"Brazil’s top court breaks Indigenous mining deadlock", 19 August 2026

...Brazil’s Supreme Court has upheld a ruling allowing Cinta Larga Indigenous communities to legally explore and mine four territories under temporary safeguard while Congress develops long-delayed national legislation governing mining on Indigenous lands to conduct research and mining activities on four Cinta Larga Indigenous territories.

...[T]he interim framework provides the Cinta Larga with a legal route to mineral exploration while requiring environmental approvals, community consultation and limits on mining activity...

The ruling could give Indigenous communities greater control over mineral development on their territories while addressing a longstanding contradiction in Brazil: mining already occurs illegally in some Indigenous areas, but Congress has yet to establish the legislation envisioned by the Constitution to regulate legal extraction and ensure communities share in its benefits...

That framework requires prior consultation with Indigenous communities about exploration projects, as well as environmental, Congressional and National Mining Agency authorizations...

The ruling also asks for Indigenous people to organize into cooperatives and that studies are conducted to examine environmental impact and recovery during and after exploration. 

These temporary rules only apply to the four Cinta Larga territories in the states of Mato Grosso and Rondonia. When a bill is approved, it is expected to include other communities and regions...