Residents of Quilombo do Baú, who hear detonations less than three kilometers from home, have secured a court order to suspend the licenses and halt the operations of a lithium mine in Vale do Jequitinhonha, subject to a fine that could reach R$ 100,000 for noncompliance.
The decision was issued on Friday, September 4, in the Federal Court of Teófilo Otoni, in the Vale do Mucuri.
It mandates that Sigma Lithium suspend the environmental licenses for the Grota do Cirilo project and cease extraction until the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) approves the resumption of activities.
The document was signed by federal judge Antônio Lúcio Túlio de Oliveira Barbosa from the Civil Court and Special Federal Court of Teófilo Otoni, affiliated with TRF-6.
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The distance between the mine and the quilombo is at the center of the dispute
According to the court document, the mining project is located approximately 2.7 to 3 kilometers from the boundary of the traditional territory of the Quilombola Community of Baú, in Araçuaí.
This number changes everything.
The legal protection radius for mining outside the Amazon Legal, defined by Interministerial Ordinance No. 60/2015, is eight kilometers. Thus, the project is well within the range that triggers the requirement.
Three documents that were required but did not exist
Since the project is within the radius, the legislation requires a specific set of studies prior to any license being issued.
These are three: the Quilombola Component Study, the Quilombola Basic Environmental Plan, and an Informal, Preliminary, Informed, and Good-Faith Consultation with the affected community, all under the supervision of Incra.
The prior consultation is not merely a procedural formality. It is the tool that allows the community to express what they accept and what they do not before the work commences, not after the excavations begin.
Without these three approved documents, the license remains legally weak.
It was precisely this weakness that the ruling highlighted. The judge did not discuss whether lithium should or should not be extracted but rather whether the required procedure by law was followed prior to the start of operations.
Explosives, dust, and earth movement just a few kilometers from homes
The decision outlines what has been happening while the studies were pending.
According to the text, the continuous extraction of resources, the use of explosives, and earth movements just a few kilometers from the traditional community have caused harm to the local population.
Those who have lived near mining operations know what this means in practice: houses shake during detonations, dust enters through the windows, and the noise dictates everyone’s schedule.
The decision for resumption now lies with Incra, not the company
The ruling ties the resumption of operations to an external condition, and that is what makes it stringent.
The mining operation may only resume when the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform approves the return, after the completion of the Quilombola component study and the community consultation.
In other words, the mining company’s schedule now depends on a process it does not control, and no timeline has been disclosed.
The fine is up to R$ 100,000 for each act of noncompliance
To underscore the order, the judge established a financial sanction. In case of noncompliance, the fine for each violation can reach R$ 100,000, according to the State of Minas.
It was not clear in the publications whether this amount is per day, per event, or per infraction, so it is safest to treat it as a cap per act.
The company had already accumulated fines from the Minas Gerais government, totaling approximately R$ 2 million (about US$360,000) in previous penalties, according to the same survey.
Why Lithium from Jequitinhonha Became a National Dispute
The Jequitinhonha Valley has entered the global electric battery map in recent years. The lithium oxide concentrate produced there supplies the electric vehicle chain outside Brazil.
The declared capacity of the complex is about 330,000 tons per year of concentrate, according to data circulating in coverage of the case.
That is why an injunction from a county in the interior of Minas has repercussions in the stock market. The mineral driving the global energy transition comes from a place where the distance of blasting from people’s homes is still debated.
This tension between global demand and local territory appears throughout the rush for the metal, as we have shown when mapping the lithium triangle in the Americas and who dominates the battery chain.
The Quilombo Community is Not the Only One in the Region
The decision mentions three communities surrounding the enterprise, between Araçuaí and Itinga, although the Baú Community is the one named directly in the center of the process.
The traditional territory is recognized, and it is this recognition that triggers the requirement for consultation.
This is a relevant practical difference. Communities without recognized title typically fall outside the process, while recognized territory automatically triggers the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) and interministerial ordinance.
We see this pattern repeated in almost every mineral conflict in Brazil: the law exists, but it is only activated after someone goes to court.
What Remains Open
There is disagreement about the exact distance between the mining operation and the boundary of the territory. Incra works with about 2.3 kilometers, while the State of Minas cites distances of 2.7 to 3 kilometers.
The measurement continues in appraisal, but the disagreement does not alter the essential: any of these numbers falls within the eight-kilometer radius stipulated in the ordinance.
There is also no public information on how many jobs are halted due to the suspension, nor on the amount invested in the project.
As of September 7, there had been no response from the mining company published in the consulted reports, and there is no defined deadline for Incra to complete its analysis.
In the meantime, mining operations remain halted, and the production schedule is undefined.
The details of the decision, with excerpts from the judicial document, can be found in the report by Estado de Minas authored by Melissa Souza.
What do you think: does prior consultation with the community delay mining or prevent conflict down the line?
