The mining industry in Brazil is immensely profitable and tremendously destructive, and Canada – which is home to 75% of the world's mining companies – plays a substantial role in it. Award-winning investigative reporter Maurício Angelo of The Mining Observatory (Observatório da Mineração) speaks to The Media Co-op about mining in his country, Canada's involvement, and opposition from Indigenous peoples, social movements, and grassroots organizations.

In just the last decade, Brazilians have faced three large-scale mining disasters. In 2015, the collapse of a mining-related dam near the city of Mariana, in Minas Gerais state, killed 19 people, destroyed 200 homes, and caused immense environmental devastation. In 2018, the city of Maceió in the state of Alagoas, began to face structural collapse due to mining beneath it, and 60,000 people had to leave their homes. Then in 2019, the collapse of a dam near the town of Brumadinho, also in Minas Gerais, resulted in 270 deaths and mudflow taking over the municipality.

All of those projects were overseen by Brazilian companies. But Canadian companies play a major role in the country. With at least 31 to 35 companies, Canada is the foreign player with most mining groups operating inside Brazilian territory, according to the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and the Toronto Stock Exchange Venture (TSXV). Canada is a mining giant, and Brazil is regarded as one of the best spots for this industry to flourish.

Canadian-Brazilian company Jaguar Mining made headlines in early December when one of its mines suffered a landslide in the Minas Gerais city of Conceição do Pará. Other Canadian companies have faced Indigenous and other grassroots opposition. For instance, The Media Co-op has reported in the past on popular opposition to projects owned by Canadian company Belo Sun. That struggle continues, as more than 100 Canadian, Brazilian, and international organizations expressed solidarity in early 2024 in the face of efforts to criminalize land defenders.

In addition to the formal mining sector, there is also a great deal of illegal mining in Brazil. This captures a range of circumstances in which third parties operate mining projects without governmental consent and in many cases under orders from or associated with criminal organizations. Large-scale industrial mining companies oppose illegal mining.

Whether mining activities are legal or not, it is invariably the have-nots who suffer the worst: displaced communities, Indigenous peoples, and members of traditional peoples such as the quilombolas (who are descendants of the enslaved African people who for centuries have resided in rural areas) and the ribeirinhos (who dwell in the river basins and are found in the Amazon rainforest).

Both legal and Illegal mining gained prominence during the far-right government of President Jair Bolsonaro (2019 – 2022), due to cuts to the federal institutions that monitor the sector. However, the current centre-left administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is still in league with the legal operators and is being accused by activists, journalists, and pundits of not doing enough against illegal mining.

The Mining Observatory is an investigative journalism centre and think tank founded by Angelo, and it has been following the mining sector in Brazil since 2015.

The organization's work is focused on mining, socio-environmental aggressions, the climate crisis, energy transition, the politics of mining, and the sector's lobbying activities. It has investigated the contribution of the mining and extractive sectors to the climate crisis, illegal mining operations, megaprojects, the behaviour of multinational companies, and the impacts of mining, with a focus on the Amazon and Cerrado biomes.

In a video interview with The Media Co-Op, which was conducted before the recent Jaguar Mining accident, Angelo spoke about why Canadian mining companies are active in Brazil, how this sector is affecting the Brazilian environment, how it is being challenged by social movements, its ties with the upper echelons of Brazilian and Canadian politics, and the implications of legal and illegal mining and their opposition to each other.

The Media Co-Op (TMC): Canada has the highest number of mining companies operating in Brazil. Why is it such an attractive location for Canadian mining companies?

Maurício Angelo (MA): Brazil plays a prominent role in the international mining scene. It has very attractive reserves for mining companies from any country, including Canada.

Because Canada is home to the financial heart of the global mining industry, the Toronto Stock Exchange, Brazil ends up being a natural destination for these investors and companies. Mining, as the market repeats all the time, has the issue of locational criteria – that is, reserves and deposits are in specific locations and cannot be changed.

