General Augusto Heleno, minister of the GSI (Institutional Security Office) of the Presidency, authorized the advance of seven gold exploration projects in a practically untouched region of the Amazon, an unprecedented gesture by the National Defense Council in the last ten years.
Heleno, who works at Planalto Palace and who is one of Jair Bolsonaro’s main advisers, is executive secretary of the Defense Council, the body that advises the president on matters of sovereignty and defense.
It is up to the GSI minister to give approval or not to mining projects in the border strip, with a width of 150 km.
Based on projects submitted by the ANM (National Mining Agency), the general authorized in 2021 seven gold research projects in the region of São Gabriel da Cachoeira (AM). The place is known as Cabeça do Cachorro and is located in the extreme northwest of the Amazon, on the border between Brazil and Colombia and Venezuela.
There are 23 indigenous ethnic groups in the region. São Gabriel da Cachoeira is the most indigenous city in Brazil. Cabeça do Cachorro is one of the most preserved areas in the Amazon and one of the last frontiers without activities that result in high deforestation.
A sheet analyzed extracts from 2004 acts of prior consent, as the authorizations given by the National Defense Council for the border strip, published in the last ten years, are called. For this, it used the database maintained by the GSI itself. The extracts are published in the Official Gazette of the Union.
The first authorizations for companies and entrepreneurs to search for gold in the region of São Gabriel da Cachoeira were given in 2021, taking into account the survey carried out in the acts of the last ten years.
Questioned by sheet, the ANM did not respond if there had been authorization for gold research in Cabeça do Cachorro before. Public data indicates no.
A research authorization allows “analysis and study activities in the area in which it is intended to work”, according to the ANM. These are the tasks required to define an ore deposit.
The survey carried out by the report shows that Heleno has granted 81 mining permits in the Amazon since 2019, including exploration and mining permits. The largest amount was in 2021: 45, according to acts published until the last 2nd, which is the largest amount in a year since 2013. The number may increase, as there may be new acts in December.
Previous approvals by the Bolsonaro government, which encouraged prospecting on Union land, involve an area of 587 thousand hectares, almost four times the size of the city of São Paulo. Only the seven projects in the region of São Gabriel da Cachoeira cover 12,700 hectares.
ANM records show that 6 of the 7 projects take place on “Union land”. The documents do not detail what these lands are, in a region where the Pico da Neblina National Park and indigenous lands are located.
The GSI stated, in a note, that there are acts of assent throughout the Amazon region, aimed at researching or exploring “several minerals considered strategic for Brazil in recent decades”. The processes are instructed by the ANM, according to the GSI.
“The granting of prior consent for gold research or mining in the Amazon region follows the same procedural rites as any other mineral, regardless of the region of the border strip in which it is located, under penalty of causing damage to the Union, states and municipalities if there were any kind of favoring from one region to another”, says the note.
Passing through the Defense Council maintains control and monitoring of activities in sensitive areas and provides important information for the president to make decisions, according to the GSI. “There was no evidence of legal impediment to the request of interested parties for the executive secretary to sign the acts of assent.”
A sheet consulted two GSI documents that guided the prior consents, based on processes and favorable opinions sent by the ANM. The other five are kept confidential.
Heleno allowed Avemar Roberto Rocha to search for gold in an area of 553 hectares in São Gabriel da Cachoeira and Santa Isabel do Rio Negro, as decided on July 26, 2021. The GSI document shows that the Union area is between two indigenous lands and a little below the Pico da Neblina National Park.
Roniely Oldenburg Barbosa, on the other hand, gained GSI approval to prospect for gold in 66 hectares in São Gabriel da Cachoeira and Japurá, according to an act by General Heleno of April 7, 2021. The area in the first municipality is between an indigenous land and the Rio Negro .
The report did not locate Rocha. Barbosa did not respond to contacts on the social network.
The authorizations given have two companies as beneficiaries. One of them, SF Paim, based in São Gabriel da Cachoeira, will be able to search for gold in 1,110 hectares.
The company had a contract signed at the end of 2020 with Funai’s Rio Negro regional coordination (Fundação Nacional do Índio). The value was R$ 679 thousand for engineering services. In August 2021, the GSI allowed the company to search for gold in the Cabeça do Cachorro border strip.
The report was unable to contact the phone informed by SF Paim.
Amazonrios Navegação, a ferry transport company in different states in the Amazon, will be able to search for gold, niobium and tantalum in an area of 9,676 hectares. The act of General Heleno is from the last day 2. According to what was informed to the ANM, it is “third party property”. It was also not possible to contact the numbers informed.
The couple Fernando Mondini and Jerusa Coelho Mondini, partners in a company that builds and repairs boats and rents machinery for extracting ore, each obtained authorizations from the GSI.
His area, of 215 hectares, involves the municipality of Santa Isabel do Rio Negro. Hers, with 764 hectares, is located in São Gabriel da Cachoeira. The businessman plans to spend R$150,000 on “sounding by dredger and collection of samples by carpet”.
Another R$ 150 thousand must be for the “processing test”. And another R$150,000 with geochemical surveys. The partner’s project also involves dredging, budgeted at R$ 800 thousand.
On the phone, Jerusa said that her husband would return the call, which did not happen.
In a note, the ANM stated that mining requirements can only apply to free and unencumbered areas. “The ANM will not approve the application for any mining title if it concerns an encumbered area or an area with any other legal block, such as indigenous lands or full protection conservation units.”
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