RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – General Augusto Heleno, Minister of the Office of Institutional Security (GSI) of the Presidency and Executive Secretary of Brazil’s National Defense Council authorized on Monday (6) seven gold exploration projects in the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, located in the northwest of the state of Amazonas on the border with Colombia and Venezuela.
The area, considered one of the most preserved in the Amazon, is home to some 23 indigenous groups, the most populous and best-preserved indigenous city in the country, and the Pico da Neblina national park, reports Folha de São Paulo.
Among the beneficiaries of the authorization, the newspaper lists local company SF Paim with permission to track 1,110 hectares. On the other hand, transport company Amazonrios Navegação has the right to search for gold, niobium, and tantalum on 9,676 hectares.
The GSI detailed in a statement that the decision is grounded in permits issued to investigate and explore “several minerals considered strategic for Brazil in recent decades.”
“The granting of prior consent for the research or extraction of gold in the Amazon region follows the same procedural steps as any other mineral, regardless of the region of the border strip in which it is located,” reads the agency’s message.
Meanwhile, the media revealed that the first acts of the so-called prior consent, which give the green light to companies to search for gold, were issued this year only in São Gabriel da Cachoeira.
General Heleno authorized 81 research and mining projects in the Amazon from 2019, although this year alone, he approved 45, the most in one year since 2013. It is specified that more permits may be granted this December.
For his part, the former Brazilian Minister of Justice, Eugenio Aragão, commented in an interview with RT that this measure marks a regression in the administrative regime.
With information from RT in Español