The challenge, which may cut back Brazilian agriculture’s 90% dependence on imported potash, has been held up for years because of opposition from Indigenous Mura folks, who say they haven’t been consulted about using their ancestral lands.
Federal prosecutors mentioned on Tuesday that the license ought to come from Brazil’s environmental safety company, IBAMA, and never from the native company within the state.
“The license violates constitutional rights, worldwide requirements and likewise the rights of Indigenous peoples,” the federal prosecutors workplace in Manaus mentioned in a press release.
The Articulation of Indigenous Peoples and Organizations of the Amazon (APIAM), an establishment that advocates for the rights of Indigenous peoples within the Amazon, advised MINING.COM that the Mura folks’s communities weren’t consulted, nor was the Indigenous Element Research performed within the environmental licensing course of.
Indigenous leaders advised information web site Amazonia Actual that they won’t settle for the state resolution and warned about the opportunity of conflicts if the problem isn’t reconsidered by the courts.
In October, Federal Decide Marcos Augusto de Souza suspended a decrease court docket resolution that dominated if the land can be demarcated Indigenous sooner or later, then solely Brazil’s Congress and federal company IBAMA may authorize mining within the space.
The IPAAM additional strengthened its understanding of being the proper authority and argues that United Nations Worldwide Labour Group protocols don’t require 100% indigenous assist for approval of the challenge.
Brazil Potash has additionally obtained a letter from the Conselho Indígena Mura (Mura Indigenous Council) declaring that greater than 90% of the Indigenous folks voted in assist of the Autazes challenge.
The proposed mine and processing services would require about three years to construct.
It could be constructed on low-density cattle farm land deforested a number of many years in the past by prior house owners, in keeping with Brazil Potash, who says the ore physique isn’t situated below Indigenous land, however is inside 10 km of two reserves ensuing within the want for consultations with locals.
Manufacturing is anticipated to begin in 2026 with an preliminary output enough to cowl about 20% of Brazil’s potash wants. Venture capability is pegged at 2.2 million tonnes of potassium chloride per 12 months, the corporate estimates.