Mongabay · Climate & nature

US Defense Contractors Linked to Brazilian Company Accused of Illegal Amazon Mining

A Brazilian tin producer, White Solder, faces accusations of sourcing minerals from illegal mining operations in the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, with its tin reportedly supplied to U.S. defense contractors.

White Solder allegedly supplied hundreds of metric tons of tin to U.S. companies, including Indium Corporation and Nathan Trotter, which have contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense. Indium Corporation supplied solder to Raytheon, a defense contractor. The U.S. Department of Defense awarded Nathan Trotter a contract to build a tin processing facility, intended to counter Chinese monopolization and supply chain vulnerabilities.

In August 2026, Brazilian federal court accepted charges against White Solder for money laundering and illegal mining. Prosecutors allege White Solder paid a cooperative accused of disguising over 525 tons of cassiterite, the raw material for tin, illegally extracted from Yanomami territory between 2021 and 2022.

An investigation also suggests White Solder may have used "ghost mines" in Rondônia to disguise the origin of illegally extracted minerals, as satellite imagery and field investigations found no evidence of mining activity at claimed authorized sites.

Indium Corporation stated that White Solder met Responsible Minerals Initiative criteria at the time of supply. White Solder, Nathan Trotter, Coopertin, Raytheon, and the U.S. Department of Defense did not respond to inquiries.

An NGO highlighted that the U.S.'s demand for raw materials for its military could exacerbate mining-related harms unless safeguards and due diligence are implemented and followed.

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