining work and production structures in the tapajós region of Brazil's amazon

Abstract

Currently, artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), known in the Brazilian Amazon as “garimpagem”, generates direct income for approximately 35,000 gold miners in the Tapajos region. Most of the gold mining sites are located in the Pará cities of Itaituba, Jacareacanga and Novo Progresso, operating various technical and organizational structures that require distinct levels of capital and technological investments, constituting a complex commercial supply chain of services, inputs and equipment on a regional national and international scale based on the commercialization of gold, which in most cases is negotiated under informal and illegal conditions. The main objective of this ethnographic research is to analyze the predominant model of mining production used in the region in consolidation with the use of backhoe technology in the production process, focusing on the relations and working conditions of small miners. The results of this research are to understand and describe how the productive structures that currently exploit gold in the Tapajos region are organized under what conditions the small miners extract the ore from the Amazonian soil.