Brazilian mining companies getting involved in environmental licensing debates

Mining companies in Brazil are looking to get their voices heard in congressional debates on updating environmental licensing rules.

During a meeting with senator Confúcio Moura, who is the rapporteur of a bill to change the rules, the president of mining association Ibram, Raul Jungmann, underlined the importance of considering the views of stakeholders.

“The mining sector cannot be left out of the framework, which aims to modernize one of the main sector bottlenecks for attracting investments and reinforcing legal certainty,” Jungmann said in a statement.

Mining companies repeatedly criticized their exclusion from debates about environmental licensing procedures.

"The original text that came from the lower house ended up excluding, unduly and unjustifiably, mining from its context. Mining is one of the three main sectors of the Brazilian economy and will grow even more in the energy transition scenario, based on the supply of critical and strategic minerals, essential for new sources of clean energy," Ibram’s director of institutional relations, Rinaldo César Mancin, wrote on social media. 

A date for a senate vote on the bill has yet to be defined.