Amazonian Indigenous Women Occupy Federal Agency to Demand Suspension of Belo Sun Mining’s License

Belém, Brazil – Since February 23, more than 140 Indigenous people, led by the Middle Xingu Indigenous Women’s Movement (MMIMX), have occupied the Brazilian federal Indigenous agency FUNAI’s regional office in the Amazonian city of Altamira to demand the suspension of Belo Sun’s mining license for its “Volta Grande” gold mine on the banks of the Xingu River. Indigenous women from the region have emerged as leading defenders of the river and their territories, organizing resistance to projects that threaten water, food systems, and community health. The proposed open pit mine would sit along the Volta Grande stretch of the Xingu, an area already severely impacted by the Belo Monte mega dam and home to dozens of Indigenous communities, which leaders say cannot withstand another large scale industrial project.

The mobilization brings together representatives of the Juruna, Xikrin, Xipaia, and Curuaia peoples, who are calling for the suspension of the Canadian company’s license for the Volta Grande project, slated to become Brazil’s largest open pit gold mine in the heart of the Amazon. Protest leaders also demand that authorities transfer Belo Sun’s licensing process from the Pará state government to the federal level under the authority of the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), arguing that the project threatens Indigenous territories and the ecological stability of the Xingu River basin.