SAO PAULO/Brasilia (Reuters) – Belo Sun Mining Corp (BSX.TO) said on Friday it had won a legal victory in its push to mine the country’s largest undeveloped gold deposit in the Amazon rainforest, which has drawn criticism from environmentalists and indigenous advocates.
But the public prosecutor’s office that is seeking to block the mine disagreed with that interpretation of the ruling.
Felicio Pontes, a federal prosecutor on the case, said the appeals court had merely rejected a request for a preliminary judgment and the merits of the case have yet to be judged.
No work can proceed on the mine in the meantime, he said, predicting that the court would rule in the case by November. “We tried to force a preliminary decision by the court … but it said no, it’s better to wait for the judgment of the appeal,” Pontes said.
“This ruling didn’t change anything, the situation is stable.” A representative for Belo Sun acknowledged that “the decision is only temporary.”
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