Top rugby side Saracens has been accused of “sharing in the shame” of major environmental destruction after allegations that its main financial backer bought gold from a company with links to a cooperative accused of illegal mining in the Amazon rainforest.
Unlawful mining activities allegedly taking place in the region have led to widespread destruction of the rainforest – a critical buffer against climate breakdown. Illegal mining is also accused by campaigners of damaging the health of local communities and wildlife through mercury contamination used in the process.
In 2020 Saracens signed a lucrative sponsorship deal with the financial group StoneX estimated to be worth more than £2m a year. Both the club’s stadium in North London and its player shirts bear StoneX’s branding.
An investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Brazilian news group Repórter Brasil claims to have documentary evidence showing StoneX bought gold from a Brazilian company that sourced some of the precious metal from an Amazon-based network including rogue miners fined by Brazil’s environment agency in 2022.
StoneX, which owns the UK-based spread betting group City Index, has described the claims made by the investigation as “inaccurate”, adding that it “follows robust policies and processes to verify the legitimacy of origin of all precious metals it acquires”.
It added: “StoneX is a responsible member of the global precious metals industry and conducts extensive due diligence and follows robust policies and processes to verify the legitimacy of origin of all precious metals it acquires.
“StoneX sources all such metals in strict compliance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.”
Following the allegations, one Amazon campaign group called on Saracens to cut ties with its sponsor.
Christian Poirier, programme director at rainforest protection group Amazon Watch, said: “Any organisation concerned with environmental preservation and human rights cannot maintain direct or indirect links to Brazil’s disastrous illegal gold mining industry.
“Saracens has the duty to sever ties with its sponsor or share its potential complicity in one of today’s primary drivers of destruction in Amazonian indigenous lands and communities.”
Daniela Montalto, senior Forests campaigner for Greenpeace UK, added: “Saracens should know… their brand could share in the shame of forest destruction, crime, pollution, poisoning and sickness that is intrinsic to illegal Amazonian gold mining.”
In recent years, the Amazon has become a hotbed of illicit gold production and high prices have prompted a rush of informal “wildcat” mining, which is linked to environmental damage.
Although informal miners cannot export directly, major international traders can still obtain potentially illicit gold via licenced exporters.
In September 2023 customs officers in São Paulo stopped a cargo of gold destined for StoneX’s subsidiary in Dubai. It was held after officers at the airport found a discrepancy with the weight that had been declared by Coluna, one of StoneX’s suppliers.
Coluna filed a legal challenge to release the cargo and, in so doing, revealed a sprawling supplier network of wildcat miners. Records showed that Coluna sold StoneX a £3.6m consignment of gold from suppliers that included a previously sanctioned mining cooperative called Coopemiga.
In total, 12.2kg of the gold, invoiced for more than £474,000, was acquired from the cooperative, the investigation found. This is 16% of the consignment.
Coopemiga was fined around £350,000 in 2022 for crimes including deforestation, operating on unauthorised land and mercury use.
The Brazilian Amazon is one of the richest and most diverse habitats in the world, home to millions of species, many of which are still unknown to science.
According to Greenpeace, the region has been systematically destroyed by economic activities that are incapable of coexisting with the forest, as is the case with gold mining.
Greenpeace and other campaign groups claim illegal mining has been expanding in the Amazon for decades, polluting indigenous lands and other protected areas. They say it threatens the lives and health of the more than 30 million people who inhabit the region, particularly indigenous peoples, through mercury contamination used to extract the gold from rock and the destruction of the forest.
It is also alleged illegal mining comes at the expense of the rivers that cut through the forest which are one of the main sources of food for local communities in the region, and are vital for the reproduction of aquatic life in important areas for the conservation of the Amazon.
Coopemiga told Repórter Brasil that it overhauled its management at the end of 2023 and is progressively adopting safer and more environmentally responsible techniques for gold extraction.
Alexandria Reid, Forests campaign lead at Global Witness, said: “Allegations like these underscore the urgent need for financial institutions and traders to be required to do in-depth checks and go beyond immediate suppliers to ensure they aren’t playing a blind hand in a high-stakes gamble with the world’s forests.”
StoneX said that it understood the appropriate members of the cooperative had been held responsible following the 2022 investigation.
It added that Coluna is a financial institution, licensed by the Central Bank in Brazil, that continues to export to this day and the gold in question “was already in the Brazilian banking system”, and that StoneX collected the required certificates of origin and background documentation of the metal. It added that StoneX does not buy gold from cooperatives in Brazil.
Coluna has declined to comment but metal industry sources point out that the investigation into the blocked Coluna cargo is ongoing and had not yet found any conclusions of wrongdoing in respect of the gold in question.
At the time of Saracens deal with StoneX in 2020, the club’s then chief executive Lucy Wray said: “Having met some of the people at StoneX and City Index, I can safely say that they share our ambition and values.”
Despite repeated requests, Saracens did not respond to questions on claims relating to its sponsorship deal with StoneX.
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