Mineral Mining Drives Tropical Deforestation via Infrastructure and Artisanal Digs

The Scale of Mining-Driven Deforestation

A rush for minerals is accelerating deforestation across tropical regions, driven by both industrial operations and artisanal mining. In sub-Saharan Africa, research published in *Nature* found that mines extracting high-value minerals trigger significant cumulative deforestation within a 1 km radius over ten years.

The study quantified these effects as percentage point (pp) increases in deforestation: diamond mines showed an increase of 11.6 pp, gold mines 8.7 pp, and silver mines 7.2 pp. While the immediate mining site is a primary point of loss, significant cumulative effects persisted for up to 5 km for diamond, silver, and gold mines, and extended as far as 10 km for silver mines after ten years. Iron mines were found to have the largest area of effect, with additional cumulative deforestation occurring across all concentric ring buffers measured up to nine years after activity began.

The Infrastructure Multiplier

While the extraction sites themselves are destructive, a larger portion of forest loss is attributed to the supporting infrastructure. Researchers using satellite imagery and statistical modeling found that infrastructure for African mines destroys forests at 34 times the rate of the actual mine sites.

This secondary deforestation occurs as land is cleared to make way for roads, housing settlements for workers, and agricultural land required to feed those workers. The study specifically noted that mines extracting copper and cobalt—metals essential for renewable energy technologies—caused the highest rates of overall deforestation.

Artisanal Mining and Global Supply Chains

In addition to large-scale industrial operations, "artisanal" mining is emerging as a significant driver of forest loss in regions like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Economist Malte Ladewig of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences found that local people digging for gold, coltan, and cobalt to sell into global supply chains are contributing to these losses.

This trend is linked to the demands of the modern global economy, specifically the production of electronics such as smartphones. The encroachment into forests via artisanal mining has also been linked to public health crises, including the spread of Ebola.

Environmental Degradation in Latin America

The impact extends into the Amazon, where illegal gold mining is particularly destructive to both environment and public health. In Bolivia, miners use heavy machinery to carve out riverbeds and divert waterways, leaving "scars like open veins" through the forest.

In the Brazilian Amazon, more than 5,249 hectares of rainforest—an area equivalent to approximately 7,500 football fields—were destroyed by gold mining within Indigenous Territories between 2023 and 2025. Beyond the loss of tree cover, these operations contaminate rivers with mercury used to separate gold from impurities, poisoning waterways that sustain endangered wildlife and indigenous communities.