The deposit is in a specific location, so mining companies have to “explore” where the reserve is. Companies operating in Brazil and other countries don’t have a wide range of options; they need to go where the reserves are. Due to the quantity and variety of its reserves, Brazil has become a natural destination for these investors.

TMC: What are the impacts caused by mining companies on the Brazilian environment?

MA: Speaking generally – not just about Canadian mining companies but about any company – mining itself is a highly destructive activity. I always say and repeat that there is no such thing as “sustainable mining.” Sustainability presupposes that you do not take away the opportunity to develop and to have a stable and adequate environment from future generations. However, mining is a destructive activity aimed at a finite resource.

The deposit has a pre-determined life span. That can be expanded during the process through research technology, but it will always have a limited lifespan.

It is impossible to say that an operation that destroys an entire mountain and creates enormous mining pits is sustainable. Mining companies need to provide environmental and legal compensation. In some specific cases, depending on the circumstance, the area, and the context, it is possible for the environment to recover. But the operations to recover that area – turning it into a park, reforestation – are extensive.

However, large operations that use explosives on a large scale generate impacts on water, soil, and the environment and can cause deforestation. Therefore, the consequences usually are irreversible.

In just the last 10 years, we had the 2015 dam rupture in Mariana, considered the worst environmental disaster. Then, in 2019, Braskem in Maceió, the worst work accident, in which 270 people died, and the worst disaster in an urban area in the world of mining. Aside from these two, there is illegal mining in the Amazon. Even in Canada, a dam collapsed in 2014.

The magnitude and specific situations will vary from region to region and from situation to situation. Still, the impacts are inescapable and common in Brazil, Latin America, and every country where these operations occur.

TMC: How do their operations affect the human rights of those living in said areas?

MA: The people directly affected are in a highly complex situation. There is the issue of dams, with [the Mariana and Brumadinho] episodes attracting much attention. According to the mining sector administration, there are still dozens of dams in Brazil today, including some at risk but without imminent risk of rupture.

Many people were expelled from their homes because of the risk from the dams. Braskem's situation forced more than 60,000 people out of their homes.

The right to water is highly compromised, and the right to territory, in many cases, of quilombolas, Indigenous peoples, and other local and traditional communities are also severely affected. There are episodes of contamination of soil, water, and air.

This is piled up with forced expulsions, environmental contamination, conflicts over territories, and sometimes even direct violent disputes. All of this accumulates in a series of human rights violations in the territory in question, unmistakably impacting the entire chain of that mining company and the project for which it is responsible.

TMC: What have grassroots movements have been doing on the matter and what are their impact on the situation?

MA: You have an extensive diversity of movements with different profiles working directly in the territories, from MAB (Movement of Those Affected by Dams) to MAM (Movement for Popular Sovereignty in Mining), groups that defend territories fronting mining, and other smaller movements.

Minas Gerais has the specific context of hundreds of movements active on the issue of dams, given the general expansion of projects in Minas Gerais that will affect ecologically sensitive areas such as the Serra do Gandarela [National Park]. This case is now in the spotlight, but we still have several others.

Just in Pará, you have an accumulation of cases because, alongside Minas Gerais, they are Brazil’s two largest mining states. In Pará, you have a wide range of experience from both older and more recent movements: Indigenous organizations, quilombola organizations, and regardless of their size, some are very large, others are from specific territories. All of these movements are organized in one way or another to try to face [the mining industry], whether in direct resistance, in denouncing [it], or even acting to provoke bodies such as the Public Prosecutor’s Office to act in situations where the lack of prior and free consultation with the locals isn’t respected. Hence, these actions generate embargoes on mining company projects and other projects.

The Federal Public Ministry has a specific chamber focused on Indigenous and traditional communities. Universities have researchers studying particular situations. This whole group does the work and evaluates “where,” “how,” “in what way,” and “what local context.” All these agents have a substantial presence in the territory and eventually [are sometimes able to] achieve relevant victories, preventing projects from moving forward and forcing mining companies to respect the law, which does not always happen.

