"Top Brazil gold exporter leaves a trail of criminal probes and illegal mines", 10 November 2021

...The mystery surrounding gold exports has been broken by an exclusive Repórter Brasil investigation that sheds light on the largest exporter of gold from Brazilian wildcat mines, known as garimpos. It reveals that some of the gold exported by a company known as BP Trading, one of Brazil’s top exporters, may have been of illegal origin, often clandestinely extracted from Indigenous lands and protected forests in the Amazon, causing irreversible social and environmental damage.

BP Trading saw strong growth in recent years...They are accused by the Federal Prosecution Service (MPF) of laundering money when they worked at Banco Paulista, a lender with close links to the trading company of the same initials. When contacted, BP Trading said that it “maintains strict controls over the origin of the mineral purchased from its suppliers”...

These two DTVMs, together with Ourominas, are the main buyers of illegal gold, accounting for more than 70% of all illegal or potentially illegal product, according to a recent study by the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in collaboration with federal prosecutors. Of all the metal bought by these companies in 2019 and 2020 in Pará, at least 60% have an origin that cannot be proven, the study says.

Based on these conclusions, prosecutors filed a public civil action in August, asking for the activities of these DTVMs to be suspended and demanding $2 billion as compensation for socioenvironmental damages...

In its response, BP Trading said the increase in the company’s profits is linked to “market factors” such as supply, price and scale. The company also called it “a necessary condition for its operations that the gold is accompanied by legally required documents.” BP Trading added that “Banco Paulista is just one of the banks in which it has a checking account.”

FD’Gold’s said that “it does not know the content of the lawsuit and the object of the charges [filed by prosecutors].” Carol DTVM said that it only buys gold from mining sites authorized by the National Mining Agency.

Ourominas said it has a “strict internal control system” to prevent buying illegal products and that it has not seen the details of the lawsuit. Read the full responses here...