Blockage of Requests and Mining Activities
Mining activity has always presented significant conflicts when it intends to establish itself in a certain location. By its nature, this activity causes a series of impacts on the location where it will be developed.
These impacts are often decisive for the non-implementation of any other activity, since extraction prevents the coexistence of distinct activities in these locations. We can cite as a common example of conflict, the impossible coexistence of mining projects and energy generation/transmission projects.
The energy projects are also known for their use of vast territorial areas, as is the case of transmission lines that cut several states in line with the objective of carrying the electrical energy produced by the power plants. Many times, these projects are implanted in places where there are already mining titles in various phases. As a rule, Brazilian legislation does not expressly impede the concession of mining titles and the execution of mineral research in places where energy projects are to be installed, because mining is considered by our Constitution to be an activity of national interest.
However, even though it is considered an activity of national interest, there are specific situations in which the requests for these titles can be refused. This situation can be observed in the text of art. 42 of the mining code:
Art. 42 Authorization will be refused if the mining is considered harmful to the public good or compromises interests that outweigh the utility of industrial exploitation, in the judgment of the Government. In the latter case, the researcher will be entitled to receive compensation from the Government for the expenses incurred with the research work, once the Report has been approved.
This possibility of refusal to grant the mining title in a certain location is called “Mining Blockage”.
For cases in which the mining project directly interferes with energy projects, the former DNPM started to adopt, with a binding character, the opinion PROGE 500/08-FMM-LBTL-MP-SDM-JA of the Specialized Legal Department.
Blocking can occur ex officio or at the request of an interested party, using the procedural rite defined by the opinion, regardless of the type of undertaking impacted by mining. This procedure, for not being regulated by the New National Mining Agency, tends to be little diffused in the environment, but is considered extremely useful to guarantee the harmony between activities with relevant national interest.
