Câmara aprova o Estatuto do Garimpeiro Profissão de garimpeiro será regulamentada

São Paulo - 03 de Dezembro de 2007

O Projeto de Lei que cria o Estatuto do Garimpeiro, foi aprovado esta semana por unanimidade pela Comissão de Constituição e Justiça e de Cidadania (CCJC) da Câmara dos Deputados. O objetivo da proposta é regulamentar a profissão. Para exercer a atividade, o trabalhador deverá ter o título minerário emitido pelo Departamento Nacional de Produção Mineral (DNPM). De posse do título, será possível trabalhar como autônomo, em regime de economia familiar, em parceria com o titular do direito de exploração, empregado em alguma empresa ou em cooperativa. De acordo com o deputado Paulo Rocha (PT-PA), os garimpeiros atenderem às normas do estatuto poderão vender o mineral e as gemas diretamente ao consumidor final, desde que comprovem a área de origem do minério extraído.
O estatuto prevê ainda que o trabalhador poderá prestar serviços para mais de uma empresa ou cooperativa que tenha atuação em áreas distintas. Por outro lado, exige dos exploradores de minerais a recuperação de áreas onde houver prejuízo ambiental. Porém, a atividade passa a ser proibida para menores de 18 anos. Como tramitava na CCJC em caráter conclusivo, o projeto segue agora para votação no Senado Federal e, se aprovado, irá para sanção do presidente Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Câmara aprova o Estatuto do Garimpeiro

A Comissão de Constituição e Justiça e de Cidadania aprovou, na quarta-feira (28), o Projeto de Lei 7505/06, do Executivo, que institui o Estatuto do Garimpeiro.

O texto aprovado define as formas de trabalho da atividade, a sindicalização, os direitos e os deveres dessa categoria.O relator, deputado Flávio Dino (PCdoB-MA), manifestou-se apenas sobre a constitucionalidade, a juridicidade e a técnica legislativa da proposta, que teve o mérito analisado anteriormente nas comissões de Minas e Energia; e de Trabalho, de Administração e Serviço Público.

Dino acatou as seis emendas apresentadas ao PL 7505/06 nas duas comissões. Como tramitava em caráter conclusivo, a matéria será enviada ao Senado.O estatuto é o marco legal do trabalho de garimpeiro no País, atividade que, segundo o governo, ocupa cerca de 1,5 milhão de pessoas - a maior parte sem carteira assinada e em condições insalubres.Pontos fundamentaisTrês pontos são considerados fundamentais na proposta.

O primeiro determina que só será considerado garimpeiro o trabalhador que atuar em área de extração que possui título minerário emitido pelo Departamento Nacional de Pesquisa Mineral (DNPM). O título é um documento que autoriza a lavra. O dispositivo estabelece ainda que a comercialização da extração só poderá ser feita após a emissão do título.O segundo é o que define as cinco modalidades de trabalho para o garimpeiro.

Segundo o PL 7505/06, os trabalhadores - obrigatoriamente maiores de 18 anos - poderão exercer a atividade de forma autônoma, em regime de economia familiar, mediante contrato de parceria registrado em cartório, em cooperativa e de forma individual que gere relação empregatícia (como contrato com carteira assinada). O governo alega que a definição vai ajudar a combater o trabalho escravo na atividade.O último dispositivo permite ao garimpeiro, independentemente da modalidade de trabalho, vender a sua produção diretamente ao consumidor final, desde que comprove a regularidade documental da área de extração em que atue.Cooperativa de garimpeirosO projeto determina também que as cooperativas de garimpeiros terão prioridade na obtenção da Permissão de Lavra Garimpeira (PLG) - título que concede o aproveitamento imediato de jazida mineral, mesmo sem a realização de levantamento do potencial. Além disso, as jazidas com título minerário em processo de cancelamento, mas com indícios de minerais garimpáveis, poderão ser repassadas às cooperativas por meio de edital.O relator acredita que o projeto ajudará a tirar os garimpeiros da informalidade. "É uma atividade quase clandestina, e [os garimpeiros] acabam sendo superexplorados pelos donos dos garimpos. Os principais benefícios [da proposta] são a possibilidade de legalizar todas as relações de trabalho e a permissão expressa de que o resultado da atividade do garimpeiro pode ser comercializado diretamente com o consumidor final."Meio ambiente e saúdePara dar sustentabilidade econômica, social e ambiental à atividade, o governo incluiu entre as obrigações dos garimpeiros (e cooperativas) a recuperação das áreas degradadas pela extração e o cumprimento das normas de segurança e saúde no trabalho. A atividade de garimpo é considerada uma das mais insalubres do mundo. Além disso, o Executivo compromete-se a incluir a garimpagem entre as políticas públicas administradas pelo Ministério de Minas e Energia.

