Brazil

Estimates of the size of the Brazilian ASM sector vary significantly from more than one million ASM gold miners in 1989 to between 75,000 and 860,000 today¹, producing gold, diamonds and development minerals. In 2001, 30% of Brazil’s gold mining production came from ASM.² Since the 1970s the ASM sector has experienced a strong growth as a viable livelihood alternative, while at the same time receiving much attention for the widespread misuse of mercury in the Brazilian Amazon Basin. Brazil hosts the largest deposits of tantalum in the world, with marginal production levels coming from ASM³.