Philip Poupin: Gold Under Foot

A forest area in Brazil has been burned on purpose to be cleared for farming. Grass will be planted to make meadows. The extension of agriculture is one of the causes of the deforestation of the Amazon: the money earned by selling gold is reinvested in agriculture and cattle raising.

In the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, some men dig the sandy earth using a firehose. The mud will then be pumped through another pipe that carries it onto carpets where gold particles are collected.

A young gold digger pans to find gold in a pit more than 25 meters (82 ft.) deep.

The garimpo do Juma, "the gold mine of the Juma River," spreads over 10 hectares (25 acres) and was hollowed out to 25 meters (82 feet) deep. Deforestation, a consequence of mining, is irreversible.