India, April 9 -- Dark smoke billowed from giant styrofoam skulls set ablaze and chants for land rights pierced the skies of Brasilia on April 7, 2026, as thousands of Indigenous people marched in protest against mining and logging.

They denounced the large-scale project to mine gold on the banks of River Xingu, a major tributory of the Amazon, along which they live. For over a decade, Canadian company Belo Sun has been developing Volta Grande mega-mine, the country's largest open pit gold mine, over 1,735 square kilometres of the river basin, an area roughly twice the size of New York City, according to AmazonWatch.

More that 7,000 people assembled carrying signs and banners reading "Belo Sun Out" and "Life Is Worth More Than Gold."

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