Vida de Garimpeiro (Brasil)

A Brazilian wildcat miner, or garimpeiro, works in a clearing made in virgin Amazon rainforest to sieve through soil in search of gold, as some 6,000 miners have set up camp in Novo Aripuana in the forest 80 km (50 miles) by road and river from the town of Apui in Amazonas state, February 1, 2007. Since the discovery of the gold deposits became public in late December, peasants, politicians and even priests have picked up shovels and axes to dig into the heavy clay soil and panned the earth at a nearby branch of the Juma river. Brazilian troops and police have started patrolling the sprawling wildcat gold mine dubbed the New El Dorado deep in the Amazon jungle to curb crime, disease and environmental damage.