Por fim, a proposta transforma o bandeirante paulista Fernão Dias Paes Leme (1608-1681) em patrono dos garimpeiros e institui a data de 21 de julho como Dia Nacional do Garimpeiro. Foi nesse dia, em 1674, que o bandeirante iniciou a viagem ao interior do País, em busca de riquezas minerais.

Íntegra da proposta:- PL-7505/2006

Notícias anteriores:Educação aprova o Estatuto do Garimpeiro

Reportagem - Janary Júnior e Paula BittarEdição - Adriana Resende(Reprodução autorizada desde que contenha a assinatura 'Agência Câmara')Agência CâmaraTel. (61) 3216.1851/3216.1852Fax. (61) 3216.1856E-mail:agencia@camara.gov.brMR

GOLD AND SILVER NEWS RBCCM GOLD CONFERENCE

GOLD AND SILVER NEWS RBCCM GOLD CONFERENCE
Top gold miners present their views on the future
At an impressive meeting in London, seven tier 1 gold miners gave their views on their companies’ futures and that for gold itself.Author: Lawrence WilliamsPosted: Friday , 16 Nov 2007 LONDON -

RBC Capital Markets' invitation-only Gold Conference held in London yesterday, was again an impressive event attracting top executives from many of the world's major gold mining companies to present ‘in conversation' with an analyst, particularly familiar with the company concerned asking probing questions - and interspersing this with questions from the audience.

Most of the majors presented in the morning session, while the afternoon was largely devoted to smaller companies making company presentations in the manner more common to the host of investment conferences held around the world.

Opening the conference, Anthony S. Fell, Chairman, RBC Capital Markets commented: "The timing of this conference is excellent; we have a perfect storm which favours investment in gold bullion and gold shares as far as the eye can see. The past few years have been a major long-term positive turning point in the fundamentals for gold, and the current systemic risk in the global financial system is now a very serious and real concern which will also bring renewed focus on gold as a store of value.

"This trend will continue and accelerate as events in this credit supercycle unfold, with this prolonged bull market lasting another decade or more. In this climate, I believe gold bullion is re-emerging as an accepted alterative investment and currency."

First up was Greg Wilkins, President & CEO of Barrick Gold Corporation: "Our recent strategic acquisitions have given us a much bigger global footprint, not only in gold, but also in copper, platinum and nickel. Although the company's focus is gold and will continue to be, this strong portfolio of high quality non-core assets allows us to deliver real value to our shareholders, as we seek ways to monetise our broad range of assets, using those proceeds to re-invest cash back into gold."

Commenting on the gold price he added: "It's hard to say where it will actually go. However, I do believe that the cost structure of the industry has changed so substantially in the past few years, that the sector would be in real trouble if we saw prices go down to $500/oz." He also felt that global gold mine supply was actually decreasing at a faster rate than people believe.
Wilkins also gave some interesting insights into Barrick's views on to where to invest. "There are certain countries Barrick won't go to" he said - "Particularly anywhere which puts anyone in harm's way". That applied to countries like the DRC and some other particularly African nations. And he then went on to comment on security of tenure and potential political interference saying "We are more likely nowadays to be taking countries off the list, rather than adding to it". He cited specifically Venezuela under President Chavez as being a place they wouldn't look at, and also those other Latin American countries, like Ecuador, which were trending in the same direction. Interestingly he saw Russia as a country where he felt the investment climate to be deteriorating which looks like foreshadowing some changes in Barrick policy in the region.

