Bid to mine Amazon reserve scrapped

The Brazilian government backed off a controversial proposal to authorise private companies to mine a sprawling Amazon reserve on Monday after blistering domestic and international criticism.

President Michel Temer’s office was set to issue a new decree yesterday that “restores the conditions of the area, according to the document that instituted the reserve in 1984,” the Ministry of Mines and Energy said in a statement.

Illegal mines

Last week, environmental activist group Greenpeace said at least 14 illegal mines and eight clandestine landing strips were already being used by miners in the Denmark-sized reserve known as Renca in the eastern Amazon.

Greenpeace said this showed the risks faced by Renca even without Temer’s earlier proposal for ending a ban on large-scale foreign mining in the mineralrich region. Temer’s decree signed on August 25 on opening up Renca — rich in gold, manganese, iron and copper — was suspended days later after an international outcry.

The president had argued that lifting restrictions would allow Brazil to boost its struggling economy.