Story: Lucio Lambranho
Editing: Maurício Angelo
Photos: Isis Medeiros
Translated by Gabriela Sarmet
A bill by the Araçuaí City Council in Minas Gerais is attempting to reduce the limits of the Chapada do Lagoão Environmental Protection Area (APA) and has been criticised by environmentalists since the beginning of this year because it is supposed to serve the interests of mining companies, including the US group Atlas, which received priority from the Minas Gerais government even before the company’s subsidiary was created, as we showed in our first article.
The project, which was the subject of a public hearing in the Minas Gerais Legislative Assembly (ALMG) and could reduce the protected area by 23 per cent, is still being processed in the city’s Chamber of Councillors, although pressure from environmentalists and the Public Prosecutor’s Office has removed the initial ‘extremely urgent’ nature requested by the mayor.
The central point is that there was no free, prior, informed and good faith consultation, as determined by Federal Decree 10.088/2009, when Brazil ratified ILO Convention 169, of the quilombola communities of Córrego do Narciso, Giral, Malhada Preta, Água Branca and Santa Rita do Piauí, all of which are directly impacted by the use of the APA’s natural resources and are likely to be affected by Atlas’ projects and international greed for the region.
‘The change in the delimitation of the Chapada do Lagoão APA area may be related to the interests of companies linked to lithium mining. It can be seen on the map that there are polygons of lithium mining processes overlapping the current APA area, and highlighted on the map are the polygons of the lithium mining processes of the Atlas Lithium company with a projection of the installation of the open pits according to the EIA/RIMA presented in the environmental licensing process underway,’ highlights the Manifesto in Defence of the APA by the Observatory of the Valleys and the Semi-Arid Region of Minas Gerais (see image below).
According to data from the National Mining Agency (ANM), Atlas Lítio Brasil Ltda has 14 processes registered in Araçuaí. Of these, five are in the APA area, three of which are mentioned in contracts with other foreign investors in the project, but only one of which is included in the operating licence that began in 2023 and was granted in October 2024.
The five Atlas processes in the APA region are part of a research study carried out by João Luiz Jacintho, a professor at the Federal Institute of Northern Minas Gerais and a specialist in Geoprocessing. The overlapping of the areas was also mentioned in the analysis of mining process maps by the Observatory of the Valleys and the Semi-Arid Region of Minas Gerais in a technical document opposing the reduction of the environmental preservation area proposed by the local town hall.
‘Based on the Bill presented by the city council and the numerous reports of interest in exploiting the Chapada do Lagoão APA by mining companies, I analysed the processes registered with the ANM in the regions that would be modified with the new delimitation (between the 500m and 575m contour lines). Comparing the information on the SIGMINE portal and the project attached by the Mayor (Tadeu Barbosa, from PSD) to the PL, I identified almost 80 active processes, including some that already have authorisations to start operating,’ explains João Jacintho.
According to the professor’s analysis, of the 75 mining processes located around the APA or overlapping with the municipal preservation area, 30 of them would benefit from the reduction of the protection area between the 500 and 575 contour lines.
Feature photo: APA area could be affected by interest from Atlas and other mining companies / Isis Medeiros
Overlapping mining projects affect a small but relevant area of the APA
In one of the sections of the opinion issued by the Minas Gerais government body that granted Atlas’ request, it is stated that the exploration area “does not intersect any conservation unit, nor their buffer plan, although it is close to the limits of the Chapada do Lagoão APA, which is a municipal conservation unit”.
But in another, it admits a ‘small overlap’. ‘However, the Chapada do Lagoão APA is around 43 metres from the project area. Although the APA is not intercepted by the project, there is a small overlap with the area of direct influence (AID) of the impacts resulting from the activity.’
The same document acknowledges the impacts on the fauna of the APA, which is marked by the transition between the Cerrado and Caatinga biomes, and minimises the impacts on the flora because it is an ‘already anthropised area with forest in the initial stage of regeneration’:
‘Despite the studies and Semad itself reproducing the ‘anthropised area’ discourse, the Environmental Impact Report (RIMA) requesting the expansion of the project mentions, on page 42, that: 52% is Seasonal Deciduous Forest in medium and advanced stages + 17% Seasonal Deciduous Forest in early stages + 10% flooded areas. In other words, 79 per cent of the project’s ADA (Direct Affected Area) is made up of natural vegetation. I think this is a very relevant piece of data,’ contests Marcos Cristiano Zucarelli, who has a PhD in Social Anthropology, specialises in environmental licensing and is a researcher at the Environmental Themes Study Group (GESTA/UFMG).
