Justice forces agency to auction ore removed from Yanomami land

The Federal Court responded to a request by the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) for the ANM (National Mining Agency) to be forced to auction the cassiterite illegally extracted from the Yanomami Indigenous Land, in Roraima. The decision, handed down this Monday (30), determines that the amount raised be reverted to actions to combat illegal mining in the region and promote security in the territory.

The document states that all procedures must be completed by February 28 and sets a fine of R$ 100,000 per month, in case of non-compliance with the sentence. The estimated value of the seized ore is R$ 25 million.

An injunction dated July 2022 already determined that the ANM would carry out the auction and provided for the transfer of the sale of cassiterite to actions against illegal mining in the Yanomami territory, including the removal of non-indigenous people from the area. The Federal Court also stipulated a period of 90 days for the execution of these measures, but the order was not complied with.

With that, the MPF made a new statement, highlighting the agency’s slowness in complying with the court decision. For the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, the agency uses bureaucratic obstacles to paralyze the effectiveness of the injunction and “demonstrates disregard for both indigenous peoples and public property”.

In this Monday’s decision, the Justice considered that the ANM’s manifestations in the action were “evasive and unacceptable” in view of the time that the agency had to comply with the previous order. It also determined a period of five working days for the body to inform the data of the public agents responsible for organizing the auction.