Serra Pelada (AFP) – Four decades after Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado shot a human anthill of mud-spattered miners digging for gold in the middle of the Amazon, some of the “garimpeiros,” now into their 70s, are still hoping to get lucky. Salgado’s 1986 black-and-white photos of hundreds of men with pickaxes and spades working in the Serra Pelada open-pit mine travelled the world, depicting the hellish conditions in which people were still toiling in the late 20th century. But some veterans of its heyday remain consumed by the prospect of the riches hidden under their feet.
