Brazilian government and mining companies join forces against bandits
The Justice Ministry and Ibram, Brazil’s main mining lobby, signed an agreement on Friday to join forces in the fight against crimes related to mining operations.
Ibram has about 130 members responsible for 85 percent of Brazil’s mineral production. The list includes the Brazilian offices of major foreign companies such as Alcoa, AngloAmerican, AngloGold Ashanti, ArcelorMittal, BHP, Rio Tinto, and Sigma Lithium — as well as Brazilian giants such as Gerdau and Vale.
Romano Costa, the Justice Ministry’s intelligence director, said the agreement is part of a plan to fight organized crime that was announced in October and criticized by both allied and opposition lawmakers for lacking focus and specific goals.
“We are bringing the public and private sectors closer together,” he said. “So they can share information … and we can have more efficiency in the state’s actions in public security.”
Mr. Costa cited the crime wave popularly known as the “new cangaço,” a reference to the Cangaço bandit groups that terrorized areas in the Northeast of the country at the turn of the 19th century. Cooperation will focus on cities with “a large concentration” of high-value minerals.
The text of the agreement mentions recent robberies of precious minerals that made headlines, such as the case of a man arrested with 18 gold bars worth BRL 2.5 million (USD 500,000) in the state of São Paulo and a 2022 police operation in Minas Gerais that arrested suspects of stealing gold from a mining company.
Under the agreement, the Justice Ministry and Ibram will, among other things, “promote the exchange of data and information with a view to designing defense plans for cities and protecting the population.”
Acting Justice Minister Ricardo Cappelli and Ibram’s vice president, Fernando Azevedo, signed the agreement. Mr. Azevedo, a retired general, served as defense minister in the Jair Bolsonaro administration (2019-2022).
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