First step to control: legalisation
Brazil's government is trying to resolve the conflict between indigenous communities and people involved in illegal mining activities in Indian reserves. It is submitting a bill to the Congress to make mining in these reserves legal. "The lawshould get through the lower house and the senate in 45 days,' Paulo Ribeiro de Santana, advisor to the general director of Brazil's National Mining Department, was quoted as saying on November 23, 2004. Santana also emphasised that no mining activity would be undertaken in the reserve areas without the consent of the Indian communities.
The government has realised that implementation of the ban on mining in the reserves is very difficult. It has been unsuccessfully trying to stop illegal mining after Indians killed 29 people involved in illegal diamond mining in Rondonia state in April 2004. Once the new law is passed, the parties offering the highest royalties and the best environmental protection plans would be granted prospecting and mining concessions, according to Brazil's vice minister of justice Luiz Paulo Barreto.