Chamber of Deputies to Vote on Mining Bill
10/1/97
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Headline: Chamber of Deputies to Vote on Mining Bill
Source: Reuters
Date: 10/1/97
Author: Michael Christie
BRASILIA, Oct 1 (Reuter) - Brazil's Chamber of Deputies is likely to vote
next week on a bill that opens up Indian lands to controlled mining,
officials said on Wednesday.
Congressman Salomao Cruz, one of the proponents of the legislation that
promises to give mining firms access to billions of dollars in hitherto
untouchable gold and diamond deposits, said he hoped the lower house would
vote on Tuesday.
``There are 30,000 requests to carry out mineral surveys in indigenous
areas. This bill will regulate exploration and mining in those areas,''
Cruz said.
The government and the National Indian Foundation (Funai) support the
bill, arguing it will replace unregulated wildcat miners and their
environmentally damaging mining practices, with large firms working within
the law.
Cruz said the bill, which has already passed through the Senate,
guarantees royalties for the Indians, requires anthropological studies are
carried out and demands that indigenous communities be consulted.
``If they don't agree, the mining won't go ahead,'' he said.
But pressure groups note that Cruz and other politicians pushing for the
bill are from the northern state of Roraima, where anti-Indian feeling
runs high, and that vast mineral reserves are thought to be buried in the
lands of the Yanomami and other indigenous tribes.
The Catholic Church's Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI) said the
proponents of the legislation were only interested in the economic
potential of mineral deposits in Indian lands.
Brazil's 300,000 Indians have constitutionally guaranteed land rights
covering some 11 percent of this vast country. Outsiders cannot enter
indigenous reserves without permission, though in practice this is often
flouted.
A Funai spokesman said it backed the bill because it would give Indians
and Funai complete control over the process.
``The Indians have a role to play and before anything can happen, Funai
has to give the nod,'' the spokesman said.