An order to search for minerals in Brazil costs less than one minimum wage, which is not enough to buy two bottles of Guaspari wine. But, like vines, these requests can bear good fruit. Owner of the winery, businessman Paulo Carlos de Brito Filho works in at least eight companies that, together, occupy the first place in the race for mining in indigenous lands (TIs).
Mining companies Rio Grande, Silvana, Acará, Icana, Irajá, Tarauacá and Apoena, linked to the Santa Elina group, account for 8% of the approximately 3,100 requests for mining and mineral research in areas overlapping the ILs or on their borders, according to a survey by the National Mining Agency (ANM) made in March, on the eve of the Chamber’s urgent approval of the processing of PL 191/2020, which tries to release economic activities in these territories. Although it lost support, the bill remains on the Congressional agenda.
Between 1982 and 2012, the Santa Elina group made 255 requests for mineral research that affect 42 indigenous lands — more than 95% of them focused on gold in the Amazon. The requirements cover an area of ​​928 thousand hectares, or six times the city of São Paulo. Behind them appear the mining companies Serra Morena (469 thousand hectares) and Iguape (446 thousand hectares).
wanted by Reporter Brazilthe group said it was against “illegal mining in indigenous lands” and that it gave up the processes with “total interference” in demarcated territories, but admitted having maintained the requirements that partially affect ILs, aiming to explore the surroundings.
Two weeks later, Brito Filho sent a new position and stated that the conglomerate was also giving up orders with partial overlap. The businessman said he condemned “any illegal mining activity on indigenous lands”, but defended the sector’s position to regulate mining in these areas.
Of the 255 requests for research or mineral exploration, the Santa Elina group gave up 126 by March, according to the ANM. Even so, it followed the lead in the number of requests that affect traditional peoples, with 129 processes.
Despite the fact that mining in these territories is not authorized by law, the ANM system maintains these requests as “active”, even when the company withdraws – which, for researcher Bruno Manzolli, from UFMG, is a failure, since that the areas are “locked” to a new applicant.
“If PL 191 is approved, those who will have priority over these areas are the owners of these processes”, warns Manzolli.
The ANM stated, in a note, that it maintains active permits granted before the 1988 Constitution, those that overlap with lands that have not yet been homologated and those in the vicinity of the TIs. The agency admits “slowness” to release an area with withdrawal because the process is not “fully automated” (see the positions in full).
The business
Paulo de Brito Filho is best known as the owner and president of Aura Minerals, but he also participates in dozens of other companies, most of them mining.
Born in Canada in 1946, Aura has more than 50% of its shares in the hands of Northwestern Enterprises, located in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven, and controlled by Brito Filho and his father, Paulo Carlos de Brito — founder of Santa Elina .
Most companies in the Santa Elina group work mainly in the first stages of the mining chain: prospecting new mines, applying for permits, doing geological surveys and studying the potential of reserves, as well as their economic viability. For this reason, they are considered “juniors” and usually sell their discoveries to larger mining companies – the “majors”, who will operate the mine.
“The performance of the ‘juniors’ is positive for the ‘majors’, as they are the ones who bear the risk and eventual losses of not finding anything”, explains Bruno Milanez, a professor at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. In this division of labor, it is common for ‘juniors’ to perform the most controversial services, such as requisitioning indigenous lands, assuming the erosion of reputation.
It is for this reason that recent announcements by large miners to drop research requirements on ITs have little practical effect, as they may, in the future, buy other operations.
Due to the risk of the business, the stock market is the easiest place for ‘juniors’ to raise funds. “Presenting a large portfolio can be seen as an inviting business card”, explains the researcher, in addition to valuing the shares.
protection areas
Despite having announced the withdrawal of some of the requests within the TIs, both the ‘juniors’ and the giants of the sector maintain requests in the surroundings of the demarcated lands.
But mining on borders is also harmful to communities. Indigenous lands have a so-called “buffer zone”—a region that is protected around it to prevent environmental impacts.
In 2020, the Reporter Brazil showed the Kayapó’s struggle against the contamination of rivers and fish by the exploitation of manganese around the TI by the Buritirama mining company, which had acquired the Irajá license — linked to Santa Elina. In a statement, the group stated that production took place “within the strict limit of its mineral rights”.
In 2004, Santa Elina also made the news because of conflicts involving the Cinta Larga (RO), which resulted in a Federal Police investigation into the illegal extraction of diamonds from the reserve. One of the investigated companies raised about US$ 4 million in shares in Canada after joining Santa Elina and receiving approval to research diamonds near the indigenous area, according to a report by the Sheet.
“Several companies were making a mining request with the DNPM [Departamento Nacional de Produção Mineral, hoje, ANM] and, based on that, they traded mining bonds on the Canadian Stock Exchange”, recalls delegate Mauro Spósito, who led the investigations.
The work of the PF resulted in a complaint by the MPF against the DNPM, which made the Court order the suspension and cancellation of research requests not only within, but also within a radius of up to 10 km of the territory.
Since 2019, the MPF has filed several public civil actions making the same demand to the ANM, so that requests for mineral research in TIs are not received and that the permits already granted are suspended. In Pará alone, 52 lawsuits were filed. In Amazonas, the municipality was sentenced in the first instance, but appealed.
In this process, the ANM told the MPF that “the Constitution does not prohibit applications” in an indigenous reserve and that, therefore, they can be on hold until the activity is regulated. The agency did not comment on the lawsuits.
The Santa Elina group stated that there was a “misconception” in the case of the Cinta Larga, which has nothing to do with the PF action and that there was no suspension of mining orders.
Between sips of his wine, Brito Filho said in a 2020 interview that it was the family’s knowledge of geology that enabled him to find the ideal land to plant grapes in Serra da Mantiqueira, in the interior of São Paulo.
In order to continue living on their lands, the Kayapó, Munduruku and Yanomani peoples united against PL 191 in the Alliance for the Defense of Territories. “It is an unprecedented and historic alliance”, says Maial Paiakan, Kayapó leader. “The war has already begun.”
