House passes new regulations for gold mining

For many years, a legal fiction allowed illegal gold to flow freely through Brazil’s financial system. Miners would simply declare that their haul came from a licensed area, and buyers — thanks to a 2013 law that let distributors accept a miner’s word as proof of origin — had no obligation to look further. 

The result was a shadow economy that financed deforestation, poisoned rivers and enabled criminal organizations across the Amazon rainforest. On Wednesday, the House passed a bill that aims to dismantle that arrangement.