Brazil’s prosecutors are again trying to stop Canada’s potash mine in the Amazon

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian federal prosecutors have filed a lawsuit seeking to suspend the license granted to a Canadian company to build Latin America’s largest fertilizer mine in the Amazon rainforest, their office said.

Brazil Potash Corp’s proposed mine overlaps with ancestral lands of the Mura indigenous people, whose territory is currently being demarcated, prosecutors said in a statement released Tuesday. They added that licensing must be a federal matter decided by Brazil’s environmental protection agency Ibama, rather than the state environmental agency Ipaam.

Prosecutors in Manaus said Mura leaders were subjected to “false promises and threats.” It added that the mine posed a “serious environmental risk” that would also impact the entire population of the area, particularly those near the river, and that proper impact studies had not been carried out.

Brazil Potash claims that the Mura area has not been officially recognized as a protected reserve by the Brazilian government and can therefore be licensed by the state of Amazonas, whose governor fully supports the $2.6 billion project.

Prosecutors have disputed the mine since 2016 and the project was halted by a federal judge in 2023, a decision that was later overturned by a higher appeals court.

Matt Simpson, Brazil Potash’s chief executive, said the company had requested 10 days to issue a statement “demonstrating the legal impracticability” of the prosecutor’s request.

The appeals court in Brasília, which overturned the Manaus judge’s decision, “established the state’s jurisdiction to conduct environmental licensing and approved the continuation of the licensing process,” Simpson said in a letter to Reuters.

The mine could be crucial for Brazilian agriculture as it will reduce Brazil’s 90 percent dependence on imported potash. But it has been held up by opposition from the Mura people, who say they have not been consulted about the use of their ancestral land.

The story goes on

Gov. Wilson Lima, who says the mine will bring investment and development to his state, announced last month that the installation license had been granted to build the mine in Autazes, 75 miles (120 km) southeast of the state capital Manaus.

Brazil Potash said it will begin shafts this year to extract potash and return salt to the mine’s soil. The construction period of the project will be three years.

Simpson said the mine will deliver potash to Brazilian agricultural states via riverboats at less than the transportation costs of producers in Russia, Belarus and Canada who have to ship around the world.

Brazil Potash is owned by CD Capital with a 34% stake, Sentient with a 23% stake and Stan Bharti’s Forbes & Manhattan Group, a Toronto-based merchant bank that originated the project and now owns 14% along with other shareholders.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle in Brasília and Ana Mano in São Paulo; Editing by Aurora Ellis)