Garimpeiros, or illegal gold miners, have set up aisles in the rainforest in the western Brazilian state of Para. Photos: dpa
Standing in a deep pit, the men are up to their knees in mud. They spray the walls with water from hoses, while one of them sucks up the loose material. A generator rattles.
A pump transports the water to the top, where it pours over a scaffolding that is covered with a carpet and forms a slide. Metre after metre, they hose down the muddy brown ground in the tropical heat, 12 hours a day, for one month.
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