Brazilian Justice Voids Belo Sun Mining’s Concession
In a major victory for the communities of the Amazon’s Volta Grande do Xingu, a judge’s ruling annulled the Canadian mining company’s contract with Brazil’s Land Reform Institute
December 3, 2024 | For Immediate Release
Amazon Watch and the Xingu Vivo Para Sempre Movement
For more information, contact:
Verena Glass at veglass@uol.com.br or + 55.11.99853.9950 (Xingu Vivo Para Sempre Movement)
Keala Ucha at keala@amazonwatch.org or +1.510.827.1269 (Amazon Watch)
Altamira, Brazil – Last Thursday, a Brazilian federal court issued a major setback to Belo Sun Mining Corp. (Belo Sun), declaring the contract that granted the company its land concession null and void. This pivotal decision marked a landmark victory for the communities of the Volta Grande do Xingu who have fought the installation of Belo Sun’s massive open-pit gold mining project for over a decade.
The ruling annuls a highly-contested contract issued in 2021 by Brazil’s National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) granting Belo Sun access to public lands originally designated for agrarian reform. Without legal access to the land, the gold mine – called the Volta Grande Project – cannot advance, paralyzing the Canadian miner’s efforts to open Brazil’s largest open-pit gold mine in Par state, home to next year’s UN Climate Conference (COP30).
This long-awaited ruling resulted from a 2022 lawsuit by Brazil’s Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU) and the State Public Defender’s Office of Par (DPE/PA). The federal judge in Altamira noted that the area Belo Sun seeks to mine remains formally designated for the implementation of agrarian reform policies. According to the recent ruling, the previous negotiations that originally led to the land concession did not ensure meaningful participation of settled families that the contract would directly impact.
“The illegal concession of these land reform plots to Belo Sun would establish a dangerous precedent in Brazil, jeopardizing land reform settlements across the Amazon,” said Ana Carolina Alfinito, Brazil Legal Advisor for Amazon Watch. “This ruling shows that family agriculture and social justice – the pillars of land reform – will not be sacrificed for destructive transnational mining. It also reveals that INCRA, which is responsible for ensuring that families have access to land and agrarian reform policies, had abandoned its institutional mission. The deal contradicted INCRA’s mandate to allocate land for agrarian reform, not for mining exploitation. INCRA cannot legitimize land grabbing. A mining company must not override agrarian reform, food sovereignty, or Amazon protection.”
The court’s decision impacts other lawsuits filed by Belo Sun. “Without formal access to land, lawsuits by Belo Sun against settlers, such as repossession claims and criminalization complaints alleging invasion, are likely to lose their merit,” said Alfinito.
The decision marks a major setback for Belo Sun, which will need to reinitiate its negotiations with Brazil’s federal government to obtain renewed access to its desired mining site. However, the court’s ruling stopped short of annulling the project’s environmental licensing process, despite the fact that an environmental license requires that the company hold formal and legal tenure rights to a mining concession. Belo Sun may also appeal last week’s ruling in the near future.
“This ruling represents the restoration of legal security in lands usurped by Belo Sun,” said Ana Laide Barbosa, of the Xingu Vivo Para Sempre Movement. “It determines that granting land designated for food production under agrarian reform policies to Belo Sun is illegal. This agreement, signed under the Bolsonaro administration, jeopardized the lives and futures of farmers in the region. Under President Lula, we expect INCRA to comply with the court’s decision and allocate the recovered land to landless farmers seeking a place to plant, live, and protect what remains of the Amazon. More gold, for what? Our land is to plant and protect!”
The Xingu Vivo Para Sempre Movement, local communities, environmentalists, and human rights activists urge INCRA to fulfill its constitutional duty by completing a process initiated earlier this year, including registering settled families, reviewing territorial occupation, and resettling encamped families.
In its official response, Belo Sun downplayed the ruling and referred to INCRA as its partner, stating it would “work with INCRA to resolve this issue.” Interim President and CEO Ayesha Hira reiterated this stance: “We look forward to working with INCRA on the next steps following the ruling by the Federal Court in Altamira.”
The ruling comes as the Brazilian Amazon faces unprecedented fires and droughts exacerbated by the climate crisis, while the country simultaneously receives heightened international attention as it prepares to host COP30 in Belm. President Lula’s government has pledged to protect the Amazon and combat poverty, recently celebrating the creation of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty during the G20. Against this backdrop, it is highly questionable that INCRA, an agency under the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Farming, would prioritize a foreign mining company over the needs of families working to produce food and protect the forest.
Background
Belo Sun Mining Corp. is attempting to establish Brazil’s largest open-pit gold mine, the Volta Grande Project, overlapping the Ressaca region on the banks of the Xingu River. This project threatens to cause irreversible harm to a territory already devastated by the Belo Monte mega-dam, directly impacting Indigenous peoples, rural settlements, and riverine communities.
The Alliance for the Volta Grande do Xingu – a coalition of organizations defending communities at risk from Belo Sun – brought these issues to global attention. In 2021, they denounced the company to the United Nations, the European Union, and investors.
Since 2022, local communities have established a camp on the disputed land, exposing contract irregularities and reporting threats and attacks by Belo Sun. Allegations against the company date back to 2013, including illegal land acquisitions, harassment, and violations of free movement and territorial access rights.
In June 2023, the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) also denounced the violations of Indigenous rights related to Belo Sun Mining’s project in the report entitled Mine of Blood. The document highlights the omissions, illegalities, and intimidations perpetrated by the mining company against the Indigenous peoples of the Volta Grande do Xingu.
Also in 2023, a delegation of Indigenous leaders, community representatives, and Latin American civil society organizations presented these violations to Canada’s Universal Periodic Review at the UN in Geneva. A coalition of 50 organizations also launched the report, Unmasking Canada: Rights Violations Across Latin America, highlighting Belo Sun’s actions.
Belo Sun’s environmental license has been suspended since 2017 by the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region, citing numerous irregularities, including the lack of free, prior, and informed consent from affected Indigenous and traditional communities; and the harassment and violation of the right to free movement and access to the territory of local communities.
This recent federal court decision annulling Belo Sun and INCRA’s contract is a crucial step toward justice, underscoring the resilience of the communities of the Volta Grande do Xingu in their fight for land, livelihoods, and the Amazon.