Selling sex for gold in the Amazon’s illegal mines

It’s not unknown for women to be murdered in mining villages. The dead body of 26-year-old Raiele Santos was found last year in the room where she had been living near the Cuiú-Cuiú gold mine, 11 hours’ drive from Itaituba.

Her elder sister, Railane, says a man had offered her money for sex and she had refused, so he found her later and beat her to death.

“A lot of women die on a daily basis, a lot of women,” Railane says.

“I was born in the mines, I grew up in the mines, and now I’m afraid to live in the mines.”

A man has been arrested in connection with Raiele’s murder, but has not yet been tried. He denies all the charges against him.

The land covered by Brazil’s illegal gold mines more than doubled in the 10 years to 2023, to 220,000 hectares – an area larger than Greater London. No-one knows how many women work in this area, or even how many illegal miners there are. The Brazilian government says the latter figure could be anywhere from 80,000 to 800,000.

Under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the government has taken steps to close illegal mines and to stop dealers buying the gold they produce, but high gold prices continue to drive many men to try their luck.

Dayane wants to stop working in the mining areas because of the risks and the toll the hardship takes on her body, but she is planning what she hopes will be one last trip. Her goal is to earn enough in two or three months to open a snack bar on her return, though she realises she may not succeed.

Whenever she is alone, walking in the forest, she will worry about her children, she says.

“I will keep trying, until I can’t any more,” she says. “Because I think that one day, my children will say: ‘My mum worked so hard. She went through what she went through for us, and she never gave up.’”

Additional reporting by Mariana Schreiber, BBC Brasil

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