Wilkins was followed by Kevin McArthur of Goldcorp - a company operating and investing almost exclusively in the Americas and focusing entirely on developing new mines with low cash operating costs. He was predicting a 56% growth for the company over the next five years on operations with cash costs of around $175 to $200 an ounce. He felt Goldcorp's outlook was good after some stickier moments earlier in the year. The third quarter results were good and the fourth quarter "looks great"

Again on risk - physical and political - "We won't build a mine where we wouldn't go on holiday" he said. Goldcorp was primarily interested in building new mines in areas in which they were already working and cited plenty of scope for this - noting particularly Penasquito in Mexico and operations in Quebec around the developing Eleonore property, which he reckons is a major new gold sistrict.

McArthur said there had been a definite change of culture at Goldcorp since the merger with Glamis Gold, but overall the transition had gone pretty well. On the gold price, he, like other speakers, was looking to four digit gold in the near future.

Ian Cockerill, CEO of Gold Fields, also concurred on the four digit gold price expectation and confirmed the company's commitment to its international strategy, especially in China, commenting: "We see China as a long-term investment. The country is likely to be the world's largest gold producer this year; however, that production is coming from hundreds of different mines, so the opportunities for consolidation are huge. Furthermore, prospecting in China has hitherto been over large areas at shallow depths, so we are looking forward to working in this region extensively to drive Gold Fields' growth.

"Along with the company's unhedged profile, an increase in production from new projects and large resource base, we are well-placed to see improved earnings growth and cash flow in the future."

Graham Briggs, acting CEO of Harmony, and hoping to be confirmed in that position next month, has the challenging task of turning round a gold major built up on a "mixed bag" of relatively low grade marginal operations. The company has had some well documented recent difficulties and the task now is to turn it around, which is being helped by the high gold price.
Currently the company is addressing cost overruns and is going through a period of high capital spend. High cost uneconomic operations are being phased out and the company was one of the only one's at the event predicting an actual fall in gold output over the next year or two as restructuring takes place.

Evgueni Ivanov, General Director of Polyus Gold, was remarkably open in discussing the difficulties associated with major disagreements between the company's two principal shareholders, Mikhail Prokhorov and Vladimir Potanin. In a separation of their assets it looks now that Prokhorov will head Polyus, leaving Norilsk Nickel, from which Polyus was floated, in the hands of Potanin. "The company's Board is committed to delivering on the promises it has made to the market, and recent shareholder activity will not undermine the development of Polyus." he said.

Polyus is the leading gold producer in Russia and Ivanov discussed the company's growth strategy: "Growing organically rather than by acquisition will be the primary driver over the forthcoming years, as Polyus works to the approved strategy of four times growth by 2015, resulting in 3.9m oz of production annually. Our announcement yesterday updated the market on two major projects in the Krasnoyarsk region, Blagodatnoye, the largest gold discovery in Russia with reserves of 7.2m oz, and Titimukhta. Alongside our other projects and driven by an ambitious exploration programme, we expect our stated reserves of 68.6m oz to grow even further. We are always looking for acquisition opportunities; however, we are seeing few good, value-creating deals out there at the moment."

In particular, Ivanov singled out the Natalka deposit which he reckoned was the world's third largest, as being a major focus for the company. He also felt though, that the company would be looking for western jv partners to help develop the area because of its size. It has not yet been fully explored. He also disagreed with Greg Wilkins view of Russia as a risky mining environment reckoning it to be one of the world's best legislations in which to work - a view at least partly taken by Tye Burt of Kinross later in the day.

One very interesting aside to come from the talk was of a meeting between Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and the heads of the country's gold mining companies who suggested that the Russian Central Bank should consider increasing the gold element of its foreign currency reserves. He suggested that the Russian Central Bank may have been buying gold quite actively in the market and it will be see if this is actually the case when the Bank publishes its next statement.

