Brazil court deals blow to massive Amazon gold mine project

Indigenous people, painted with red ink representing spilled indigenous blood and clay representing gold, march during a protest against the increase of mining activities that are encroaching on their land, in front of the Ministry of Mines and Energy in Brazil (Eraldo Peres/AP)

A Brazilian federal court has upheld the suspension of an environmental license for what would be the largest open-pit gold mine in the nation’s Amazon rainforest, dealing a blow to the Canada-based company behind the project.

Belo Sun Mining was appealing the same court’s 2017 ruling, which found that the company’s consultation with local indigenous peoples and study on the project’s socio-environmental impacts did not meet the criteria required by the National Indian Foundation.