Potassium

AUTAZES, Amazon State.

The installation of a port on the banks of the mighty Madeira River to ship potassium fertilizer from the Amazon is still in the planning phase. To start operating with the license given by the environmental authorities, the project needs to raise funds and attract investors.

However, after 16 years of pressure, the venture has already led to radical changes in a complex landscape of rivers, lakes, forests, Indigenous lands, villages, rural settlements, and buffalo and dairy farms.

The presence and activities of the company Potássio do Brasil - owned by Canadian company Forbes & Manhattan and other investors - have brought about profound changes in the area, even though it has not yet extracted a single gram of the ore that is the basis for fertilizers used in large-scale agriculture.

Potassium has divided the Muras, a large ethnic group in this part of the Brazilian Amazon. The Muras people live in villages and cities, in officially demarcated Indigenous territories and on Indigenous lands still awaiting demarcation.

Potassium has fuelled a confrontational spirit among farmers in the region, who are trying to encroach on Indigenous territories and prevent new demarcations.

Cattle breeders and the mineral exploration venture are in a veiled alliance: both stand to gain if Indigenous lands in the region remain in limbo without the official protection afforded by the demarcation of territories.

The project has caused Indigenous people living in the village where the port would operate to oppose the demarcation of their land. Streets and houses expand the village, where people are excited about the development. It is changing the traditional way of life for those who sell their small farms. It also heightens tensions between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

The Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo traveled to Lago Soares, the territory of the Murás, where the company Potássio do Brasil is prospecting for mines. The journalists visited the village of Uricurituba, on the banks of the Madeira River. Here, the company plans to build a port for ferry convoys loaded with potash.

An ongoing process at Funai [Brazilian authority for Indigenous peoples] is assessing the possibility of demarcating the two areas, which are close to each other.

If the demarcation goes ahead, the fertilizer project risks being scrapped. That is why members of Potássio do Brasil are working to garner support from Indigenous Muras groups. Divisions among the associations representing the Indigenous people are created to secure ownership of plots of land and to mobilize opposition to the demarcation.

Mura leaders say that, right at the launch of the plans in 2009, there was already an attempt to transfer families from Lago Soares to land purchased in the neighbourhood. The Indigenous people refused to accept this, arguing that the Muras have occupied their land for over a hundred years.

This type of offer still happens. In September 2023, the then president of Potássio do Brasil, Adriano Espeschit, promised those present at a meeting that he would purchase and deliver 5,000 hectares of land if they voted in favour of the project. The attempt at co-optation was recorded and sent to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) in Amazonas, asking the courts to suspend the licences.

Espeschit was the face of the company in the Autazes region in negotiations with the regional authorities in Manaus. Its governor, Wilson Lima, unconditionally supports the project. The federal government, both the administrations of previous president Jair Bolsonaro and current president Lula, has positioned themselves in defence of the project, given agribusiness's dependence on fertiliser imports.

In a statement released on 5 June, Potássio do Brasil announced that Espeschit had resigned as company president.

'The company thanks Mr. Espeschit for his contributions to the advancement of the potash project, including most notably the obtaining of key licences, as well as achieving more than 90% of the votes in support of the project's construction,the statement said. The reference to '90% of support' was not explained.

The community of Lago Soares, where the project is actually being developed, is considered to be opposed to the venture.

The company did not respond to questions posed by the newspaper.

In Soares, reports from the Muras detail how the company managed to buy land. Some of the families say they regret their offer to sell. Others refuse to hand over any hectares to the company.

The oldest man in the community, Jair dos Santos Ezague, 85, says he did not want to sell his land to Potássio do Brasil. 'They insisted and insisted, and I sold,' he says. He lives in Lago Soares with his wife, Maria Nascimento Ezague, 82.

Jair was the first leader of the Muras of Soares. Ten years ago, he grew bananas, cassava, yams, potatoes, and beans. Today, the cassava flour he consumes at home is purchased elsewhere. 'They came here, and the Indigenous people left.'

During the negotiations, Jair says the following dialogue took place with a representative of the potash company:

'If you don't sell, you will lose this area.'

'But why?'

'It won't be good for cassava, bananas, or grass. We will extract the salt, which pollutes the land.'

It was a reference to the tailings – consisting mainly of salt, brine (a solution of water and salt), and clay – that are expected to be generated by potassium mining. An estimated 78 million cubic meters of tailings are expected to be produced, forming two waste piles, each 25 meters high.

The couple says they have been waiting for favourable court decisions to be enforced to get back the land where they used to farm, but according to them, this has not yet happened. 'The land I sold is solid ground. It has lots of Brazil nuts and cupuaçu, and it's close to here,' says Jair.

Paulo César de Oliveira, 53, also stopped planting since the sale of the land to Potássio do Brasil. According to him, the company's representative stated that the courts could expropriate the area in favour of the project.

The company has already drilled for ore on the land, according to Paulo César. 'They said that within a 5 km radius, no people will be left.'

Some families in areas surrounded by water are resisting the potassium venture's offensive. Milton de Menezes, 50, raises cattle, goats, and pigs. He plants cupuaçu, pineapple, guava, coffee, and orange trees. His land is 3 km from the centre of Lago Soares. He says he will not sell it to Potássio do Brasil despite pressure from the company.

'It's an insistence. They want to get rid of us by force,' says Milton, who lives in the community with his wife and two children. 'Here, the water never stops flowing; it's a spring. I'm not leaving. There are other plots of land, but they don't have water. What they want to drill is 1.5 km from here.'

The farmer says that the company even carried out drilling without his authorization in 2018, when the family was away from Soares due to the dry season.

The sign installed, indicating the company's action and the attempt to prospect for a well, is 300 meters from Milton's house. 'Like this one, there's one there, another one there. There are more than five here nearby.'

According to him, the potash company wanted Milton to authorise visits to the well in exchange for bags of seed.

Potássio do Brasil states that the venture will supply sustainable fertilisers to one of the world's largest agricultural exporters, Brazil. 'The country imported more than 95% of its potash fertiliser in 2021, despite having what is predicted to be one of the largest undeveloped potash basins in the world within its own territory.'

According to the company, the potash will be transported in low-cost river barges, in partnership with Amaggi, a Brazilian agribusiness giant. The venture claims it will be able to supply 20% of the country's current potash demand.