Partnership with MPF
The Mining Impacts Calculator was born in the midst of discussions between the CSF and Brazilian control and justice organizations. In 2018, during a CSF training course on the valuation of environmental assets for prosecutors and prosecutors of the Federal Public Ministry, some members expressed the need to have a tool that could easily and efficiently calculate the estimated costs of the activities of illegal gold mining. At the time, the MPF was dealing with hundreds of mining sites in the Amazon and needed a general formula to calculate the impacts in order to establish sanctions compatible with the damages caused by the activity.
Course held by CSF for members of the MPF, in 2018, when there was a demand to create a calculator for the impacts of mining in Brazil. Photo: CSF/File.
With the sponsorship of Porticus, the methodology was developed to meet this specific demand of the Brazilian government, with the technical support of the Secretariat of Expertise, Investigation and Analysis of the Attorney General's Office (SPPEA/PGR) and the advice of representatives of various institutions such as the Federal Police, IBAMA and the Ministry of Health.
The Calculator was launched in 2021 with the promise of not only facilitating the calculation of impacts for the application of stricter fines to violators, but also helping the MPF to ensure and track progress in the regulation of mining activities and, thus, protect communities throughout Brazil from mining threats. The calculator was an immediate success.
The agency officially adopted the methodology through its Technical Opinion 694/2021 and has been using it in various compensation claims. In one case in August 2021, the MPF estimated the illegal extraction of 6.3 tons of gold in the municipalities of Itaituba, Jacareacanga and Novo Progresso, which caused losses of US$ 9.3 thousand. millions. These amounts were used to calculate the appropriate fines for a Public Civil Action against a securities company, Ourominas.
In this case, the calculator enabled the MPF to justify the fine by clearly identifying the cause of the socio-environmental damages generated by each gram of gold. In addition to requesting compensation from public coffers for the illegally extracted metal and for the damage caused to the country, the action also orders collective compensation for the indigenous peoples who inhabit the region and helped encourage actions to prevent future socio-environmental damage. In the same year, similar lawsuits were filed against the companies FD'Gold DTVM and Carol DTVM and also resulted in sanctions amounting to billions of reais.
“The Mining Impacts Calculator is a fantastic tool that allows us to be more precise in our work, using various damage criteria and differentiating mining models,” says Gustavo Kenner, Brazilian Attorney. “Before the MPF had the Calculator, we couldn't differentiate losses by type of gold extraction, which made legal action difficult. Now, with this tool, we have already had very successful cases, in which we were able to shut down illegal mining and justify more severe economic sanctions”, he adds.
Other federal bodies that also participated in the construction process of the calculator, such as the Federal Police, have been using the tool in the investigation of cases of illegal gold extraction in Brazil Between June 2021 and October 2022, the PF issued 34 technical reports based on the methodology. In just one case, the calculator estimated a total of US$1.5 billion in mining-related environmental damages.