The Brazilian Federal Police on Tuesday inaugurated a laboratory for scientific analysis to trace the origin of gold, as a way to confront illegal mining and combat environmental crimes in the Amazon.
Located in Brasília, the Forensic Geochemistry Laboratory for Mineral Traceability allows, according to Brazilian authorities, the identification of gold DNA, making it the first of its kind in the world.
For the director of the Amazon and Environment of the Federal Police, Humberto Freire de Barros, the new facility represents progress in the authorities’ investigative capacity, enabling the identification of the origin of seized gold and the reconstruction of the crime dynamics, including illegal financial flows and money laundering.
The laboratory makes it possible to cut from about two years to roughly two months the time required to carry out the examinations, which previously depended on partnerships with external institutions.
“So it is a leap in quality,” Freire said, adding that the agency has gained autonomy to perform scientific analyses that identify the origin of minerals and produce evidence to hand over to the justice system.
“Today the Federal Police can say that it is at the forefront of this type of analysis,” he noted at a press conference.
The facility received an investment of 49.7 million reais (about 8.08 million euros), through the Amazon Fund, and is part of the Amazônia Mais Segura e Sustentável (AMAS) project, which received a global funding of 318 million reais (about 51.7 million euros).
Only the Ouro Alvo project, aimed at identifying the origin of gold, received 50 million reais (about 9 million euros), out of a total of 150 million reais (about 27 million euros) made available to the Federal Police in the first contract with the Amazon Fund.
The operation of the facility is based on comparing the geochemical characteristics of seized gold samples with a reference database collected from different gold-bearing regions of Brazil and neighboring countries.
The system allows both to analyze shipments seized with unknown origin and to compare samples collected at sites suspected of illegal mining with materials seized by authorities, for example at airports.
The collection, named “Ouroteca,” gathers more than 1,400 samples collected in Brazilian gold regions and already includes references from French Guiana and Suriname, with discussions underway to broaden collection to Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador.
The initiative also aims to protect the legal gold market by enabling the distinction between regular production and that from clandestine activities and by preventing minerals mined illegally from entering the trading chain with fraudulent documentation.
“When we succeed in identifying the origin of the illegal product, besides more incisively and with quality curbing these illegal markets, we end up favoring the legal market,” Freire said, arguing that legally traded gold gains greater credibility.
The official noted that the Federal Police has already managed, in previous forensic analyses, to scientifically demonstrate that the declared origin of seized shipments was false, including cases carried out in cooperation with authorities from other countries.
Traceability also aims to complete the expulsion and removal actions of intruders from indigenous territories, allowing to reach the economic chain that finances illegal mining and reduce the chances of clandestine miners returning.
