{"id":1104157,"date":"2019-03-08T17:00:17","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T17:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=975527"},"modified":"2019-03-08T17:00:17","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T17:00:17","slug":"amazons-riches-up-for-grabs-as-brazil-to-open-indigenous-reserves-to-mining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1104157","title":{"rendered":"Amazon’s riches up for grabs as Brazil to open indigenous reserves to mining"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brazil\u2019s new right-wing government led by former army captain, Jair Bolsonaro, is going ahead with announced changes to current mining regulations, which include a controversial plan to open up indigenous reserves to mining.<\/p>\n

Most of the country\u2019s original population lives in the Amazon, which rainforest ecosystem is seen by many as having worldwide ecological importance. Speaking at an event Washington, D.C., the country\u2019s mines and energy minister, Bento Albuquerque, acknowledged the environmental value of the vast area, but said it was also globally important because of the resources it holds.<\/p>\n

“The Amazon is very important to the country. Not just in the respect of preserving the environment for the value it represents to the planet, but also in terms of its riches.” \u2014\u00a0\u00a0Mines and Energy minister\u00a0Bento Albuquerque.<\/q><\/p>\n

\u201cThe riches of the Amazon have to be explored in a rational and sustainable way that does not harm the environment,\u201d Albuquerque said Friday<\/a>. \u201cThat effort shall also include the regulation of the use of indigenous and other areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The authority said that mining was the sector its office needed to focus on.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s the country\u2019s only industry totally privatized, except for the state-controlled exploitation of uranium, and the one that suffers the most with the delays in licensing, as it currently takes more than 20 years to obtain a permit,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In an interview with \u02c6<\/a>, Brazil\u2019s deputy attorney general Carlos Bigonha said it would be almost impossible for the government to do what it wants, as mining in indigenous reserves is currently prohibited.<\/p>\n

First, he said, it would need to hold consult with the affected communities. Next \u2014 assuming it gets the go-ahead from them \u2014\u00a0 it\u2019d need to request the Congress\u2019 authorization, and then issue a supplementary law regulating exploitation in those lands.<\/p>\n

The government would also have to deal with about over 400 brewing disputes involving mining companies,\u00a0quilombos<\/a>\u00a0(communities made up of the ancestors of runaway slaves) and other indigenous peoples, according to\u00a0Latentes<\/em><\/a>, a journalistic project to map conflict areas in Brazil.<\/p>\n

The team found that from the 428 potential conflicts detected in the country, 245 are found in reserves, while 183 involve traditional bondservant communities, as Brazil was the West\u2019s last nation to abolish slavery.<\/p>\n

The mapping crosses data from Funai, the national indigenous affairs agency, the Palmares Foundation, which regulates quilombos and data from active mining concession contracts signed by the\u00a0newly reformed National Mining Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Amazon's<\/p>\n

Source: Latentes.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Bolsonaro\u2019s administration would face additional global and local scrutiny following a catastrophic mining accident at Vale\u2019s Corrego do Feij\u00e3o mine<\/a>, which killed at least 300 people and polluted the surrounding areas.<\/p>\n

With bodies still buried beneath the mud, public outrage is intense and facilitating new mining endeavours is likely to cause some upheaval.<\/p>\n

Climate scientists say opening up the Amazon for greater development\u00a0could make it impossible<\/a>\u00a0for Latin America\u2019s largest nation to meet its reduced emissions targets in the coming years.<\/p>\n

Other issues conservationists are worried about include Bolsonaro\u2019s criticism of the country\u2019s environmental agencies for blocking or taking too long to approve mining and energy projects. He has promised to reduce the wait time to license small hydroelectric plants to a maximum three months, rather than the decade it can sometimes take.<\/p>\n

Companies operating and exploring in Brazil are mainly after iron ore\u00a0(the country is the world’s top producer or the steel-making ingredient) and gold, though the nation also holds large reserves of bauxite, manganese and potash. It’s also Latin America’s\u00a0No. 1 oil producer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The post Amazon’s riches up for grabs as Brazil to open indigenous reserves to mining<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brazil’s new right-wing government is going ahead with announced changes to current mining regulations, which include a controversial plan to open up indigenous reserves to mining.<\/p>\n

The post Amazon’s riches up for grabs as Brazil to open indigenous reserves to mining<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[506,404,369,698,438],"tags":[19,33,48,294,71],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1104157"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1104178,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104157\/revisions\/1104178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1104157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1104157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1104157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}