At least 220 mines that registered gold production in 2019 and 2020 simply do not exist. They are authorized to operate and trade the ore, but whoever tries to visit them will only find dense forest.
These are called ghost mines, used to cover up the origin of clandestinely extracted metal. They spread across the country, benefiting from the lack of inspection by the ANM (National Mining Agency).
“This has been the most used way to heat [legalizar] gold extracted from an illegal area. This is a problem that the agency needs to face”, recognizes Valdir Farias, former head of the Collection Procedures Division of the ANM Superintendence in São Paulo.
The term ghost mining was coined by researchers at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), who identified the practice in a study carried out in partnership with the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) and released in August this year.
When crossing the declared origin of the gold with the geolocation of the mines, the specialists discovered, through satellite images, that many of them were in an area of ​​native forest, without human intervention.
For Raoni Rajão, a professor at UFMG and one of the authors of the study, it is the duty of the ANM to inspect the mines, which could be done with a more thorough monitoring of the Annual Report on Mining, a document that indicates the production of minerals.
“For that, technology is needed. When the prospector indicates a mine in the sale of gold, it should be checked at the same time by the ANM.”
A more rigorous inspection, however, comes up against the lack of financial and human resources, justifies the agency. “There are 35,000 mining procedures, including mining permits. And we have about 170 inspectors. That’s too little to carry out efficient inspection,” Roger Cabral, current superintendent of mineral production at ANM, explained to Repórter Brasil.
According to the UFMG study, 6.3 tons of gold produced in Brazil between 2019 and 2020 originated from mines that did not show mining activity, moving around R$1.2 billion in the period.
After the survey, the MPF filed public civil actions asking for the suspension of the activities, in southwestern Pará, of the companies FD’Gold, Ourominas and Carol for having sold gold of illegal origin.
Under the Penal Code, the sale of illegal metal can be considered a crime of money laundering or misrepresentation.
Sought, FD’Gold and Carol DTVM did not respond. Ourominas stated that it has “strict internal control, which allows the identification and qualification of its partners”.
In July, Repórter Brasil and Amazônia Real showed in the special Yanomami Blood Gold how the metal illegally extracted from the largest Indigenous Land in the country, in Roraima, is legalized in Pará and later sold to large companies – until it reaches jewelry stores such as HStern .
Small mines, big businesses
The background to the problem is the Permissão de Lavra Garimpeira (PLG) regime, an authorization granted by the ANM for small gold explorations. Benefiting from a simplified procedure and more difficult to supervise, part of these concessions are used to defraud the origin of the metal.
There are two ways to apply for a PLG: as an individual or cooperative, which must only present a technical description of how they intend to explore the area and the environmental license issued by the state agency.
The size limit for a prospector mine is 50 hectares for individuals and 1,000 for cooperatives. However, the ANM does not restrict the number of mines that each individual or cooperative can explore. There are people with more than 30 mines.
For José Jaime Sznelwar, former superintendent of mineral production at ANM, this is one of the main problems of the PLG regime. “A person with ten permits is no longer a prospector, he is already a miner,” he told Repórter Brasil.
“What we are seeing is that the garimpos are concentrated in the hands of a few people”, adds Rajão.
This system ends up benefiting criminals, who can accumulate more PLGs and still take advantage of less inspection on this type of concession. The reflection of this can be measured: mining by only six individuals and cooperatives account for 61% of the gold produced in mines suspected of illegality, according to the UFMG study.
In an attempt to improve inspection, the ANM authorized, in September, the regional managements in the states to inspect the mining operations. “It will be our eyes and arms to improve inspection. It is not enough, but it helps,” said Roger Cabral, the agency’s superintendent.
The scenario of lack of control regarding the concession of mining mines is in the sights of the MPF. In July, prosecutors in Itaituba (PA) asked for the suspension of granting new PLGs in the region.
The ANM is also in the crosshairs of the Federal Court of Auditors, which since 2019 has pointed out deficiencies in the agency, such as lack of structure, lack of inspection of information provided by miners and weak performance in combating the illegality of the sector.
In September, the court stated that “it will carry out inspections in Organs relevant bodies, in order to identify weaknesses and opportunities to improve the fight against the sale and export of gold of illegal origin”.
ANM rig
Currently, there are 2,765 active mining permits in the country, according to the ANM. And, despite the concerns that this concession regime has aroused in Organs supervisory bodies, employees and former employees of the agency report external pressure for this number to grow even more.
The lobby comes from politicians and businessmen, especially from Pará, who want to facilitate the concession of PLGs, according to sources heard by the report.
“These are senators and deputies who are in constant dialogue with members of the ANM board,” says Jaime Sznelwar. He suspects that his resignation from the agency, after a little more than a year in office, was due to his attempt to curb the concession of new mining operations.
His resignation, in August of this year, was determined by Guilherme Santana Lopes Gomes, one of the members of the body’s collegiate board, nominated for the post by president Jair Bolsonaro.
For Sznelwar’s position, the person hired was Roger Cabral, a defender of mining in indigenous lands. “Mining can coexist [com terra a indÃgena]. But there is a lot of ideology, the media, NGOs that are more interested in the Amazon than in protecting it,” he told Repórter Brasil.
The new superintendent confirms lobbying at the agency. “Sometimes, the businessman who filed the application comes. He’s anxious, and the paperwork doesn’t come out”, he says.
“Businessman arrives with a politician here wanting to release his PLG. That really happens, but I don’t see a problem. We respect the rite and the documentation, but the pressure exists”, adds Cabral
Repórter Brasil got in touch with the ANM to hear from Lopes Gomes, but the agency stated that the issues are “exhausted agendas” and that he will not comment.
According to sources interviewed on condition of anonymity, the influence of the Presidency of the Republic is conditioning the agency’s decisions — the director general Victor Hugo Bicca, who did not want to attend the report, would not be listening to the other members of the collegiate board and has been ignoring the triple list to nominate directors.
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