The final morning presenter was Richard O'Brien, CEO of Newmont, another company which has seen some recent problems materialise with higher operating costs and reduced production at some of its major operations. O'Brien came to the CEO position recently and has already made some strong changes in moving to divest some of what he considers non-core assets and its gold hedges. This includes selling off its big royalty division - in part because a proportion of this related to non-gold assets and will use the money received in gold mining acquisitions where they can find those which meet its investment parameters - Miramar being the first of these.
On Newmont's money sapping Phoenix project, O'Brien thinks the mine planners and developers perhaps got things wrong in trying to push the mine into production too fast. In retrospect he felt that taking a bit more time could have alleviated some of the problems which have since occurred and are only now being addressed.

Overall O'Brien feels that Newmont needs to get back to using its extremely strong mining technical expertise to regain/rejuvenate its position through a more bottom line/cahflow oriented approach and is looking to build shareholder value strongly over the next five years.

The only Tier 1 producer presenting under the "in conversation" format in the afternoon was Kinross Gold, represented by Tye Burt where a takeover of Bema Gold has been successfully implemented over the past year. The company is looking to bring on three new projects with even lower cash costs than the company manages at the moment, and all of these present different kinds of challenges - these are Paracatu in Brazil where production is being tripled and is thus a straight expansion project.

Second is the Russian Kupol high grade gold/silver project - 80 percent complete - which is challenging climatically and geographically being in the icy north, but, as Burt says, probably no more difficult than developing a project in northern Canada or Alaska where similar constraints apply. He feels this is potentially one of the world's best gold mines with cash costs likely to be around $225 an ounce of gold sold.

The third project is the Buckhorn mine in Washington State where problems to be overcome are largely legislative and environmental. This is expected to add 160,000 low cost ounces a year to Kinross' production - also commencing in 2008.

To access the RBC Capital Markets' Global Gold Mining Conference webcast please click on http://www.wsw.com/webcast/rbc83/

The webcast will be available for 30 days.

Diamonds ARE gems! De Beers goes to court over Jagersfontein tailings

DIAMONDS AND GEMS - COURT PUNCH UP
Diamonds ARE gems! De Beers goes to court over Jagersfontein tailings

De Beers confirms it is contesting the granting of prospecting rights to a BEE company over tailings dumps at its Jagersfontein property, Free State, South Africa.Author: Barry SergeantPosted: Thursday , 29 Nov 2007 JOHANNESBURG
De Beers, the world's leading diamond miner, has confirmed its involvement in high level litigation over a prospecting licence granted last year to a black economic empowerment (BEE) entity over tailings dumps at its old Jagersfontein property where mining was first recorded in 1870.

South Africa's department of minerals and energy (DME) last year issued a prospecting right to Ataqua Mining under the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA).

Recycling of tailings dams and dumps at various mines is relatively common in South Africa, given the age of many mines, and improved processing and refining technologies.

De Beers was reacting to a report in a national daily newspaper in South Africa, a report based on various court papers, but excluding De Beers's court papers. De Beers in reaction has denied suggesting, as was reported, that diamonds are not gems, nor that De Beers does not need to comply with environmental regulations when processing the tailings dumps at Jagersfontein, nor that diamonds occur "artificially" in the tailings dumps.

The newspaper report stated that in its papers, government argues that the "unmined gems" contained in the tailings dumps fall under new legislation and are therefore open to prospecting. In reaction, De Beers states that the tailings and the diamonds contained in the tailings comprise material which has already been mined, and therefore no longer occurs naturally in, or on, the earth.

De Beers currently processes similar tailings elsewhere in South Africa; indeed, the Kimberley Mine operation produces well over one and a half million carats a year sourced entirely from company tailings going back over the past century to when mining began in the city in the 1870s.

Ataqua has reportedly complained that "for more than 30 years De Beers has chosen not to exploit the rich and valuable resources of the tailings dumps [at Jagersfontein], effectively sterilising the resources". The argument, whatever its merits, does not alter the fundamental ownership of the tailings dumps.

