MIAMI : One of Brazil’s biggest gold refiners, which processes gold suspected of being mined illegally in the Amazon rainforest, has been stripped of an important industry seal of approval that global manufacturers from Apple to Tesla rely on to root out abuses in their supply chains.
A former partner at Marsam, Dirceu Frederico Sobrinho, has been at the center of recent gold rush in the Amazon, purchasing through a separate company he controls more than 2 billion reais ($388 million) worth of gold last year from wildcat miners at 252 sites. Last year, federal prosecutors filed a civil suit against the company, F.D’Gold, and two other companies that purchase gold, seeking 10 billion reais in social and environmental damages.
