- For more than fifteen years, traditional communities in Serro, Minas Gerais, have resisted the entry of iron ore mining on their territories.
- Serro is located in a region where several major rivers meet; the integrity of ecosystems is vital for people’s water resources and food security.
- Activists fear that, if approved, iron ore projects will not only cause irreversible socioenvironmental impacts but set a precedent for a dangerous iron ore race in Serro. Besides iron ore, the area concentrates deposits of bauxite, manganese, quartzite, and other minerals – many located next to traditional communities.
- The two companies pursuing mining in the area have had their licensing processes suspended in October 2023 after a community appeal to the Federal Court of Minas Gerais. The entities are required to carry out consultations with communities, respecting the principle of free, prior and informed consent.
SERRO, Minas Gerais — Nature has always been intrinsic to life in Queimadas, a quilombo community located in an environmental buffer zone where the Cerrado and the Atlantic forest meet.
But when Brazilian mining company Herculano Mineração announced its plans to extract iron ore nearby, the community felt their ecological way of life was at risk. “They said they would go ahead whether we liked it or not,” says Valderes Quintino, 25, the community leader, about the company that first approached him in 2018.
Since then, people in Queimadas have denounced mining companies applying for licenses for violations and irregularities against the community; they fear that if candidate mining projects ever get the green light, a mining race would start in Serro, while permanently damaging the region’s ecosystems and local livelihoods. Alongside other quilombo communities, Queimadas created a resistance front against the advance of mining, while advocating for their land and its environmental conservation.
Part of a region considered the “water tank of Brazil,” where the Jequitinhonha, the Doce, and the São Francisco rivers meet, the municipality of Serro is part of the Pico do Itambé State Park, the Águas Vertentes Conservation Unit and the Serra do Espinhaço UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Its historical center sits about 5 kilometers from the potential mining site of Herculano Mineração.
In 2018, Herculano Mineração announced its plan to extract 1 million tons of iron ore annually for 10 years. Its potential mining site covers approximately 865 hectares (2,139 acres), and is located about one kilometer from Queimadas.
Another mining company, Ônix Mineração, arrived in Serro in 2021 when it first requested licenses to explore iron ore about 4 km away from Queimadas. Ônix aims to extract 300,000 tons of iron ore annually for 9 years on an area of about 400 hectares (988 acres).
Iron ore exploitation may cause “immeasurable loss” for Queimadas, Juliana Deprá, activist for Movement for Popular Sovereignty in Mining (MAM by its Portuguese acronym) who works closely with the traditional communities of Serro, told Mongabay. Impacts include a rise in violence, worsening air quality, a population boom, real estate speculation, and rural exodus, Deprá says.
“Serro’s water collection happens below the area where Herculano aims to settle its operations. There is a risk that the project will compromise the hydric security of the entire population,” Matheus Mendonça Leite, lawyer of the Federation of Quilombo Communities of Minas Gerais State N’Golo, told Mongabay. Leite adds that the contamination of local ecosystems can threaten the subsistence and food security of the Queimadas people, most of whom rely on subsistence agriculture.
“I won’t be able to continue producing good quality cheese,” said Valderes Ferreira, 54, a cheese producer who raises cattle and grows fruits.
According to Deprá, the mining projects can open a precedent for a dangerous extractive race in Serro, whose territory abounds in quartzite, manganese, and bauxite, minerals demanded by the global commodities.
Since the quilombo community of Ausente, also in Serro, learned that a company was interested in the bauxite deposits in their territory in August 2024, local leader Luciene Campos, 31, says they need to be more cautious and keep strangers out of the community. The company, EDEM Projetos, had already tried to set up a meeting with people in Ausente, Campos told Mongabay.
Ausente, a community of around 80 families, is also known for its agroecological traditions. Their women-led agroecological gardens are key for income generation and food security.
Communities like Queimadas and Ausente, Campos said, became “a stone in mining’s shoe.” Fighting the mining companies is the only way to preserve the ecological way of living which she and her community are so proud of.
“When our traditions are strong, we don’t let outsiders dictate what we want. We know what is right for us and what we want to preserve,” says Campos.
A magnet for mining interests
While Serro remains a municipality free from active mining projects, its creation is tied to the minerals discovered in the region in the eighteenth century. With the depletion of most of the local gold and diamond deposits in the early twentieth century, Serro’s economic elites turned to ranching and crops. The iron ore race re-started in 2008 when authorities granted MMX Mineração the mineral rights to extract iron ore next to Queimadas. MMX sold its mining rights to the British multinational Anglo American, but the latter didn’t get the environmental permit and in 2018 sold its mineral rights to Herculano Mineração.
Specialized in iron ore and manganese ore, Herculano Mineração’s client list includes major commodity companies, such as Vale, Glencore, and Cargill.
Herculano Mineração is the closest any company has ever been to extracting iron in the area, say people in Queimadas, who also complain about alleged irregularities and violations against their community.
“The dust made us cough like dogs,” Ana da Cruz, 71, a resident of Queimadas, told Mongabay. Cruz explained that the dust came from a road that, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, was built for iron ore transportation. In February 2023, the community denounced the illegality of the road to Serro’s public prosecutor’s office. Part of the road was paved only a few kilometers from Cruz’s home.
