A Canadian mining company wants to open the largest open-pit gold mine in Brazil’s history in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
However, Indigenous rights and environmental advocates are targeting the company’s shareholders to stop it, saying Toronto-headquartered Belo Sun has made “misleading” claims to investors about its Volta Grande project.
The allegations about the proposed mine in the Volta Grande do Xingu region are spelled out in a recent report from Amazon Watch. The area is home to Indigenous communities as well as farming and fishing communities that rely on the land and water.
The Amazon basin is one of the most important ecological regions in the world because its vast forests absorb so much carbon dioxide that it helps to regulate global warming. Further, it’s home to about one in 10 species, making it a vital region for protecting the world’s biodiversity. But deforestation and mining in the region threaten the forest’s ability to help stabilize the global climate and put countless species under intense pressure.