Belém, Brazil – The arrest of the director of Brazil’s National Mining Agency (ANM) and a senior official of the Brazilian Geological Survey (SGB), along with 20 others targeted by the Federal Police’s Operation Rejeito, has unleashed an unprecedented crisis in Brazil’s mining sector and prompted Congresswoman Duda Salabert (PDT-MG) to demand a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI) on mining. The police investigation exposed a corruption and licensing fraud scheme worth hundreds of millions and potentially billions of dollars, reaching the highest levels of regulatory agencies and revealing what Salabert described as a “mining mafia” that has infiltrated all branches of governmental power.
Brazil is the world’s second-largest iron ore producer, and its gold exports flow to international markets. Corruption and weak oversight in this sector pose risks not only to local communities but also to global supply chains and international finance.
“What the Federal Police revealed in Operation Rejeito are situations I have been denouncing for years, almost always as a solitary voice within Congress. The relationship between mining companies, lobbyists, and the government goes beyond immorality: it operates as a mafia infiltrated in all powers. It is regrettable that the country set to host the UN Climate Summit (COP30) in Belem has approved the so-called Devastation Bill, which opens even more loopholes for such crimes. Do we want to be a global reference in environmental protection? That will not happen as long as mining and other polluting corporations remain free of accountability,” Salabert said in a statement to Amazon Watch.
Also from Minas Gerais, Congresswoman Célia Xakriabá (PSOL-MG) demands that the investigations continue. “The police have uncovered a corruption network that reaches the highest echelons of environmental agencies in Minas Gerais and raises serious suspicions of maneuvers to favor mining companies at the expense of life. In our state, measures to protect territories have been systematically blocked, and this omission is not only an attack on our cultural memory, but a direct risk to the water supply of the metropolitan region and to the survival of indigenous peoples, quilombolas, and traditional communities and their territories. Life cannot be a bargaining chip: we need rigorous investigation and immediate accountability,” said the congresswoman.
The CPI request comes amid the fallout of Operation Rejeito, conducted by the Federal Police and the Federal Comptroller’s Office (CGU), which uncovered fraudulent mining licenses in Minas Gerais, the same state that suffered the deadly Mariana and Brumadinho disasters in 2015 and 2019. The operation led to 22 arrests, suspension of public officials, and the freezing of R$ 1.5 billion (US$ 280 million) in assets, with an additional R$ 18 billion (US$ 3.4 billion) in projects potentially affected by the scheme. For social movements resisting the destructive expansion of mining, these revelations confirm that such crimes are not exceptions but part of a structural pattern of state capture by private interests.
In a public letter released this week, the Volta Grande do Xingu Alliance, an international coalition of communities, organizations, and researchers, expressed its full support for the CPI and urged lawmakers to endorse Congresswoman Salabert’s request. “These episodes cannot be treated as accidents; they are crimes foretold, the result of state capture by private interests and the chronic negligence of agencies that should protect people and the environment. Allowing Belo Sun to move forward would mean repeating the same mistakes in the Amazon that devastated Minas Gerais,” the letter stated.
The Alliance’s warning refers to the Canadian company Belo Sun Mining, which aims to build the largest open-pit gold mine on the banks of the Volta Grande region of the Xingu River in Pará state. A court suspended the project’s license in 2017, citing failures in the consultation process with the Juruna and Arara Indigenous peoples. Authorities and civil society groups have accused the company of land grabbing in federal agrarian settlements and hiring armed security to intimidate local communities. Independent studies have further pointed to an “unacceptably high” risk of tailings dam failure, which could dump millions of cubic meters of toxic waste into the Xingu in a matter of hours.
According to experts, the crisis goes beyond individual accountability. “Investigations show that Brazil’s top mining regulators served the looting of public goods by private interests. The regulatory system ceased to fulfill its constitutional role and began to collude with organized crime. This calls into question the integrity and effectiveness of the entire regulatory model, which must be restructured and rebuilt,” said Ana Alfinito, legal advisor at Amazon Watch.
Mariazinha Baré, general coordinator of the Amazon Indigenous Peoples and Organizations Network (APIAM), in coordination with COIAB, argues that an investigation should also look at the Amazon, because, according to her, the region also suffers from irregular licenses.
“These false authorizations not only legalize the advance of destruction, but also put our water, our health, and our food security at risk. The Mura people, like so many others, are being directly affected by licenses that are often granted without consultation, without respect for ILO Convention 169, and in total disregard for our ways of life. It is essential to give visibility to what is happening in our territories,” said Baré.
The CPI request requires 171 signatures in Brazil’s lower house of Congress. Salabert and supporting organizations warn that if lawmakers refuse to endorse the initiative, it will show unequivocally that the mining lobby has captured control of Congress.
