Proposed Belo Monte Gold Mine Means More Devastation for Amazon & Indigenous People

Waking Times

For years now the world has watched as native peoples of the Amazon along the Xingu river have battled against the government and corporate development of the Belo Monte Dam, a massive hydro-electric power station that will displace tens of thousands of indigenous people and destroy the natural eco-system along this important Amazon River tributary. The struggle to stop this development continues, as does construction, but now there is another a massive industrial development that threatens to bring even further devastation to the stunning biodiversity, ecology and ancient cultures in this part of the Amazon…

“Now the Canadian mining company wants to build the world’s largest goldmine in Brazil on the banks of the Xingu, a mere 12km from the dam’s worst affected indigenous groups.” [Belo Sun No!]

A massive, toxic waste producing gold mine would be an immeasurable disaster for the Amazon, especially alongside the Belo Monte Dam.

Watch and share this video about this proposed project and what it may mean for all forms of life in this part of the world…

Presently there is a campaign to petition the government to deny permits for this massive project…

“The Canadian mining company Belo Sun seeks to build the largest gold mine in Brazil directly adjacent to the Belo Monte dam, exactly where the Xingu River will dry after its flow is diverted by the dam, the region known as “Volta Grande do Xingu”. The mega-mine would be only 10 km from two indigenous territories and close to an area of ​​indigenous peoples living in voluntary isolation, threatening serious an irreversible impacts on these communities.

The Secretary of the Environment of Pará State (SEMA / PA) plans to imminently approve Belo Sun’s environmental permit. Brazil’s federal environmental agency IBAMA considers this project to not be its legal responsibility, despite the serious environmental threat the project portends for indigenous peoples and the direct interaction it has with Belo Monte Dam, since it intensifies its impacts.

In order to exploit this Amazonian gold, the Belo Sun will need to employ highly toxic materials like cyanide and will produce a huge mountain of toxic waste that will be discarded and remain forever on the banks of the Xingu River. The SEMA / PA impact studies dismissed the mine’s impacts on indigenous peoples and ignored the mine’s interaction with the profound transformations that the Belo Monte dam will cause the Xingu River and the life of the peoples of the region. Therefore, the environmental impact assessment carried out to date is entirely insufficient to substantiate any license.” [Avaaz]

Take a look at the petition and sign it if you feel inspired to do so, here, Stop Belo Sun.

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