TMC: Is there a safe way for mining companies to operate in Brazil?

MA: “Safe?!”

As I said, it’s not sustainable; it’s “reasonably safe.”

What would be safe? For starters, respect environmental laws and many other aspects, such as the licensing process, environmental compensation, infrastructure, waste treatment, and liquid and solid effluents.

If all this were respected, if the dams were built using the safest methods, if they would engage in practical and transparent monitoring with independent external auditing – if all this were respected, at least in general, the mining companies’ actions would be much safer than what has been happening, in the face of the episodes I have already mentioned and others.

Thus, if the law were complied with and respected, even if eventually the mining companies themselves influence the drafting and approval of specific laws, norms, and rules, the mineral sector could be much safer than it is today.

TMC: In addition to the known mining groups, the country also has to deal with illegal mining operatives. Is there any relation between the legal companies and the illegal players?

MA: Firstly, when talking about illegal mining, it is not necessarily gold mining because there is also mining for cassiterite, manganese, and other things besides gold.

Gold mining is a world apart from industrial mining in many ways, and also has a criminal side to it.

You have illegal mining happening on Indigenous and designated conservation lands. This is not the modus operandi of [legal] industrial mining [companies], which have even fought against illegal mining because it is strategic for them [as a way to defend their public image].

But you also have smaller industrial and formal mining companies that also commit illegal acts.

There is the story of Serra do Curral [Curral mountain], Minas Gerais, which is in [Belo Horizonte], one of the country’s state capital cities. You have at least two mining companies that violated norms and rules, having managed to mobilize a series of favourable scenarios for their operations. However, it is a recent example of illegal mining in a capital city, and the damaging outcomes are still happening.

Hence, you have the fight against the two different worlds – [illegal] mining and the large, legally established industrial mining.

The [illegal] miners cause conflicts because they invade the mining companies’ area to illegally extract resources, and the mining companies need to act, sometimes even employing violence and security guards. Thus, there is a historical conflict that also goes into the image marketing conflict of the mining world, which industrial mining is not satisfied with because it compromises its image to the outside.

TMC: What is the relationship between the Brazilian government and the Canadian mining companies?

MA: Very close relationship, and not only with the current government.

I always say that, and the facts show this. Artisanal gold-digging was very close to the Bolsonaro government – there were the [artisanal] mining lobby and the mining entrepreneurs – which had not happened before with prior governments and does not happen now with the current government. But with industrial mining, there is the IBRAM (The Brazilian Mining Institute, a private organization); they represent almost 90% of Brazilian industrial mining and the large mining companies; they have always been close to the federal power and the state powers as well.

For starters, artisanal mining is represented by various businesspeople, lobbyists, and local politicians who usually have illicit plans. These players were able to directly influence the Bolsonaro government’s “no holds barred” policies toward artisanal mining, making it easier for it to grow exponentially during the last government, and they are still present to this day.

On the other hand, the industrial mining lobby is represented mainly by IBRAM and the big mining companies. As I stated, this sector has always been close to the government – whichever government is in power – and keeps being so. We are talking about big multinationals, some of the largest groups in the world, that rely on the government for authorizations, laws, partnerships in financing projects, strong influence within the Environmental Ministry, the National Mining Agency, etc. It is another department. Not to forget that for the last two years, they have acted together against illegal mining, raising the flag of combating unlawful mining because it is strategic for them regarding their marketing – to improve the sector’s image – and they also work together for future projects.

They were close to the Bolsonaro government and continue to be close to the Lula government and were to the past governments of Temer, Dilma, Lula, and so on.

Because there is a confluence of interests and vision of what the development of Brazil should be like and the importance of the mineral sector. But in practice, the mineral sector, and this also includes the steel industry, represents less than 4% of the Brazilian GDP. Mining alone represents just over 1% of GDP, according to data from IPEA (Institute of Applied Economic Research); that is, it is much less than what the sector likes to sell.

