One year ago, news spread that there were gold nuggets “sprouting out of the ground” in Serra do Expedito, 25 kilometers from the city of Aripuanã in the northeast of Mato Grosso. In search of a quick buck, over 3,000 men from various parts of the country were drawn toward the wildcat gold mine, which is located in an area of 2,800 hectares on the Dardanellos farm. The land neighbors the premises of mining company Nexa Resources, a member of Brazilian multinational Grupo Votorantim, which has its own project to implement an underground mine to extract lead and copper.
Working day and night, wildcat miners deforested the area and excavated the earth, using rudimentary machinery and causing an environmental impact on the Aripuanã and Branco rivers. The Dardanellos farm belongs to Luiz de Almeida Saliez, who says he signed a 23-year contract with Nexa/Votorantim to use the land. The company denies this agreement, however, saying “Nexa has no contractual relationship with the individual in question which involves the property where illegal gold mining invasions are occurring.”
In 2018, Mr. Saliez reported the trespassing of wildcat gold miners and environmental crimes to the corresponding authorities in Mato Grosso. “The situation is dangerous because the illegal [miners] don’t want to talk. If we get close to them, we will be killed,” he said at that time.
In the early hours of Monday, October 7, around 160 Federal Police officers, with the support of the Military Police, the Brazilian Environmental Protection Agency (Ibama), and Mato Grosso State Environment Department (Sema) went to the Dardanellos farm to carry out a court-ordered eviction of trespassers, as part of the second phase of Operation Trype, targeting illegal gold mining.
The Federal Police operation is opposed by Aripuanã’s mayor, Jonas Rodrigues da Silva, and member of Congress Nelson Barbudo. Both have requested the intervention of President Jair Bolsonaro—who supports opening up mining activities, even on indigenous lands—to maintain the gold mining on the Dordanellos farm.
The Federal Police told Amazônia Real that the investigations have not hinted toward the involvement of Nexa employees with the illegal extraction of gold. The corporation also said the company has collaborated with security forces, offering logistic help for the peaceful removal of gold miners.
Mayor Silva argues that the wildcat miners “are family men” and the mine “heated up the local economy.” He declared a state of social emergency in Aripuanã to attend to the gold miners.
The operation is part of a Federal Police investigation which indicates “that trade occurred by way of an articulated system of money laundering involving the issuance of false documents and the use of bank accounts opened for this specific criminal purpose,” reads the police website.
But the mood is tense in Aripuanã, the city which lies 967 kilometers from the state capital of Cuiabá. Wildcat miners have retaliated to the police operation, with one dying from two gunshots to the chest during a confrontation with special ops forces of the Mato Grosso Military...
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