Zucarelli is part of a group of researchers involved in an ongoing study of the region involving four institutions: London South Bank University (UK), the Interdisciplinary Centre for Socio-Environmental Research (NIISA – Montes Claros State University), the Observatory of the Valleys and Semi-Arid of Minas Gerais (Federal University of the Jequitinhonha and Mucuri Valleys) and the Environmental Themes Study Group (GESTA – Federal University of Minas Gerais).
The research project evaluates lithium exploration in the region under the title ‘Local, Indigenous, Quilombola and Traditional Communities and the construction of the “Lithium Valley” in Minas Gerais, Brazil: Empowering silenced voices in the energy transition (LIQUIT)’.
Rules were changed in Minas Gerais to downgrade the polluting potential of lithium
Among the group’s analyses is what the researcher classifies as the ‘macro political issue’: the change in environmental legislation made by the government of Minas Gerais, specifically for the environmental licensing of lithium mining.
According to the expert, while local governments are trying to do their part, the state government has already been changing the laws since 2021 with the publication of Copam Normative Deliberation No. 240/2021.
Under the rule, the activity of a tailings pile for pegmatites (the rock from which lithium is extracted) is no longer considered to have a high polluting potential (as it was defined in the previous DN 217/2017) and is now classified as having a medium polluting/degrading potential.
‘With this change, no licence for a lithium tailings pile will be subject to a more restrictive environmental licence, where more time is required to study the environmental viability of the project within the scope of a three-phase licence, where the three licences (Preliminary Licence, Installation Licence and Operating Licence) are analysed separately. This change makes concurrent licences possible, without adequate time to assess environmental impacts, technological and/or locational alternatives, as it results in concurrent environmental licences, granted in very short timeframes that hinder the analysis of socio-environmental viability and also the exercise of social control,’ explains Zucarelli.
Regarding the existence of the APA, the overlap and the environmental impacts of the project, Semad claims, however, that the single opinion referring to the environmental licensing process considers the existence of the Chapada do Lagoão APA, ‘but clarifies that the area directly affected (ADA) by the project does not intersect the APA or any other conservation unit or buffer zone’.
‘According to Law No. 9.985 of 2000, Environmental Protection Areas (APA) do not have a buffer zone. The analysis of environmental impacts takes into account the area of direct influence (AID), without contradiction in the licensing process,’ the statement adds.
In the process in which the company requests the expansion of the project, its Environmental Impact Report (Rima) states that part of the operations are within the APA (see images below). In other words, it goes beyond the overlap mentioned in the first licence already granted.
‘Although the AER [Regional Study Area] is predominantly located in a region of very high biological importance, there is no Integral Protection Conservation Unit in it, but the APA (Environmental Protection Area) Chapada do Lagoão is registered, which is partially inserted in the ADA, with only 0.08% of its area occupied by the project.’
‘It’s not true when Semad claims that the ‘area directly affected (ADA) by the project does not intersect the APA’,’ says Zucarelli, mentioning the part of the document found by the report where the company admits that 0.08% of this area will be occupied by the project. This would be equivalent to around 20 hectares and the size of the project’s pit.
The researcher also considers that other important aspects, even though the area is small, should be taken into account when requesting the expansion of the project.
‘The study commissioned by Atlas tries to diminish it by reducing it to a percentage fraction. No matter how small the area directly affected, the important thing would be to know what function this ‘fraction’ fulfils for the region? What specifically exists in it? What structure of the project will occupy this area? We need to thoroughly investigate the level of damage to water bodies and the dispersal of fauna and flora if this ‘fraction’ is destroyed by the project. This is not explained in the EIA/RIMA,’ says Zucarelli.
This second environmental licence for Atlas has had a request for a public hearing filed by the MPMG since 9 January this year, but it has not yet been held.
