Brazilian federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into the biggest gold mine under development in the country, accusing its owner, Canada’s Belo Sun Mining, of endangering indigenous communities in the Amazon rainforest.
Disputes between resource companies and local tribes, often backed by environmental groups, have become more intense this year as Brazil’s government prepares to overhaul mining legislation that dates back to 1967.
Brazil’s northern Pará state, the location of Belo Sun’s mining project, has experienced a fierce battle over the construction of Belo Monte, a vast hydropower plant.
Belo Sun, owned by the Toronto-based merchant bank Forbes & Manhattan, has estimated it can produce an average of 4,684kg of gold per year at its 1,305 sq km Volta Grande project, according to prosecutors.
After starting large-scale drilling in 2010, Belo Sun had planned to begin its definitive feasibility study in the first quarter of next year.
However, federal prosecutors in Pará have threatened the Volta Grande plans, announcing on Monday that they had opened an investigation into the environmental impacts of the project.
“It’s very worrying that the project does not make any mention of its full impact,” said Thais Santi, the federal prosecutor carrying out the investigation. She claimed that the site had been left vulnerable by the construction of the Belo Monte dam.
Ms Santi added that Belo Sun had not submitted any studies over the potentially negative effect of the project on indigenous communities in the region.
Belo Sun could not be reached for comment.
Under Brazil’s new mining bill, miners would gain access to indigenous lands in return for paying the owners a percentage of their profit.
The new rules would open more land for foreign and Brazilian miners such as Vale, helping to boost Brazil’s slowing economy and secure more long-term investment.
However, indigenous communities, which are also under intense pressure from loggers and ranchers in the Amazonian region, have rejected the bill.