Illegal mining in the North region of Brazil –

O illegal mining in region Nonorth from Brazil It is a problem that has been present for decades, but which has intensified in recent times. The mining activity is considered illegal when it is practiced on indigenous lands and protected units, in addition to exceeding the area limit established by Brazilian legislation. The Brazilian Legal Amazon concentrates large areas of illegal mining, located mainly in the state of Pará.

As a consequence of the growth of legal mining in the North of the country, there is the deforestation of the Amazon Forest; the silting up of rivers; and the contamination of water and soil, directly impacting the lives of traditional communities in the region, such as indigenous peoples and riverside communities.

Read too: Mining in the North region of Brazil

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Summary on illegal mining in the North region

• Illegal mining is one that does not comply with Brazilian legislation.
• It is illegal to carry out mining activity on indigenous lands and in areas larger than 50 hectares (individual prospectors) or 1000 hectares (garimpo cooperatives).
• More than 90% of all prospecting activity in Brazil (both legal and illegal) is concentrated in the Amazon.
• Illegal mining takes place mainly in indigenous lands and conservation units, concentrated in the states of Pará, Amazonas and Roraima.
• The largest area of ​​illegal mining in indigenous lands in Brazil is on the limits of the Kayapó Indigenous Land, in southern Pará.
• It affects the daily lives of local populations and harms traditional communities, such as indigenous and riverside communities.
• It causes numerous impacts on the environment, such as deforestation, loss of terrestrial and fluvial biodiversity, silting up of rivers, and contamination of soils and watercourses.
• Mercury contamination is one of the problems that affect water bodies and river fauna. Mercury accumulates in the human organism and causes damage to the health of those who consume fish and water in contaminated areas.

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What is illegal mining?

Illegal mining is all mineral extraction activity on a small scale and aimed at direct marketing (mining) carried out in violation of Brazilian legislation. For a mining area to be regular, it needs to be approved by means of an application with the National Mining Agency (ANM).

ANM is a federal government agency belonging to the Ministry of Mines and Energy and responsible for overseeing and regulating mineral extraction activity in the country, which includes both mining and prospecting. One of the requirements of the ANM to grant the request for gold mining is the environmental licensing. If the prospector mine is installed without the authorization of the ANM, it is considered illegal.

the mining is also framed as illegal in the following situations:

• When practiced inside indigenous lands — protection areas officially recognized by the Brazilian State and registered by the Union. Indigenous lands, once demarcated and ratified, cannot be used by the non-indigenous population: they are intended exclusively for the use of indigenous peoples.
• When practiced in areas greater than 50 hectares, by individual prospectors, or in areas greater than 1000 hectares, in the case of mining cooperatives.

How does illegal mining occur in the North region?

The northern region is the main expansion area of ​​mining activity in Brazilwith 91.6% of the areas included in the Amazon biome.|1| The proliferation of mines in this region did not happen in the recent period, but from the second half of the 20th century, more specifically after the 1970s, with the expansion of projects to integrate the national territory and the identification of areas conducive to extractive activity. , such as along the banks and course of Amazonian lowland rivers.

Illegal mining in the North region occurs mainly in indigenous lands and in areas of environmental protection classified as Units of Conservation (UC)according to a survey carried out by MapBiomas in the period from 1985 to 2021. According to the survey, the area occupied by illegal mining activities increased by 625% in indigenous lands and by 352% in conservation units in the last decade alone, between 2010 and 2021.

The Kayapó Indigenous Land is the main area affected by illegal mining in the North region. This area is located in the south of the state of Pará, in the Legal Amazon, and has a population of over 4500 people. According to MapBiomas, mining already occupies a surface of 11,542 hectares in 2021. The two other indigenous lands with extensive areas of mining in their limits are the Mundukuru Indigenous Land, also in Pará, with 4,743 hectares in 2020, and the Yanomami Indigenous Land, in Roraima, where there are at least 1556 hectares occupied by illegal mining.

