The Brazilian Constitution by Constitutional emendation governs:(Constitutional Emendation N.6)
"A pesquisa e a lavra de recursos minerais e o aproveitamento dos potenciais a que se refere o "caput" deste artigo somente poderão ser efetuados mediante autorização ou concessão da União , no interesse nacional, por brasileiros ou empresas constituída sob as leis brasileiras e que tenha sua sede e administração no país, na forma da lei, que estabelecera as condições específicas quando essas atividades se desenvolverem em faixa de fronteira ou terras indígenas"
"The mining and mineral resource survey and the utilization of its potentials could only be effectuated by authorization or concession of the Union, in the national interest, by brazilians or companies constituted under brazilian laws with headquarters and administration in Brazil, according to law , that will establish the specific conditions when these activities develop on federal border lines or indigenous lands."
2- MINERAL RIGHTS
2-1. There are 2 territorial subdivisions related to mineral rights in Oriental Amazon:
2-1-1. The área within garimpeiro reserves comprises 2% of Oriental Amazon.
- Tapajós Reserve: 2,832,600 ha taking comprises 40% of Tapajós gold province
- Cumarú Reserve : 98,264 ha comprises a small part of the southeastern gold province
- 3 different reserves with 50,000ha, 121,000ha and 657,500ha , respectively comprising a portion of alta Floresta-Peixoto gold province.;
2-1-2. The area outside the reserves encompass 98% of oriental Amazon.
2-2. There are two different methods of acquiring mineral rights as the first phase of mineral development in Brazil and particularly in Oriental Amazon:
2-2-1. Acquiring PDP (pedidos de pesquisa), in 1,000ha (individuals) or 10,000ha (companies) units or claims. The request for a claim(s) is without charge and the claim quantity is unlimited. The processes(claims) are prioritized by the DNPM . Generally it takes more than a year for this request to be approved with the Research Permit (alvará de Pesquisa) published in the DOU(official newspaper). After being published , the Permit has a 3 year validity renewable for 1 to 3 more years using aditional criteria by the DNPM. The Permit is negotiable. If the exploration activity( survey ) produces positive results, the DNPM transforms this document in a definitive "Mining Decree " (Decreto de Lavra).
2-2-2. Acquiring PLG (Permissão de Lavra Garimpeira) in 50há units/claims. This request is without charge and the module quantity is unlimited and only can be acquired by individuals or garimpeiros cooperatives. A PLG validity is 5 years and can be renewed every 5 years under the DNPM criteria. A PLG work survey is not required but is necessary to make an annual report of the - RIMA ( Relatório de Impacto Ambiental). The PLG can be transformed to "Research Permits" (PDP), combining 20 PLGs to form a minimum 1,000 ha claim area ,by request to the DNPM to encompass/protect any primary occurrences detected by the work survey. The PLG is negotiable. In the garimpeiros reserves, it is only possible to acquire PLG claims; outside these reserves, it is possible to acquire PDP and PLG claims.
3- GOLD PRODUCERS ASSOCIATIONS AND LOCAL LEADERSHIPS
In the face of structural changes, the individualism of "garimpeiros" activities had to change . Producers associations,i.e. cooperatives were formed . AMOT ("Associação dos mineradores de Ouro do Tapajós") is the most powerful and influential of all the associations. It intends to help their members legalize their respective areas, to facilitate negotiations of the same through partnerships and option agreements with small and large companies. AMOT has established an effective and efficient approach to work with state and federal governments. Thissystem has allowed the administration and political steps of the process to transform the small miners into large mining enterprises more eficientely.
4- GOVERNMENT POLICY
The federal government is working with its mineral divisions to modify mining rules and fiscal laws that continue to be inefective for the development of mining interests in Brazil.
The state government of Pará, being the brazilian state with the most mineral potential, is influencing federal government decisions ,assisting corporate interests by facilitating contacts, agreements and processes.
5- BRAZILIAN GEOLOGICAL SERVICE
The CPRM, a federal state company was transformed into the Geological Service, for the objective to help all mining companies that want to invest in Brazil. The CPRM has a prominent office in Belém where they are completing a 1/1,000,000 geological scale and metalogenic maps of all Oriental Amazon and a 1/500,000 scale of Tapajós, Amapá and Parú-Jari provinces. The CPRM also has an office in Itaituba, the Tapajós capital where it is making a more detailed mapping project of the Tapajós gold province. All information is available to the public. Remote sensing, computer digitized maps and geoprocessing are intensively used.
6- AVAILABLE INFORMATION LEVEL
With hydraulic dismount advent and tractors being used, even in exclusive air access, alluvial and colluvial overburden were removed, showing the saprolites with its geological structures of all dimensions, forming ,thereby, artificial outcrops , sometimes, of more than 500m in length. These kind of occurrences represent 80% of Gurupi, Amapá and Carajás provinces and 30% of Tapajós, Altamira, Trombetas and Parú-Jari provinces. Works in primary occurrences ,i.e. underground, with shaft, galeries (drifts, crosscuts) are known . Even when this information is not available, we have other alternatives as the alluvial richest strechts. We can compare the different occurrences of a same district, the historic production, check the satellite image showing limits , extension and direction of alluvial placers to get the occurrence dimension and potential.
7- THE REAL SITUATION OF GARIMPOS AFTER THE BRAZILIAN MONETARY STABILIZATION
The "garimpagem" in Brazil went through a difficult phase in the beginning of the 80’s, helped by a transformation process of the society and by a gold monetary system (against a high rate of inflation at that time) extremely profitable for gold producers. This situation made them rich. They formed models for many others adventurers. Hundreds of thousands of men mined and finished with a large part of available alluvial deposits, allowing this way, a delimitation "a posteriori", of the gold occurrences in the Oriental Amazon provinces.
With the monetary stabilization, gold came to be a simple commodity of which extraction became accessible only to professionals. Ten thousands of these professionals are today mining colluvial, saprolites and primary deposits. Only a few of them reached success and only some of them continue working to keep their areas/mineral rights with the objective to succeed by obtaining partnerships and sales, under option agreement form to more technological and financially qualified companies. The adventurers of the 80’s dissolved into an Amazon integration process, in services, and commercial activities, into small cities that have been created all along the Amazon’s new roads. The invader "garimpeiro" image represents today an Amazon historic phase as the gold rush represents a picturesque phase of west American history.
8- THE INDIGENOUS POLICY
Many indigenous reserves take limited parts of the gold provinces ( south of Rio das Tropas into Tapajós Province , south of Tucumã and west of Carajás into Carajás Province, Oiapoque in north of Amapá-Guyana province, north of Paru-Jari and Trombetas provinces). The new brazilian law concerning mining on indigenous lands, is being studied in National Congress, however the research and mining into these reserves is not of interest at this moment.
9- THE ECOLOGICAL POLICY
The federal brazilian laws and states that are forming the Oriental Amazon region used North American models. However, in practice , the issue of the RIMA( "Relatorio de Impacto Ambiental ") its required to obtain mining decrees and a PLG is necessary to get through simple administrative processes.
Visit our site for more information on Brazil, minerals, properties and exploration