Brazil’s mining agency ANM, linked to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, on Thursday (Sep 15) launched the sixth round of public bids for prospecting areas in the states of Amapá, Bahia, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, and Roraima. The move aims to regulate and formalize extraction in conflict areas.

Among the minerals to be prospected for are gold, diamond, and cassiterite, which may be extracted regardless of previous research work.

“This enables mineral exploration in compliance with the law after a grant from ANM—which takes place following the environmental license and the necessary permits,” the agency’s Director-General Victor Hugo Froner Bicca said.

The ministry said that those wishing to participate in the competition should express their interest through the web portal of public bidding and auction platform SOPLE by October 9, 2022. Each miner is allowed to state their interest in only one area of up to 50 hectares. The cooperatives, which must have at least 20 members each, may work on up to 25 areas of up to 20 thousand hectares. Among the relevant criteria is how near the head office of the mining cooperative is to the disputed area.

The permit is valid for five years and may be renewed. When mining activities are formalized, Bicca noted, the agency starts identifying and inspecting the real actors in the mineral sector, while environmental bodies inspect compliance and demand the recovery of degraded areas and the observance of other plans and control measures.

The seventh round of offers for mining areas should take place by the end of the year. Five rounds have been held since September 2020, with more than 16 thousand areas approved for the development of mineral projects in the research and mining phases across Brazil.