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The scandal of gold that smells like death: an uncovered mining project reveals the true motive behind the construction of the Belo Monte Dam.

Belo Sun is a company with shares in the Canadian stock market. It used to be called Venera Minerals before it changed its name to Belo Sun. The company belongs to a commercial group called Forbes&Manhattan. An odd fact: the groups’ creator, Stan Barthi, is a personal friend of Eike Batista. Eike participated in some of the company’s meetings and brought the Forbes&Manhattan business model to Brazil a few years ago. The company also exploits gold in the very region that had been exploited by Eike between 1980 and 1990. For this reason, he is considered as a potential investor in the company shares (then, he can make major profit once the gold has been exploited). Belo Sun is also said to have interests in the region’s diamonds.

But what does that have to do with the Belo Monte construction?

One can easily assume that the Belo Monte dam might be being built to provide energy for the gold mining exploitation in the large belt. One can read here (in Portuguese) the report on the Environmental Impact of the great belt project (that is in fact the name of the project.) One of the excerpts in the report stands out: on page 6, while it is explained what types of energies will be used, it is also written that generators will be installed to implement the project, and that, once the exploitation has actually started, the power will be generated by the Belo Monte dam.

“The supply in energy will be, in the beginning, supplied by generators installed on the construction site in order to meet the required amounts necessary for the project’s completion. Groups of generators that function on Diesel fuel, at a 550 kVA and 250 kVA voltage will be purchased to meet the project’s initial needs in electric energy. Until the planned transmission line is installed (a 138kVA shunt taken from the Altamira sub-station or from the Belo Monte dam), the generators will be close to consumer areas, housing and administrative and operational support areas.”

This corroborates the theory that the dam is being built to meet the needs of the mining corporations. The following is taken from the Environmental Impact Report for the project.

Speaking of environmental impact, the risks are highly consequential for the region:
- loss of flora specimens
- modification of plant metabolism due to the deposit of particles on the
surface of leaves
- diminution and disturbance of the fauna
- alteration of vector species
- alteration of the ecological dynamic of the fauna
- loss of aquatic habitats
- alteration of the lifestyle of the local populations as well as of the
appropriation methods and use of the soil
- partial or total destruction of the archaeological heritage
- extermination of the remote indigenous groups that inhabit the region
(NDT)

And so on and so forth. Along with the Belo Monte dam will come mining
projects that will have the dire consequences we can expect on the
environment.
The question is now whether we will succeed in spreading this information
and in opening the eyes of our contemporary fellow humans on this worldwide
ecocide.

© http://pequenaduvida.wordpress.com/ / translation : Livia Calvet