Amazon feels damage from illegal gold mines long after miners leave

Garimpeiros, or illegal gold miners, have set up aisles in the rainforest in the western Brazilian state of Para. Photos: dpa

Standing in a deep pit, the men are up to their knees in mud. They spray the walls with water from hoses, while one of them sucks up the loose material. A generator rattles.

A pump transports the water to the top, where it pours over a scaffolding that is covered with a carpet and forms a slide. Metre after metre, they hose down the muddy brown ground in the tropical heat, 12 hours a day, for one month.