Vale - #2 Mining Company On Earth - Has Filed 214 Applications To Mine On Native Lands In Brazil

Everything about Vale is huge: It’s the largest mining company in Brazil and the second-largest in the world; it operates the largest iron ore mine on the planet in Carajás, in the state of Pará. And now the company has plans for mineral exploration in several indigenous territories in the Amazon.

Data obtained via the Access to Information Act reveals that Vale has 236 applications filed with the National Mining Agency to prospect mainly for gold in the Legal Amazon, the nine Brazilian states in the Amazon Basin. Many of them are applications for research, the first step to seeking authorization for exploration. The company’s plans comprise 214 applications in 13 different indigenous territories. As established by Article 231 of the Constitution, mining in such areas can only occur if first sanctioned by Congress and after hearing from the affected communities.

The administration of President Jair Bolsonaro, however, has a proposal prepared to authorize mineral exploration on indigenous territories, which is expected to be sent to Congress any day now, as confirmed by the minister of mines and energy, Bento Albuquerque.

Rodrigo Maia, the president of the Congress, has declared he would shelve mining proposals on indigenous territory. But the pressure to do otherwise is intense and longstanding, embodied by an administration that is openly anti-indigenous, whose president has declared he has “prospecting in [his] blood,” and which lobbies in favor of large corporate mining interests. The Ministry of Mines and Energy declined to respond to Mongabay’s request for comment.

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https://news.mongabay.com/2020/01/vale-has-filed-hundreds-of-requests-to-exploit-indigenous-lands-in-amazon/