More than 120 Indigenous protesters have occupied a federal building in Altamira in the Brazilian Amazon since Feb. 23. They are demanding that authorities block a Canadian mining company’s license to open one of the country’s largest open-air gold mines on the Xingu River. Led by a movement of Indigenous women, the protest follows a Feb. 13 court ruling reinstating an installation license, suspended since 2017, for Canadian mining multinational Belo Sun’s (TSE:BSX) Volta Grande project. “Belo Sun is a foreign company that intends to plunder the riches of the Volta Grande do Xingu, a sacred territory of Indigenous and traditional peoples,” the Middle Xingu Indigenous Women’s Movement, wrote in a statement. “The dozens of women and men who have remained camped in struggle for their rights for more than 20 days are not doing so for leisure, but because they understand the danger that the mining venture represents for the region,” the statement continued. The protest targets the local branch of Funai, Brazil’s federal Indigenous affairs agency, in the neighboring municipality of Altamira, Pará state. On March 16, protesters briefly blocked access to Altamira’s airport. Indigenous leaders say Funai is not adequately representing them and signed off on the project’s Indigenous impacts despite a lack of consent from the affected communities. In December 2025, 10 Indigenous associations formally annulled a prior consultation process and suspended all negotiations with the company. The Feb. 13 ruling allowing the project to move forward is the latest in a dispute dating back 14…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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