The Minas Gerais Court ordered on Tuesday (20) the immediate suspension of all activities of the mining company Empresa de Mineração Pau Branco (Empabra) at the Corumi Mine, located near Serra do Curral. The measure applies to iron ore mining and transportation of deposited or extracted materials, which includes the traffic of trucks carrying fine ore.
The decision complies with the request of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Minas Gerais (MPMG), made through a Public Civil Action (ACP) on July 24 of this year. The MP argued that mining exploration is predatory and illegal, and that there is repeated non-compliance with obligations assumed for the environmental recovery of the area.
The 9th Civil Court of Belo Horizonte also ordered the preparation of a Mine Closure Plan within a maximum period of 30 days. An executive schedule and a plan for the recovery of all degraded and altered areas in the project must be presented, as well as the definition of the future use of the recovered area.
Empabra will also be required to hire, within 30 days, an independent technical audit to monitor the recovery measures for the degraded areas and ensure the safety of the site’s structures. The company may pay a daily fine of R$50,000 if it fails to comply with the measures imposed by the courts.
History
Mineral extraction in the area is prohibited. In October of last year, the National Mining Agency (ANM) authorized the removal of 800,000 tons of ore that had already been processed and was in storage. With the movement of trucks, residents of neighboring communities and activists from the São Francisco Permanent Forum and the Manuelzão Project began to question the government agencies, as they suspected that Empabra had resumed extracting ore.
Suspicions of illegal activity were reinforced during an inspection by the Belo Horizonte city government in May of this year. The mine and all of the company’s activities were completely shut down. An environmental crime was reported and a fine of R$64,900 was imposed.
The Granja Corumi mine has been in operation since the 1950s. With Serra do Curral declared a heritage site in Belo Horizonte in 1990, activities at the site were reduced. In 2007, Empabra signed an agreement with the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Minas Gerais (MPMG) to develop a plan to restore the degraded area. At the time, reports indicated risks to the integrity of the Baleia State Park. Given the partial breach of the agreement, the mining company’s activities were temporarily suspended by the State Secretariat for the Environment and Sustainable Development (Semad) in 2018.
The following year, the final report of a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry (CPI) established by the Belo Horizonte City Council requested the definitive suspension of mineral extraction at the Granja Corumi Mine. The document suggested to the MPMG that a judicial freeze be requested on Empabra’s assets until the labor issues were resolved and the degraded area was restored.
The report of Brazil Agency try to contact Empabra and will update the article if you get a statement of position
