As demand for the tin ore cassiterite soars, special forces units of Brazil’s Ibama environment agency must play a cat and mouse game with the thousands of illegal miners pouring into Yanomami reserves

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In a world market heated by demand from multinational companies and with prices for tin on the rise – up 29% in the first six months of this year – Brazil has become one of the world’s largest exporters of the metal.

However, as well as increasing profits and commodity exports, the rush for cassiterite has become a new environmental and policing problem.

Considered a conflict mineral in the European Union and the US, cassiterite has increasingly attracted not only companies but illegal mining gangs in the Brazilian Amazon.

Criminals have also profited from the illegal extraction of manganese and copper, which are also vital to the energy transition. Prices for these minerals have rocketed this year, with manganese nearly doubling.