In the Amazon, as elsewhere, gold mining doesn't just threaten rainforests. It is a severe threat to aquatic ecosystems, drowning streams and rivers with dense sediments and toxic mercury.
The mercury builds up in aquatic food chains -- increasing from aquatic plants to small animals to fish to larger predators -- with some Amazonian people now having 14 times the accepted level of mercuryin their bloodstreams.
As gold mining expands, so does its threat to indigenous peoples -- such as the Yanomami tribes in northern Brazil, the Kayapo people in the southern Brazilian Amazon, and many other remote tribes in Peruvian Amazonia.
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