By Shanna Hanbury Brazil has ramped up efforts to quell illegal gold mining over the last two years. Police raids in the Brazilian Amazon’s gold capital have destroyed mining machinery, leaving miners angry and struggling to keep their operations running, Mongabay’s Fernanda Wenzel reports. Federal agents destroyed 150 backhoes and 600 dredgers used in illegal mining in 2023, cutting deforestation from mining by 30% compared with the previous year. Almost all efforts were concentrated in the Itaituba municipality in Pará state, which produces 75% of Brazil’s illegal gold. The crackdown has spa…