08/27/2026
In a key development, Brazil’s National Indigenous Peoples Foundation (FUNAI) has officially recognized 20 Indigenous communities in the Amazon’s Volta Grande do Xingu as potentially affected by the Canadian company Belo Sun’s proposed mega gold mine. Critically, these include communities located outside formally demarcated Indigenous territories which have been ignored by the company.
FUNAI has also called for Indigenous-impact studies to be supplemented before the project’s environmental licensing can move forward, stating that the project’s reinstated Installation License should be suspended or annulled until these outstanding issues are resolved.
Amazon Watch will continue to work alongside our partners on the Xingu and the Association of Brazil’s Indigenous Peoples (APIB) to monitor the case and defend Indigenous peoples’ right to adequate studies and to Free, Prior and Informed Consultation before projects affecting their territories and ways of life can proceed.
The Volta Grande do Xingu is not a sacrifice zone for industrial mining! Apib
