Court orders federal licensing of Belo Sun
Canadian mining company operations will impact the Indigenous Lands in Volta Grande do Xingu (PA), in the same region as Belo Monte Hydroelectric Plant
By Isabel Harari, journalist at ISA
A federal court has suspended all operations of the Belo Sun mining company until environmental licensing is approved by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama). Up until now, the licensing process was in the hands of the state government of Pará. The Canadian company promises to be the largest open pit gold mining operation in Brazil, with plans to locate in Volta Grande do Xingu (PA), a region already impacted by the building of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Plant.
The decision recognizes that the socioenvironmental impacts of the mining company will affect Indigenous Lands and exacerbate the consequences of the hydroelectric plant, and, for this reason, the matter of environmental licensing is federal. “There is no acceptable argument that limits the interests of the Federal Government to enterprises located inside indigenous lands, when they can cause impacts directly,” the text points out. [Read the full version].
“It is an important precedent that recognizes the importance that enterprises of this magnitude that impact indigenous peoples must be evaluated by the technical division of Ibama,” explains Biviany Rojas, attorney for ISA. She adds that one cannot disassociate the fact that Belo Sun intends to build a few kilometers away from Belo Monte, whose licensing was approved by Ibama, “which should facilitate the evaluation of synergistic and cumulative impacts of the two projects.”
“How can you discuss another project, another enterprise as large as this one in the same region, in the same riverbed, on these same people who are being so impacted?” questions Bel Juruna, leader of the village Mïratu, located nearby the enterprise.
The ruling, signed by a federal judge in Altamira, also states that Ibama must reevaluate the licenses already approved. The Installation License was suspended by the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF-1) at the end of 2017, and the Preliminary License was also suspended by court order in 2014. In the recent decision, the judge emphasized the ruling in 2017 requesting a re-elaboration of the studies on the indigenous component and the organization of a Free, Prior and Informed Consultation for the indigenous peoples affected, respecting the protocols of consultation and consent in force in the territory.
The Juruna, or Yudjá, who live in the Paquiçamba Indigenous Land, drafted their consultation protocol last year, and demand that the document be respected. “Belo Monte has affected us directly and at no time were we consulted. Belo Sun, a Canadian enterprise under study for more than eight years and at no time were we consulted. We put it down on paper as is our custom. This is how the Juruna people want to be consulted: under Convention 169,” reaffirms Bel.
Threat in the Xingu
The Volta Grande project, by Canada’s Belo Sun Mining, is slated to be built 9.5 km from the Paquiçamba Indigenous Land, 13.7 km from the Arara da Volta Grande do Xingu Indigenous Land and also nearby the Ituna/Itatá Indigenous Land, inhabited by isolated indigenous people.
The project will use cyanide in the processing of minerals — an extremely toxic substance for the soil and watercourses — and environmental studies of the enterprise predict the risk of a breach during the phases of operation and damming as “High Risk.”
In 12 years, an estimated 60 tons of gold are expected to be extracted. At the end of the mining activities, two giant piles of chemically active sterile waste, covering an area of 346 hectares and containing 504 million tons of rock will remain, with no plans for removal.
[Learn more about the Volta Grande Project in Observatório Xingu]
