Belo Sun gold mine in the Brazilian Amazon

The Belo Sun project, led by a Canadian mining company, aims to develop Brazil’s largest open-pit gold mine. Local residents and advocacy groups have resisted the project for over a decade due to its potential to harm critical ecosystems and communities. Legal battles continue as a Brazilian federal court recently annulled land concessions for the project, a partial victory for activists. According to its website, Belo Sun is a “Canadian, development stage mining company advancing Brazil’s largest undeveloped gold deposit at the Volta Grande Project in Pará State”.For a decade now local residents and movements have resisted this project that would threaten the critical river ecosystem and its human and non-human inhabitants. Belo Sun has been accused of illegally acquiring public land, several violations of environmental and public participation obligations and procedures, as well as unlawfully criminalizing land defenders.  In the latest news, a Brazilian federal court declared the contract granting the land concessions for the mine project between Brazil’s National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) and Belo Sun null and void. This remains a partial victory, and future developments remain to be seen as Belo Sun, in its official responses, stated that it would “work with INCRA to resolve this issue.”

 

Links:

 

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-as-canada-vies-for-un-human-rights-council-seat-some-indigenous/