The litigation will be closely watched. A recently-published Chubb investment risk rating of resource-rich countries placed South Africa in a lowly 18th position. Sweden tops the list, but is immediately followed by Namibia; one of Namibia's neighbours, Angola, ranks 30 of 32 countries named.

Botswana ranks seventh after the USA, but ahead of Australia, one of the world's biggest beneficiaries of mining investment in the past few years. Ghana is ranked right after Australia; Zimbabwe is not mentioned in the list at all. The overall Chubb rating is based on weighted scores for sovereign risk, land access, green tape, land claims, red tape, social risk, infrastructure, civil unrest, natural disasters, and labour relations.

Objetivo da Vale é se tornar a maior do mundo

Editorial - Agência Estado
São Paulo - 30 de Novembro de 2007

A Vale, que ontem aposentou o "Rio Doce" de sua logomarca, ocupa hoje a segunda posição no ranking mundial de mineradoras, por valor de mercado. Mas, se depender dos planos do presidente da companhia, Roger Agnelli, ela não deve se estabilizar nessa posição.Sem traçar uma data, o executivo foi enfático ao afirmar que o objetivo é não deixar a atual líder, a anglo-australiana BHP Billiton, se distanciar da Vale no ranking - a BHP vale hoje US$ 202 bilhões, enquanto o valor de mercado da Vale é de cerca de US$ 160 bilhões. "Temos um dos melhores ativos de mineração do mundo.

Ninguém vai abrir muita distância. (...) Temos o compromisso de nos tornarmos a melhor e maior mineradora do mundo", afirmou o executivo, durante a apresentação da nova logomarca da companhia. Com uma cerimônia no Forte Copacabana, no Rio de Janeiro, para funcionários da empresa, a Vale mostrou a marca, que reproduz a letra "V" estilizada nas cores verde e dourado.

Segundo Agnelli, a Vale detém um volume grande de reservas, todas de excelente qualidade. "Não vejo problema em sonhar em ser a número um. Nós somos persistentes", brincou. No início deste mês, a BHP Billiton fez uma proposta de compra da também anglo-australiana Rio Tinto, a terceira maior empresa do setor - com valor de mercado de cerca de 150 bilhões.

A Rio Tinto, porém, rejeitou a oferta. Esta semana, na França, Agnelli descartou a possibilidade de entrar na disputa pela mineradora. A explicação, segundo o presidente, é que, assim como a Vale, a Rio Tinto tem ativos muito concentrados no segmento de minério de ferro, onde a companhia brasileira não tem interesse em adquirir novas reservas - a Vale já ocupa a liderança mundial desse segmento.

O executivo aproveitou para traçar um cenário positivo para a mineração mundial e confirmou a tendência de alta para o preço do minério de ferro em 2008. "A tendência do preço é de alta", disse. Mas o tamanho desse aumento, segundo Agnelli, ainda será decidido na mesa de negociação", afirmou. O maior desafio agora, observou, é buscar um equilíbrio entre a forte demanda registrada na Ásia e o crescimento mais moderado no Ocidente. "Como conseguir negociar um preço global com tamanha disparidade? O desafio é negociar um preço que seja bom", disse Agnelli.

Mudança
O diretor de Assuntos Corporativos da Vale, Tito Martins, informou que a empresa vai investir cerca de US$ 50 milhões nos próximos quatro anos para implementar a nova logomarca da mineradora. Martins admitiu que a mudança vai exigir um trabalho grande, visto que a companhia atua em vários países e diversos continentes. "É um investimento que estamos fazendo para integrar todas as áreas da companhia.

Um investimento que já está no orçamento deste e do próximo ano", afirmou. Agnelli lembrou que essa é a primeira vez que uma empresa brasileira adota uma marca global para suas atividades. "A Vale é brasileira, mas também é resultado da globalização." Segundo ele, a escolha do nome Vale teve inspiração no fato de ser curto e fácil identificação e fixação para o público. lico.