Semad argues that mining can coexist with the conservation unit
According to Semad, however, the APA allows sustainable use, which means that projects can coexist with the conservation unit, ‘as long as they are compatible with the unit’s management plan’. ‘The assessment of the project’s compatibility with the APA is carried out by the conservation unit’s management body,’ it says.
In addition, the state environmental agency argues that although the company admits that part of its expansion project is within the APA by 0.08%, ‘the authorised mining area does not overlap the APA or the territories of quilombola communities, being restricted to the polygonal of the ANM process’.
‘Analysing the compatibility of the project with the management plan of a conservation unit is the responsibility of the APA’s management body, which can express its opinion in the environmental licensing process, in accordance with Decree 47,941/2020 and CONAMA Resolution 428/2010,’ says Semad.
Besides this, the agency says that it carried out a technical inspection on 11 October 2023 and recently, on 20 February 2025, the State Environment Foundation (Feam) visited the expansion areas for initial assessments.
It adds that there is no set deadline for holding the public hearing requested by the MPMG, but that ‘the company is following the rules for convening and publicising the event in advance’.
The Mining Observatory was unable to get a response from Atlas Lithium after numerous contacts with its representatives in recent weeks. The space remains open for comments.
Company said that quilombola communities did not exist in the area surrounding the extraction project; City Hall project ignored endorsement by the mining basins committee
In the case of the quilombola communities, the first licensing opinion says that it only complied with the response from the State Secretariat for Social Development (SEDESE) that ‘the developer, through a multidisciplinary team, carried out a diagnosis of the socio-economic situation by consulting the Quilombola Community of Girau and the Malhada Preta Sector, as shown in the document analysed’.
The text doesn’t clarify whether the communities were consulted beforehand, but in the case of the bill to reduce the APA there was no consultation of any kind, as MPMG claims. The same opinion states that at first the company went so far as to say that ‘there are no quilombola communities in the project’s ADA’.
For the time being, the Minas Gerais government has not clarified whether there were any consultations with the quilombola communities. ‘Consultation with quilombola communities was the responsibility of the State Secretariat for Social Development (Sedese). The environmental licence receives Sedese’s opinion on the subject, which is incorporated into the single opinion,’ says Semad. Sedese, like Sede, has so far not responded to our enquiries about this issue.
According to Marcos Zucarelli, from the data collected in the field so far by him and other researchers, the quilombola communities were not consulted. ‘I believe that the fact that there was no sociologist or anthropologist on the consultancy team that drew up the EIA/RIMA already indicates that traditional peoples and communities were not consulted. It also seems to me that another quilombola community that is close to the ADA, the Córrego do Narciso community, was not even mentioned,’ says the researcher.
‘After the release of the organisations’ notes and the technical information made available by research groups, the mining interest in the area that is being removed from the Chapada do Lagoão APA becomes evident. Furthermore, the way in which the City Council is conducting the process is extremely serious, trampling on the rights of traditional communities and even ignoring the recommendation of the MPMG,’ says Danilo Borges (PT), Araçuaí councillor.
According to the councillor, the most prudent course of action would be to withdraw the bill and convene the MPMG, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF), which deals with the rights of quilombola communities, universities, the Federal Institute, the Diocese of Araçuaí, Cáritas and the communities for a debate on the best management and preservation of the area. ‘This dialogue must guarantee both the protection of the springs and the maintenance of the residents‘ work and income, without hidden interests, but with transparency and democratic commitment,’ says the councillor.
The Araçuaí City Council’s project also failed to listen to the APA’s Management Council, created in 2022, which is against the reduction of the protection unit. And it was not submitted, as part of the Jequitinhonha River Basin, to the evaluation of the Minas Gerais State Hydrographic Basin Committee. This is according to an opinion that the report had access to from Kaíque Mesquita Cardoso, a forestry engineer and coordinator of the team that drew up the APA’s management plan.
‘Atlas’ strategy has been to make this first project viable because it will then ask for an extension of what has already been granted. And this extension implies precisely this advance into the Chapada do Lagoão. The water issue is extremely serious because the families already live in a context of water scarcity or water conflict. And resolving a water conflict with a water truck is not a dignified option,’ says Aline Weber Sulzbacher, a geographer and professor at UFVJM.
