{"id":50053371,"date":"2022-04-28T21:54:18","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T20:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.dialogochino.net\/?p=53371"},"modified":"2023-05-19T20:46:07","modified_gmt":"2023-05-19T19:46:07","slug":"53258-amazon-potash-mining-firm-accused-coercing-indigenous-groups-exploit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/53258-amazon-potash-mining-firm-accused-coercing-indigenous-groups-exploit\/","title":{"rendered":"Mining firm accused of coercing indigenous groups to exploit potash in Amazon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Signs identifying the areas acquired by the mining company Pot\u00e1ssio do Brasil are spread across indigenous villages in the outskirts of Autazes, a municipality 110 km from Manaus, the capital of Brazil\u2019s Amazonas state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said: \u2018sell it or lose it\u2019,\u201d explains S\u00e9rgio do Nascimento, the tuxaua<\/em> (leader) of the village of Soares, recalling the mining company\u2019s approach to occupy the territory where the Mura people have lived for centuries.<\/p>\n

Pot\u00e1ssio do Brasil, a subsidiary of the Canadian-owned Brazil Potash, is entering the region to build a facility exploring for the potassium-rich salts that are a key fertiliser. Their advance is gaining momentum in the wake of a global fertiliser crisis, deepened by the war in Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The main venture is the excavation of the largest potash mine ever identified in Brazil, here in Autazes<\/a>. But it also wants to explore a huge underground area in the Amazon and Madeira river basins.

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Sergio Nascimento, a tuxaua<\/em> indigenous leader, complains of the coercion made by Pot\u00e1ssio do Brasil to sell land inside Soares territory (Image: Christian Braga)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/div>Since 2010, the company has drilled 33 wells in Autazes, including unauthorised soil borings in the Jauary Indigenous Land, which was demarcated in 2008<\/a> by FUNAI, the government agency for indigenous affairs. Others have been drilled in the self-demarcated Soares-Urucurituba Indigenous Land, claimed since 2003. The entire region is occupied by the Mura.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey say that the project is far from the indigenous land, but we know that\u2019s not true, they are inside our areas,\u201d adds Nascimento, using a map to show how the project would encompass their land.

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\"Cartel
An area where Pot\u00e1ssio do Brasil plans to build a port in Urucurituba, Amazonas state (Image: Christian Braga)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/div>The mining company does not recognise the Soares claim and says that the project does not affect the Mura territory. It does not rule out, however, the exploration of the subsoil<\/a> of Jauary land, for which a number of exploration requests have been made to the National Mining Agency (ANM).<\/p>\n

The plan for the project presented by the company to the indigenous people shows that the entrance to the mine is only 2 km from the Soares village, and 8 km from both Jauary and Paracu\u00faba, another Mura indigenous territory. The area to be exploited for the subsoil is 13 km long and 10 km wide, reaching into Mura lands.

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