"In Brazil’s Jequitinhonha valley, communities share how to reduce lithium mining impacts", 30 April 2025

...Since 2023, the roughly 70 brick houses of this 150-year-old village in Brazil’s southeastern state of Minas Gerais have been experiencing the seismic waves from Sigma Lithium’s Greentech mining plant at least twice a day. Residents say they face atmospheric pollution, water shortages and increased social inequalities. Located in the Jequitinhonha Valley, a region that is home to up to 85% of the country’s known lithium deposits, Sigma Lithium is but one of the companies currently mining or prospecting the region.

The Brazilian Lithium Company (CBL in Portuguese) has also been mining in the area since the 1990s. But there’s a difference, say residents, as the decisions a company takes regarding where and how to mine result in different levels of impacts for communities and the environment...

The choices on how to mitigate impacts include whether a company decides to mine where other companies already are and whether they consider all other land uses in place, like agricultural, cultural and spiritual uses. Consulting communities as a whole — instead of people individually with offers of profit from land sales — is also important to avoid divisiveness, say residents.

“In the decades when CBL was the only lithium mining company present in the region, we never saw the types and the level of conflicts that came along with Sigma,” Bruno Milanez, an environmental policy professor at Brazil’s Federal University of Juiz de Fora, told Mongabay...

Sigma Lithium did not respond to Mongabay’s questions by the time of this publication...

...Sigma also says it doesn’t use potable water in their operations, and that they don’t use hazardous chemicals. However, the company advises families to stop consuming water from the Piauí River, on whose banks the mining pit is located. Instead, people now depend on the water tanks which the company refills once a month as a compensatory measure, but residents say this water also has issues.

“When you open the tank, you’re taken by the strong chlorine smell,” Maria Aparecida says. She says the water is not enough for cooking, showering and cleaning, and they often run out before the month is over. “And we can’t even use the river water anymore, because it itches”...

“First and foremost, we want companies to negotiate with the community as a whole”...“You can’t just negotiate with the owner of a particular plot of land, offering him a lot of money, when the harms from exploration will impact everyone else around it”...

They expect to be directly involved in the development the companies promise to bring, to receive part of the profits made from their land, and to be offered training in relevant areas, both for more qualified jobs in the mining industry and for other activities they could continue to conduct in the region once mining operations are closed...

Sigma brought jobs and financially supported existing female business entrepreneurs in the region. However, residents who spoke to Mongabay mentioned issues to address: The jobs are not well-paying, the support was limited to a few people, and it focused on businesses that won’t easily survive once mining is done and come in the form of loans that can lead to debt...