Even so, you have an enormous weight in the trade balance. For example, Brazil is a large exporter of mineral commodities, particularly iron ore. This sector has made a lot of profit in the last five years, more than one trillion reais (US$ 165.4 billion) since 2019, and political power and influence are accompanied by this economic weight.

From the point of view of the Republic's presidency, the official ideology has never been as far from that of the mining companies [as it is today]; nevertheless, they continue to have a very close relationship.

It is tight because the Ministry of Mines and Energy is close [to them], and so is the National Mining Agency. There is a powerful articulation between some names in Congress and parliamentarians linked to mining companies that have a direct dialogue with the Ministry of Mines and Energy and with the companies. The relationship is direct in events, meetings, agendas, discussions, and consultations that are carried out to determine how specific programs, projects, laws, and regulations should work. In attracting investments, there are also instances in which the government and the private mining sector work together, for example, in the Invest Mining Program.

You can look for it, and you will see these myriads of public and private actors focused on the same objective: financial resources and investments aimed at mining. The BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development) is a major investor in mining companies, a public body that invests a lot of money in mining.

PDAC (Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada), which takes place in Canada every year, is a standard example of how these public and private bodies come together at the largest mining business fair in the world for a series of agendas that ultimately always seek to expand investments, open new projects, expand existing projects.

So, these consultations, exchanges, hearings, influences, and dialogue are strong and do not undergo significant changes regardless of who is in power, whoever is the President of the Republic or the Minister, and so on.

TMC: What can Canadian activists and journalists do about this situation?

MA: For journalists, whether from Canada, Brazil, or any other country, the best way to act on this is to do their job well, independently, and transparently.

Do good work with independence and transparency, be it investigative, hard news, analytical, or critical. Journalists should listen beyond the sector, and go beyond market journalism and cold coverage focused on numbers, data, and marketing announcements. Try to at least look behind the scenes, go deeper, and really dedicate yourself to investigating an issue in a little more depth. This is already an excellent way for journalists to act, although it is still unusual in newsrooms.

Activists have another form of action and there are many ways to put pressure on the Canadian government: open dialogue, show situations that happen in Brazil, and show how Canadian companies have operated in Brazil, what the reality is, what certain situations represent, what rules can change in the host country in the case of Canada that will have direct influence on Brazil, investment rules, safeguards and rules for social and environmental benefits, social and environmental counterparts, laws and regulations that the Canadian government itself can pressure the Brazilian government to change as well as other countries.

We know that international pressure regarding international geopolitics has a massive influence on these issues, so if I’m talking about a block of countries or [separate] countries, I’m not talking about just any country because Canada has a vast influence on mining.

It’s important to say here that the Brazilian mining business sees Canada as a role model. The way mining works in Canada from the point of view of investments, markets, and even mining on Indigenous lands in Canada is seen as a model for Brazilian mining – for how mining would work on Brazilian Indigenous lands, which is not permitted today. However, several bills and political manouvres have been introduced to change this, and Canada is an example [for the Brazilian mining companies].

They want to transpose the Canadian model to Brazil when it comes to authorizing mining on lands of Indigenous people from the point of view of royalties and communities – as if Canada’s model was terrific and spectacular and had no problems, which is not true. There are also a series of conflicts between the government, mining companies, and Indigenous peoples in Canada. If this model does not work well in Canada, imagine Brazil, which has a different history and reality.

Activists can act in several ways in this story, both in conjunction with grassroots movements and by organizing, researching, exposing facts, taking this to higher levels, including the government, investors, and shareholders, opening new forms of dialogue, and applying new forms of pressure. Canada is perhaps the most influential country in mining and can affect the Brazilian mining scenario.

To follow the work of the Mining Observatory: https://observatoriodamineracao.com.br/

This interview was conducted in Brazilian Portuguese and translated by the author. It has been condensed for editorial purposes.

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