From pickaxes to AI: COP30 host state embodies the past and future of Amazon mining

As Brazil’s Pará state prepares to host COP30, it stands at the crossroads of mining history — from Serra Pelada’s hand-dug gold rush to Vale’s AI-powered Carajás mine, symbolizing the Amazon’s past and future.

In the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, the state of Pará — host of next year’s COP30 United Nations climate summit in Belém — embodies both the ghosts of mining’s past and the ambitions of its technological future.

Outside a weathered wooden house in Serra Pelada, Lucindo Lima, 72, sings of the fortunes that eluded him during Brazil’s legendary 1980s gold rush. “Under those mountains all our riches are hidden,” he laments — his voice echoing through a town once teeming with tens of thousands of miners, now marked by decay and nostalgia.

The legacy of Serra Pelada

Serra Pelada, immortalized by Sebastião Salgado’s iconic black-and-white photographs, became a global symbol of human toil and excess. His images of men swarming around an enormous open pit, pickaxes in hand, captured the raw desperation and hope that defined the gold fever of 1979–1992.

When the ore grades dropped and the pit flooded, authorities shut the mine, leaving behind a water-filled crater — today a mirror of both the dreams and ruin of Amazonian extractivism.

Yet, even decades later, garimpeiros — artisanal miners — still burrow into the ground in search of gold dust, risking collapse and mercury exposure.

“We are at a depth of about 25 meters,” says miner Cícero Pereira Ribeiro, gripping a pickaxe in one of Serra Pelada’s dark tunnels.

“We haven’t woken up from this dream yet,” adds Antônio Luis, who has been mining here since 1981.

A new “queen of metals”: Carajás and the era of automation

Two hours away, a new kind of mining kingdom reigns — Carajás, the world’s largest open-pit iron ore mine, operated by Vale S.A.

While Serra Pelada’s gold wealth faded long ago, Vale’s annual revenue from Carajás is now nine times greater than all the gold ever extracted from its fabled counterpart — even adjusted for today’s near-record gold prices.

The company has turned Carajás into a testbed for automation and artificial intelligence, deploying driverless trucks and advanced digital systems to maximize efficiency.

“Autonomous trucks can generate up to 15% more operational efficiency — that’s 15% more hours worked,” explains Gildiney Sales, director of Vale’s North Corridor operations.

Between 2025 and 2030, Vale plans to invest 70 billion reais (US$13 billion) in technology, logistics, and sustainability programs at its northern mining complex.

Two faces of mining in the Amazon

Pará today represents the stark duality of Amazonian mining: industrial-scale modernization versus informal, often illegal extraction.

Illegal gold mining continues to scar rivers, destroy forests, and contaminate water with mercury, while Vale pledges to preserve 800,000 hectares (3,100 square miles) of rainforest around Carajás — an area five times the size of São Paulo.

While Vale moves high-grade iron ore to port by rail, garimpeiros travel along unmarked roads and rivers, often facing violence, exploitation, and health risks.

The contrast between the pickaxe and artificial intelligence encapsulates Brazil’s challenge as it prepares to host COP30: how to reconcile its extractive legacy with a sustainable, low-carbon future.

The enduring paradox of Amazon mining

For people like Lucindo Lima, Serra Pelada remains a memory — a wound and a song.

“This was the queen of metals,” he sings softly. “We built our dreams here.”

As Brazil takes the global stage at COP30, the hills of Pará stand as both a warning and a promise: a place where the mining dreams of the past meet the technological ambitions of tomorrow.