In response to Observatório da Mineração, the Araçuaí city council said that it had withdrawn the urgent bill due to ‘the need for further debate and analysis of the project’ and claimed that the reason was that the current boundaries of the APA interfere with a neighbouring municipality, which is also being questioned. The municipality of Araçuaí ‘believes that the Bill preserves the political autonomy of the Municipality of Caraí, since part of the APA, as it was created, unduly enters the territory of Caraí. Thus, despite the strength of the rights of the original peoples, which the Municipality of Araçuaí is tirelessly seeking to ensure and preserve, it is undeniable that, in the balance between the two legal situations, the constitutional prerogative of the autonomy of the federal entities is more relevant. With regard to possible changes, we are analysing the need,’ said the note from Mayor Tadeu Barbosa of the PSD.
Project by the US group Atlas to explore lithium in Jequitinhonha received priority from the Zema government in MG before the company’s subsidiary was even registered
The Atlas group, which is part of the Atlas Lithium Corporation, a US company based in Florida, is in the final stages of its project to start extracting lithium in the Jequitinhonha Valley in Minas Gerais.
While it claims that it intends to produce ‘environmentally responsible lithium’, Atlas Lithium Brazil has requirements that affect an environmental protection area, the APA Chapada do Lagoão, in Araçuaí.
According to the most recent survey by the Observatório dos Vales e do Semiárido Mineiro, of the Federal University of the Jequitinhonha and Mucuri Valleys (UFVJM), Atlas in Brazil has 85 mining processes registered in the semi-arid region of Minas Gerais. Of this total, 71 are for lithium extraction.
This project, which is currently being implemented, threatens an area that is a means of life and subsistence for traditional communities, especially quilombolas, and small rural producers, both of whom are already affected by water scarcity in the region.
On 6 June 2023, the ‘Atlas Lithium’ projects were given priority treatment by the Minas Gerais government to explore lithium, quartz and iron ore. Atlas Lithium Brazil was founded in 2013, but it was a subsidiary created on 3 August 2023 that received a ‘priority’ classification from the Minas Gerais State Secretariat for Economic Development (Sede) two months before it was even founded.
It is with this 2023 National Tax ID (CNPJ) that the group applied for an environmental licence from the Minas Gerais state government for extraction, before being granted a mining concession by the federal government, and that it is concentrating the record of its operations at Fazenda Calhauzinho in Araçuaí, one of the cities targeted by international greed for lithium, which is mainly used in the manufacture of electric car batteries.
The same official endorsement from the Minas Gerais government in the economic area also determined that the Atlas group’s environmental licensing processes should ‘also be prioritised’.
The State Secretariat for the Environment and Sustainable Development (SEMAD) affirms that the licensing process assesses the environmental impacts of the project and the mitigation and compensatory measures proposed, regardless of the date of the company’s registration.
‘The issue of the company’s formal registration is not linked to the analysis of environmental licensing, which focuses exclusively on the environmental viability of the project,’ Semad said in a statement to the Mining Observatory.
When asked to comment on the granting of priority before the creation of the company and the assurances given to Atlas, the other secretariats for Economic Development (Sedes) and Social Development have not responded to our requests for clarification so far.
Since 2017, when the Priority Projects Office (Suppri) began operating, hundreds of mining projects have received VIP treatment from various administrations in Minas Gerais, with the main aim of speeding up the approval of licences. The legal framework that allows the classification of priority projects for the Minas Gerais government has been controversial since the premises were created and validated by the State Assembly. To be considered a priority, a project must have a ‘relevant environmental, social and economic function’. However, the history of decisions shows that the economic factor has greatly prevailed over the socio-environmental one.
The Atlas project is part of a race by foreign companies in Jequitinhonha that has had a negative impact on local communities, as the Mining Observatory showed in October 2024. The report already mentioned the Atlas project, which claims to have ‘the largest in size and scope’ strategic mineral exploration project in Brazil.
