Gov’t creates policy for environmental licensing in mining

The government of Brazil has established the so-called Policy for Strategic Minerals, in a bid to identify projects of exploration of minerals of interest to the country, which should now receive support from the Investment Partnerships Program (PPI) in the environmental licensing process. The decree signed by President Jair Bolsonaro was published today (Mar. 25) in the nation’s Official Gazette and also institutes the International Committee for the Assessment of Projects on Strategic Minerals.

The policy was devised and classified within the scope of the government’s privatization and concession plans, or PPI. It will be promoted by the new committee, tasked with assessing mining projects and enable them to get support for licensing. The measure is permanent, and said to aim “to spearhead efforts among public agencies to prioritize government initiatives for the implementation of projects for the production of minerals strategic for the country.”

In a note, the president’s secretariat explains that the initiative by no means reduces the strictness of environmental legislation, “which is not undergoing any change.”

“All approved projects will still have to meet all environmental requirements and complete all stages of the procedure for any other mineral project. Projects will only be made expeditious through direct support from PPI’s secretariat, with no suppression of requirements in licensing,” the note reads.

Brazil, the text goes on, has relevant reserves of strategic minerals with economic potential. “These are key mining projects, considered mature and having financing resources available for implementation, but they pose or may pose challenges in development due to the complexity of environmental licensing.”

Projects should be approved when they are found to involve: mineral goods on which the country depends in the form of high-percentage imports to supply vital sectors of the economy; mineral goods with an important application on state-of-the art products and processes; or mineral goods crucial to the economy in increasing the surplus in the country’s balance of trade.

“The goal of the initiative is to ensure the domestic supply of mineral goods on whose imports the country is currently heavily dependent; to consolidate and preserve the country’s status as a major producer or exporter of certain mineral goods; and to allow Brazil to attain globally leading positions in new mineral chains estimated to undergo solid growth in demand,” the note says.

The committee will be coordinated by the Ministry of Mines and Energy and will be joined by the PPI’s Special Secretariat of the Economy Ministry, the Office of Institutional Security and the Special Secretariat for Strategic Affairs  of the president’s office, and the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation. The Ministry of Science, however, will only have the right to vote in deliberations on rare-earth or other minerals with important application in state-of-the-art products and processes.

Amazon Council

President Jair Bolsonaro also included the Ministry of Mines and Energy in the Deliberative System for the Protection of the Amazon (CONSIPAM), whose board now comprises ten ministries, chaired by the Defense Ministry.

The decree was also published Thursday in the Official Gazette.

CONSIPAM is a deliberative agency tasked with laying out guidelines for the coordination of government efforts within the System for the Protection of the Amazon (SIPAM), in compliance with the National Integrated Policy for the Legal Amazon.