Reuters – A federal Brazilian appeals court has overturned an injunction suspending the licence for Canadian-owned firm Brazil Potash Corp. to build Latin America’s largest fertilizer mine in the Amazon rainforest.
The Federal Regional Tribunal 1 ruled Oct. 17 that IPAAM, an Amazon state environmental agency, has the authority to issue the licence because there is no officially recognized Indigenous territory in the area.
The new decision comes after federal judge Jaiza Fraxe last month reiterated her 2016 ruling to suspend the project until the Mura, a local Indigenous people, were consulted. She also ruled that a licence must come from federal environmental agency IBAMA and not state agency IPAAM.
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The appeals court ruled there is no evidence that the area where the mine is planned is located on Indigenous lands.
Brazil Potash declined to comment on the ruling Oct. 18. IPAAM had filed the appeal.
The Mura, who number about 15,000 people, are divided on whether to agree to the mine.
A delegation of those who support the project met Oct. 18 in the country’s capital, Brasilia, with Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira. Silveira said the mine was “strategic” for the country.
The statement also said the mine could supply 20 per cent of Brazil’s needs for 23 years.
The proposed mine in Autazes, 120 kilometres southeast of the Amazonas state capital of Manaus, would reduce Brazil’s current reliance on imports for 95 per cent of its potash fertilizer use. The mine is slated to produce up to 2.4 million tonnes a year.
Representatives for a local Mura community in nearby Soares say the mine overlaps their ancestral lands and have claimed it should be recognized as protected reservation land. But the demarcation process for that land has just begun with studies by Indigenous affairs agency Funai, and it is not yet an official claim.
Sergio Mura, chief of the Soares community, said his people were not consulted.
Brazil Potash last month touted the support of Mura leaders, local politicians and Governor Wilson Lima.
Federal prosecutors in Manaus said support for the mine was not unanimous and provided a letter from a Mura village saying community leaders had been misled into signing meeting minutes that the company construed as approval for the mine.
Some of the Mura population have expressed concerns around pollution of the mine.
Brazil Potash says it would have minor environmental impact, because salt separated from the potash at a processing plant would be returned underground.
