The mining record of Brazil
40,551 mineral processes at a working-mine stage (14,622 of them mining concessions) in ANM's cadastre, 0 tailings dams in the SIGBM register with 0 at alert or emergency level, at least 69 mining deaths reported by the Brazilian press, and 0 IBAMA environmental notices against named operators.
One regulator for titles and dams, another for the environment, none for a death count. The Agência Nacional de Mineração (ANM) publishes its cadastre of every active mineral process with the holder's name and its register of every mining dam with the owner's CNPJ, plus a monthly dam-safety bulletin naming each dam whose alert or emergency level changed. IBAMA publishes every federal environmental infraction notice with the infractor's tax id. What no agency publishes is a per-fatality mining record: the deaths here come from the Portuguese-language press, so every count is a floor, and the pending public-information requests under the Lei de Acesso à Informação ask for the records that would replace it.
Looking for US mine enforcement instead? See MSHA violations by operator. · Peru's mining record · Chile's mining record · Colombia's record
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A process at a stage where extraction is authorised: concessão de lavra, licenciamento, registro de extração or lavra garimpeira. Exploration permits and applications are counted separately.ⓘ
A concessão de lavra is the full mining concession granted by the ministry after research; the other working-mine stages are lighter regimes for aggregates and small-scale mining.ⓘ
The holder's name as ANM's cadastre spells it. The cadastre publishes no tax id, so one company can appear under two spellings and a natural person can hold a process.Every active mineral process, from exploration applications to mining concessions, synced weekly from ANM's map service (last refreshed ), including 2,973 garimpo (small-scale) permits. Holders are named as the cadastre spells them; 0 carry a CNPJ, learned from the dam register, and 302 processes list no holder at all.
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Counted from press headlines only; Brazil publishes no official per-fatality mining record, so the true number is at least this.Portuguese-language headlines from 2020 to Sep 11, 2026, read daily through Google News (last pull Sep 15, 2026) and classified by a language model against the headline's own words.
IBAMA's notices have not been joined yet; the first weekly pull lands on the next tick.
Three requests under the Lei de Acesso à Informação (Lei 12.527/2011) are drafted: ANM's own accident and fatality records by process, ANM's safety-infraction and fine register with the titleholder CNPJ, and the labour ministry's fatal-accident records by employer. Each answer replaces a press floor with an official record on this page.
Drafted, not yet filed; the filing needs a gov.br account. This line changes to a protocol number and an answer date the day they are.
“Homenagens às vítimas da explosão na Mina de Santana são realizadas em Urussanga”
“Mortos na maior tragédia da mineração subterrânea do Brasil são homenageados 42 anos após mina explodir e matar 31 mineiros em SC”
“Barragem de garimpo em MT tem 24 multas e risco de desabamento”
“Barranco desmorona e trabalhador morre soterrado dentro de retroescavadeira em garimpo de Poconé”
“Operador de 49 anos morre soterrado dentro de retroescavadeira em garimpo”
“Operador de máquina morre soterrado após barranco desmoronar em garimpo”
“Barragem de rejeitos em Ouro Preto tem nível de emergência reduzido”
“Trabalhador de 26 anos morre em acidente na Mina do Sossego”
“Trabalhador morre em acidente na Mina do Sossego, em Canaã dos Carajás, no Pará”
“Trabalhador de 26 anos morre em acidente durante operação na Mina do Sossego”
“Trabalhador morre após acidente na Mina do Sossego da Vale, em Canaã dos Carajás, no Pará”
G1 → · Vale
“Trabalhador morre após acidente na Mina do Sossego da Vale, no Pará”
Revista Proteção → · Vale
Each row is one headline as an outlet published it, classified and extracted by a language model from the headline and snippet only; several outlets reporting one accident appear as several rows. Press reports, never an official record.
| Dam | Operator | Place | Previous level | Current level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barragem 1 | MORRO AGUDO MINERAIS LTDA | PARACATU, MG | Emergency level 1 | No emergency |
| Barragem de Rejeito 01 | A R WEBER | NOSSA SENHORA DO LIVRAMENTO, MT | Emergency level 1 | No emergency |
| Barragem de Rejeito Estrela | HEUREKA MINERACAO LTDA | NOSSA SENHORA DO LIVRAMENTO, MT | Emergency level 1 | No emergency |
| Cava Camarinha | CIA DE FERRO LIGAS DA BAHIA FERBASA | CAMPO FORMOSO, BA | Alert level | No emergency |
| Forquilha I | VALE S.A. | OURO PRETO, MG | Emergency level 2 | Emergency level 1 |
| JABURU | Joaquim Aderaldo de Souza Neto | NOSSA SENHORA DO LIVRAMENTO, MT | Emergency level 1 | No emergency |
| Maravilhas II | VALE S.A. | ITABIRITO, MG | No emergency | Alert level |
| Norte/Laranjeiras | VALE S.A. | BARÃO DE COCAIS, MG | Alert level | No emergency |
Tabela 4 of ANM's monthly dam-safety bulletin, transcribed from the PDF by a language model and checked row by row against the bulletin's own text and its stated count.
| State | Working-mine processes | Concessions | Dams | At alert+ | Deaths (floor) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MG | 6,631 | 2,894 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |
| RS | 4,472 | 466 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| SP | 3,922 | 2,735 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| SC | 2,757 | 1,114 | 0 | 0 | 31 | |
| PR | 2,701 | 1,782 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| MT | 2,609 | 262 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| GO | 2,600 | 1,008 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| PA | 2,225 | 251 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| BA | 2,017 | 734 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| CE | 1,376 | 364 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| ES | 1,170 | 680 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| RJ | 1,065 | 506 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| RN | 785 | 274 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| PE | 741 | 347 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| TO | 724 | 81 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Processes at a working-mine stage by the state (UF) the cadastre lists; dams and press deaths by the state on their own rows.
Ranked by what is on record: press events, dams, bulletin level changes, IBAMA notices and mining concessions. Every titleholder has a page; this table shows the top of the ranking.