A surge in global gold prices has ignited a renewed mining rush within Brazil's Amazon rainforest, leading to an alarming acceleration of deforestation in protected areas and pushing mercury contamination to hazardous levels, according to officials and experts. A recent study, published by the non-governmental organisation Amazon Conservation in collaboration with Brazilian non-profit Instituto Socioambiental, reveals that illegal mining operations have driven extensive clear-cutting across three conservation zones within the Xingu region. This area, one of the world’s largest expanses of protected forest, spans the states of Para and Mato Grosso. The analysis combined satellite imagery with crucial ground research to document the destruction. The Terra do Meio Ecological Station, for instance, recorded its first instances of illegal mining in September 2024. By the close of 2025, mining-related deforestation there had expanded to cover 30 hectares (74 acres).…