Atlas’ tangle of companies includes similar names and headquarters in tax havens
Two other companies in the Atlas group were prioritised by the Romeu Zema government: Apollo Resources, a foreign company based in the tax haven of the Marshall Islands in the North Pacific, and Júpiter Gold Corporation and its Brazilian subsidiary, Júpiter Mineração.
The Atlas group concentrates a tangle of various mining companies in Brazil, linked to the same partner, Marcelo Figueiredo Fogaça.
In addition to Atlas Lithium Brasil, Fogaça is also involved with ‘Atlas Lithium’, created in July 2024 and also based in the Marshall Islands, ‘Atlas Recursos Minerais’, also from July 2024, ‘Athena Resources Corporation’, created in November 2023 and ‘Lithium Valley Mining Corporation’, both domiciled at the same address in the Marshall Islands, ‘Athena Litio Ltda’ and ‘Mineração Júpiter’ – different from Júpiter Gold – the last two based in Brazil.
These are several companies with similar names, but different CNPJs and domiciled in some cases in Brazil and others in the tax haven of the Marshall Islands, most of which were created in 2023 and 2024.
Since the end of February, the Mining Observatory has tried to contact various Atlas representatives by email. We left messages on landlines and mobile phones, but received no response from its representatives in Brazil or abroad on the issues covered in this article. The space remains open for comments.
Federal and state licences include a user guide from the ANM, a procedure questioned by the TCU
The operating licence for Atlas was granted on 25 October last year for ten years for the exploitation of 1.5 million tonnes/year of lithium. And it has already received a request to expand the extraction area just one month after the first authorisation certificate was issued with the endorsement of the State Environmental Policy Council (COPAM). The new protocol at the State Environmental Foundation (Feam) for the process was registered on 22 November 2024.
At the ANM, the mining process that is cited in the Minas Gerais government’s operational permit is at the mining application stage. 11 months before the October 2024 operational permit, the company obtained a use permit from the federal government’s regulatory agency to extract 300,000 tonnes of lithium.
As the Mining Observatory exclusively revealed, the use of this loophole by the ANM, which allows the use of the licences even before the environmental approval, is being challenged for its illegality in an audit by the Federal Court of Auditors.
According to Semad, ‘the project already has the licence for the installation and operation phases, and the extension of the licence was requested on 20 December 2024 and is currently under analysis. Semad carried out a technical inspection on 11 October 2023 and recently, on 20 February 2025, the State Environment Foundation (Feam) visited the expansion areas for initial assessments.’
Although they did not respond to the Observatory, in October 2024 Atlas Lithium CEO Marc Fogassa, commenting on obtaining the operating licence, said that this demonstrated ‘an unwavering commitment to developing an environmentally responsible and sustainable operation’ in Jequitinhonha. Rodrigo Menck, a member of the company’s Board of Directors, said that Atlas’ lithium processing plant is “designed to possibly achieve the lowest environmental footprint in its class”.
In January this year, Atlas received a recommendation from the US investment bank H.C. Wainwright as one of its top picks for 2025. The analysis says that Atlas should start production this year and that the company could ‘become a significant player in the global lithium supply chain’. In addition, the mentioned bank expects ‘Atlas’ low-cost operations in Brazil to create significant long-term profits, while offering geopolitical diversity for large lithium companies’.
Atlas received significant investments of 50 million dollars from China’s Chengxin and Yahua and a further 30 million dollars from Japan’s Mitsui.
City Hall project wants to reduce APA boundaries and communities have been ignored in the process
There is a project by the Araçuaí city council to reduce the area of the Chapada do Lagoão APA and potentially favour mining companies, which has been questioned by the Minas Gerais Public Prosecutor’s Office, environmentalists and researchers.
The project is currently being processed and the quilombola communities that will be impacted by this change and by the mining interests of companies like Atlas have not been consulted to date, as required by law.
At the end of 2024 there was an attempt by the government of Romeu Zema (Novo), via a decree, to favour mining companies and trample on the rights of indigenous peoples and traditional communities by trying to determine how prior, free and informed consultation (FPIC) should work in Minas Gerais.
The decree made it up to the entrepreneur themselves to conduct the consultation in private initiative projects, which, according to the Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU), could jeopardise impartiality and put pressure on those affected. This decree was suspended by the Federal Supreme Court in January this year.
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