Gold: government sends project to production chain – 06/13/2023 – Market

The federal government sent to Congress a bill that provides for norms of control of origin, purchase, sale and transport of gold in Brazil to the National Congress this Tuesday (13). The text was signed by President Lula (PT).

The proposal was born from the creation of an interministerial working group that has among its main objectives the fight against organized crime in indigenous lands. The Gold Bulletin (2021-2022), from UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), showed that gold exploration, through illegal mining in Brazil, grew by 13% in 2021 compared to the previous year.

In addition to increasing the strictness of the control of this production chain, the proposal also aims at strangling the activities of heating illegal ore extracted from indigenous territories and conservation units and closing legislative loopholes used to circumvent government inspection control.

The PL does away with the presumption of good faith and allows for the accountability of links in the gold purchase and sale chain, imposing requirements for the circulation of what is extracted from the mining.

Among the measures proposed to parliamentarians is the creation of the Gold Transport and Custody Guide, whose control and traceability will be under the coordination of the ANM (National Mining Agency). As forecast, the first sale of the ore has to be made by those who have authorization to mine at the ANM, the body responsible for the Information Management System on Gold Acquisition.

The text also provides that the first sale of gold extracted from mining must be through entities authorized by the Central Bank. It will also require the issuance of an electronic invoice for the purchase and sale of the product, in addition to requiring bank transfer as a form of payment.

In case of non-compliance with the rules proposed in the PL, the offender will have the gold seized and the proceeds transferred in favor of the Union.

The text of the bill was prepared by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, through the Secretariat for Access to Justice of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, with representatives from the Ministries of Finance, Mines and Energy, Environment and Peoples Indigenous.

In recent decades, mining activity has expanded significantly in the Amazon, being one of the factors responsible for deforestation, degradation and conflicts in indigenous territories. The most recent humanitarian crisis, which became public in February, occurred in Yanomami territory, with mass deaths caused by illegal mining.

The urgent nature of the project is due to the existence of international precautionary measures, within the scope of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which determines measures for the protection of indigenous populations whose lands are invaded by mining.

The PL also responds to the decision handed down by the minister of the STF (Federal Supreme Court) Gilmar Mendes, who asked the Executive to quickly adopt new legislation for the inspection of the gold trade.