Brazil's Supreme Court suspends licence for gold project with 3.8 million ounces in reserves
Key Facts
Canada's Belo Sun said Brazil's Supreme Court had temporarily suspended the court ruling that reinstated the installation licence for its flagship Volta Grande gold project. According to the company's statement, the suspension will remain in place pending the Federal Regional Court's approval of its agreement with the National Indigenous Peoples Foundation, known as Funai. Belo Sun said the agreement had already been submitted to the court for approval, which remained pending. It added in its statement: "The agreement has already been submitted to the Federal Regional Court for approval, which is still pending." Reinstatement of the licence therefore hinges on judicial approval of the agreement, while shares in the project's developer trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol BSX.
Federal Judge Flavio Jardim had granted the company interim relief on 13 February 2026, reinstating the installation licence for the Volta Grande project. That decision was issued by the relevant panel of the Federal Regional Court, before prosecutors sought to suspend the ruling reinstating the licence. According to Belo Sun, the earlier ruling found that it had completed the Indigenous component study using primary data collected for the study. At a later stage of the litigation, the Brazilian subsidiary received formal notification on 11 September 2026 of prosecutors' request to suspend the interim relief. The decision now announced by the company suspends the ruling that had reinstated the licence following the relief it obtained in February.
As part of the conciliation process, the Federal Regional Court held a hearing on 24 June 2026, according to an earlier project update published by Belo Sun. The proposed conciliation framework included giving the National Indigenous Peoples Foundation 30 business days to identify the Indigenous communities it considered necessary to include in supplementary studies. This part of the proposed framework concerns defining the scope of the communities covered by the study, alongside the study that the company says the earlier ruling deemed complete on the basis of primary data. During negotiations, Belo Sun had made a commitment to the court not to begin physical work related to implementing the project at the site. The Brazilian subsidiary said in its clarification that it had pledged "not to begin physical work related to establishing the project during negotiations", a commitment that preceded the latest suspension order.
On the administrative front, the environmental authority in the state of Para had reissued the installation licence under number 3698/2026, according to an earlier announcement by Belo Sun. The reissued licence replaced the previous licence numbered 2712/2017, with its validity set to run until April 2029 when it was reissued. In separate legal proceedings, the company said the court had confirmed the final dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the Federal Public Defender's Office over the project. Belo Sun attributed the dismissal to its duplication of an earlier lawsuit involving the same claims and legal remedies, according to its statement on the outcome of the case. The dismissal was procedural because the lawsuit was duplicative, without a ruling on its merits, while the current suspension concerns the ruling that reinstated the installation licence.
The legal development is part of a lengthy effort to develop Volta Grande, with Belo Sun seeking to build the mine since 2012, according to the Associated Press. The company lists proven and probable mineral reserves of 3.8 million ounces of gold for the project in the feasibility study published on its website. The study estimates average annual gold production of about 205,155 ounces over the project life covered by its estimates. The study puts the mine's expected life at 17.2 years, figures the company presents for the project's scale and future production. In a separate clarification on the operational design, the Brazilian subsidiary said the project did not involve withdrawing or diverting water from the Xingu River for operations. It added in that clarification that "the project does not provide for withdrawing or diverting water from the Xingu River for its operations."
Alongside the legal proceedings, Belo Sun hired G Mining Services to conduct a technical gap analysis of the Volta Grande project. The scope of work includes reviewing studies related to the installation licence, according to the company's announcement of the start of technical studies for the project. The review forms part of the technical work on the project the company is seeking to develop, alongside the process of securing the agreement with the National Indigenous Peoples Foundation. In its earlier guidance on the studies, Belo Sun had set a target for completing an update to the definitive feasibility study. Under that guidance, the company aims to complete the update in early 2027.