DiCaprio joins opposition to Belo Sun’s $300M Brazil mine

AI desk brief

Leonardo DiCaprio has backed opposition to Belo Sun’s proposed $300M Volta Grande gold project in Brazil, adding pressure to a permitting fight around what the company wants to develop as the country’s largest open-pit gold mine. Brazilian prosecutors and FUNAI are seeking to overturn a court ruling favorable to Belo Sun, and the case now sits with the president of Brazil’s Supreme Court with no decision date set.

The dispute highlights the regulatory and social hurdles facing large gold projects in Brazil, where permits can take 5-10 years and scrutiny of mining, Indigenous consultation and environmental impacts remains high. Belo Sun says the project is outside protected Indigenous land and has already undergone more than a decade of technical, environmental and social studies, but the legal uncertainty keeps timing and development risk elevated.