According to Leite, even though approved by the State Institute of Forests and implemented by Serro City Hall, the road favors the neighboring projects of Herculano Mineração and Ônix Mineração.
In October 2023, after an appeal by local quilombo communities, the Federal Court of Minas Gerais suspended both Herculano and Ônix licensing processes until the companies carry out consultations with the community of Queimadas, respecting the free, prior and informed consent principle. Even so, Cruz says she feels betrayed and disrespected by the companies, and fears for her community if the firms ever start operating.
“I just don’t know what will become of us,” she worries, looking out at her large garden, where she and her husband use agroecological practices to grow coffee, beans, yuka, and medicinal herbs, among other crops.
Communities accuse irregularities
A 2023 report released by the movement against mining in Serro denounces irregularities in the way Herculano has cleared hurdles for its iron ore project. The report states that the document authorizing the iron ore road (issued by the State Institute of Forests) misconsidered all its potential environmental impacts.
From the report, it appears the same authorization document was signed in October 2022 by a lawyer who, six months later, was hired by Herculano Mineração. In its reply to Mongabay’s request for comment, Herculano did not respond with regard to this matter. The City Hall of Serro, which, according to the report, authorized the State Institute of Forests to issue the road permit, responded that its position has been made clear on previous occasions in the public sphere.
The same document shows that, since 2018, Herculano Mineração has granted financial benefits to Serro’s economic elites, such as Serro’s Industry and Commerce Association and the Cooperative of Rural Producers, to garner support for its mining business.
In response to Mongabay’s request for comment, Herculano Mineração stated: “Herculano Mineração informs that it does not comment on the status of administrative licensing processes underway, which is the responsibility of the competent organs. However, the company confirms that the licensing process for the Serro Project is underway. Herculano Mineração believes in the legislation, in the organs involved, and in the quality of the studies it has submitted. Herculano Mineração has complied with all the legislation requirements to get the licenses for its project from the competent bodies.”
After analyzing reports presented by Herculano and Ônix, environmental specialists from the Federal University of Minas Gerais and the Brazilian Anthropology Association stated that data was inconsistent, insufficient, and lacked adequate methodology to measure the potential socio-environmental impacts.
Serro activists claim that mining and public interests became mixed during the term of the current mayor, Epaminondas Pires de Miranda. Activists claim he took a stand against mining in his 2020 campaign, but signed a compliance letter for Herculano’s Serro Project in February 2021, three months after his reelection. Serro’s City Hall did not respond to Mongabay’s request for comment.
“Supported by local politicians, powerful farmers, and businessmen, the mining industry enjoys solid influence in decision making, both in the executive power and the courts,” Leite told Mongabay.
Conflicts within the community
Aligned with the local elites, the mining industry, Leite claims, has been doing what it takes to advance its interests, including the use of violence.
“Now and then, we see a drone flying over the community. Company representatives prowl around the community by car, looking for our leaders. They also approach Queimadas people on the streets to “buy” them with artesian wells or job offers,” Valderes Quintino told Mongabay.
He is assisted by a governmental protection program since he received a death threat from a local farmer. The episode happened in April 2023 when representatives from Herculano and Ônix, along with supporting landowners and city councilors, intervened during a Queimadas community meeting with Public Prosecutor’s Office staff.
Both MAM and N’golo have complained that Herculano Mineração has carried out defamatory campaigns against supporters of traditional communities’ rights, including Leite, Deprá, and Karine Roza, a former Serro city councilor who, in 2022, approved an amendment to recognize a local river threatened by candidate mining projects as a Subject of Rights.
“Sometimes, if people in Serro know you are against mining, you can be kicked out of a store,” Quintino said. The advance of mining has not only stirred tensions within Serro’s overall population but also divided the region’s quilombo communities. “Mining easily puts people against each other,” he told Mongabay.
While most people in the quilombo communities are against mining, Arlei Ciano dos Santos, 33, argues that the minority who supports it does not understand the destruction it may cause. “Some people are convinced that mining ‘will create job opportunities, will bring progress and money to the community,’” said dos Santos, who manages the association of Vila Nova quilombo, also in Serro. Several Quilombo residents who support mining refused to talk to Mongabay.
The resistance carries on
More than fifteen years after the first company showed interest in Serro iron ore, quilombo communities and their network of supporters (which includes lawyers, researchers, and several social movements) still hold the advance of mining in Serro.
At the same time, Herculano states that it “reiterates its deep respect for traditional communities and has been discussing the Quilombo Communities Component Study for the Queimadas community with INCRA (Land Reform Institute) and SEDESE, the entities responsible for the issue.” The company also stated that it “has no reason not to remain confident that the project will be approved.”
Both Herculano and Ônix Mineração are required by the courts to hold public consultations with the community of Queimadas before environmental licensing can proceed. It appears that both Herculano and Ônix held public hearings in June and August 2024, respectively, to further discuss their iron ore projects with the Serro population.
To preserve their ways of living and territory for future generations, communities have no option but to fight. “We fight today so we can be alive tomorrow,” says Quintino.
Banner image: Proud of her agroecological garden, Ana Cruz, 71, fears for her family’s health and subsistence if companies start extracting iron ore near the Queimadas community. Image by Beatriz Miranda.
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