Representatives of federal agencies defended today (18), in the Senate, the need for more public and private investments in technologies and procedures that facilitate the identification of the origin of the gold sold in Brazil. Invited to participate in a public hearing held by the temporary external commission created to monitor the situation of the Yanomami, the experts assured that the so-called traceability of gold, which is already used in other countries, would help the authorities to curb illegal mining in protected areas. environment and on indigenous lands.
“Science is capable of tracing the origin of gold”, declared the director of Administration of the National Association of Federal Criminal Experts, Erich Adam, assuring that the crossing of data from the National Mining Agency (ANM) on the mining permission with satellite images already make it possible to identify the eventual occurrence of illicit activity in certain areas.
“Furthermore, within the expert context, it is indeed possible to analyze the origin of gold based on its geological characteristics. That is, science is able to trace the origin of the ore. understanding the geology [as características do terreno de onde o produto foi extraído]we seek to carry out a chemical analysis that allows us to bring effective traceability answers”, assured Adam before presenting to the members of the commission ten proposals from the National Association of Federal Criminal Experts to improve the inspection of gold in the country, among them the requirement that companies listed on B3 to charge their suppliers to certify the origin of gold and other potentially conflicting minerals.
Representative of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, Jarbas Vieira da Silva also defended the importance of traceability as a way to minimize the pressure of illegal mining inside indigenous and quilombola lands, in addition to national forests. “We understand that traceability is extremely important to combat practices such as ‘heating up’ gold”, commented Silva, referring to the criminal practice of disguising gold extracted from illegal mines by trading it with whoever is duly authorized to mine other areas and that, finally, it trades the product as having been legally obtained.
“The health problem and the various violations that have taken place in the Yanomami Indigenous Land, for example, are the result of this process of encouraging crime and lack of dialogue,” added Silva, recognizing the need for the federal government to strengthen inspection bodies and control.
The chief of staff of the Relationship, Citizenship and Conduct Supervision Directorate of the Central Bank (BC), Eduardo Ferrari de Araújo, and the general coordinator of Inspection at the Federal Revenue, Ricardo de Souza Moreira, highlighted, respectively, that the theme is “complex” and that “transcends” the action of a single body, requiring joint action.
According to Araújo, the BC is in charge of regulating and supervising the financial institutions authorized to acquire gold directly from those engaged in legal mining. Moreira argued that it would be important to pass a law that would facilitate the sharing, between public bodies, of tax information on the sale of gold in the country. According to Moreira, currently, the Federal Revenue can only share your data with other bodies responsible for overseeing compliance with tax rules, whether at the federal, state or municipal level.
