"A BELGIAN TYCOON IS A KEY INVESTOR IN A MAJOR NEW GOLD REFINERY IN BRAZIL’S AMAZON",
...BRAZIL’S LARGEST GOLD refinery will soon be operational — right in the middle of the Amazon. The government of Para, a northern state of Brazil that contains a vast portion of the Amazon, has trumpeted the refinery as a strategic move to bolster a local economy that has been decimated by deforestation and illegal mining.
Larissa Rodrigues, from Instituto Escolhas, a nonprofit organization that researches the gold supply chain in Brazil, said that a big gold refinery located within Para will boost small-scale mining in the Amazon...
In Brazil, the most that authorities will reveal about the owners of the new refinery is that North Star is a “Brazilian company with Belgian capital, specialized in the field of precious minerals”...
Last February, the governor of Para, Helder Barbalho, signed an agreement with five mining companies for them to supply gold to the North Star refinery. The companies are Serabi Mineracao S/A, Brazauro Recursos Minerais S/A (which formerly sold its operation to the Canadian G Mining Ventures), BRI Mineracao LTDA., Gana Gold Mineracao S/A, and Belo Sun Mineracao LTDA...
Illegal mining in Para affects the health of Indigenous communities, with mercury contamination appearing in the rivers and fish of the Amazon...