Illegal Mining, ‘Worse Than at Any Other Time,’ Threatens Amazon, Study Finds

Analyzing data from six Amazon countries, researchers identified 2,312 illegal mining sites and 245 large-scale areas where miners have established sophisticated infrastructure, tearing down native forests and contaminating rivers with mercury as they dredge for gold and extract diamonds and coltan, which are used to make mobile phones.
read more... https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/10/world/americas/amazon-illegal-mining.html