It is important to highlight that the 10 indigenous lands with the most mining activity in their interior are located in the North region of Brazil, according to MapBiomas. The same happens with conservation units, with the aggravating factor that eight of the ten most affected are concentrated in Pará. The main PA with mining activity is the Tapajós Environmental Protection Areawhere more than 43,000 hectares were detected in which there is mineral exploration.

The practice of illegal mining in the North region is done not only manually. There is the use of machinery and vessels that help in mineral extraction and increase productivity, while intensifying the environmental impacts caused in soil and water, as we will see below. The most sought after mineral during mining is gold.

See too: Yanomami — one of several indigenous groups suffering from illegal mining in northern Brazil

Consequences of mining in the North region

The mining activity carried out illegally conflicts over land tenure have increased in the North region of Brazil, mainly in areas demarcated as indigenous lands or that are in the process of being demarcated. That directly affects the lives of indigenous communities who live on the frontier of expansion of mineral extraction, since cases such as land invasions and violence have grown in recent years.

It is not just indigenous people who have their permanence threatened by illegal mining. this activity changes the daily life of other traditional communities as well, as is the case of the quilombolas and riverside communities, whose way of life has been transformed by the action of illegal mining. In most cases, their sustenance, derived from fishing activities and natural resources in the soil and forest, is jeopardized by the environmental impacts that the activity causes.

→ Environmental impacts caused by mining in the North region

Illegal mining in the North region results in a series of impacts to the environment, notably in the Amazon biome, which cause damage to local biodiversity and affect the quality of water and soilwhich causes serious health problems in the population that lives in the affected areas and depends directly or indirectly on these natural resources.

The expansion of deforested areas in indigenous lands and conservation units in the Legal Amazon is mainly due to extractive activities, such as illegal mining, which triggers a series of other problems, such as decrease in biodiversity; greater soil vulnerability due to lack of cover; It is changes in the local microclimate, at a first moment, which may impact larger scales in the medium and long term.

Between 2018 and 2022, for example, deforestation associated with mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Land tripled. Information gathered by the Hutukara Associação Yanomami (HAY) shows that the deforested surface was 5053 hectares in 2022 alone, while in 2018 it had been 1236 hectares.|2|

The water bodies in the region are affected by the mining sediments, which silt up and pollute the waterways, and by the toxic substances that are released into the waters along with the residues of this activity and cause its contamination. The river fauna and flora also suffer from the impact of these substances and the machinery used in extraction, which impairs fishing by the population and traditional communities that depend on the rivers for subsistence and income generation.

An example of how mining affects rivers is the Madeira River., which runs through the interior of the states of Rondônia and Amazonas and where the activity has been installed for decades due to the presence of gold in stretches of its bed. In 2021, an image revealed hundreds of mining rafts, which dredge the bed, lined up along the course of the Madeira River, just over 100 km from the Amazonian capital, Manaus.|3| Among the environmental impacts caused are the alteration in the river bed; The pollution; increased sediment load; and water contamination by Mercury.

Mercury is a heavy metal and is used in gold mining. When returned to the waters and soil, it causes contamination of these resources and the food chain present in them, accumulating in the organism of those who consume the water and fish of these rivers and causing serious health problems.

Read more: What are the effects caused by mercury contamination?

Differences between legal mining and illegal mining

Mining is an economic activity recognized by Brazilian legislation and which has been important throughout the country’s history. The fundamental differences between illegal mining and legal mining are: permission for the installation of the garimpeira mine, mandatory for the performance; at obtaining environmental licensing; and not compliance with the area limits imposed for each of the agents who will be responsible for the extractionthat is, individual prospectors or cooperatives.

If it does not meet one or more of the criteria established by the National Mining Agency (ANM), mining is considered illegal.

What are the main mines in Brazil?

The main mines in Brazil today are in the North region, and are inserted in the Amazon biome. Pará is the state that includes four of the five largest mining areas and, according to the MapBiomas survey, these same areas account for 45% of all mining practiced in the national territory.

Below is a table with the municipalities that have the largest mining areas in Brazil. (Data collected by MapBiomas in 2021.)

Grades

|1| The data presented were…