In a major victory for the communities of the Amazon’s Volta Grande do Xingu, a judge’s ruling annulled the Canadian mining company’s contract with Brazil’s Land Reform Institute, Amazon Watch reports.
Last Thursday, a Brazilian federal court issued a major setback to Belo Sun Mining Corp. (Belo Sun), declaring the contract that granted the company its land concession null and void. This pivotal decision marked a landmark victory for the communities of the Volta Grande do Xingu who have fought the installation of Belo Sun’s massive open-pit gold mining project for over a decade.
The ruling annuls a highly-contested contract issued in 2021 by Brazil’s National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) granting Belo Sun access to public lands originally designated for agrarian reform. Without legal access to the land, the gold mine – called the Volta Grande Project – cannot advance, paralyzing the Canadian miner’s efforts to open Brazil’s largest open-pit gold mine in Pará state, home to next year’s UN Climate Conference (COP30).
Ana Laide Barbosa, of the Xingu Vivo Para Sempre Movement, said:
“This ruling represents the restoration of legal security in lands usurped by Belo Sun. It determines that granting land designated for food production under agrarian reform policies to Belo Sun is illegal. This agreement, signed under the Bolsonaro administration, jeopardized the lives and futures of farmers in the region. Under President Lula, we expect INCRA to comply with the court’s decision and allocate the recovered land to landless farmers seeking a place to plant, live, and protect what remains of the Amazon. More gold, for what? Our land is to plant and protect!”
