This case encompasses two hydropower plant projects – Santo Antônio and Jirau.
V. I. I. Santo Antonio
This is the societary chain building, owning and operating Santo Antonio, one of the plants in the Madeira River. Note that the modus operandi established on this project was reproduced on the other experiences.
State’s direct participations, through FURNAS and CEMIG, sum up to 49%, corroborating to the theory that Brazilian government has been acting like an articulator, making the projects in the Amazon possible, and delivering the operating profits to the private iniciative. It is also clear how the private iniciative acts in the businesses and how much they control the operating consortium - MESA. Odebrecht, for example, other than the 18,5% in direct
participation, also owns 50% of a the Amazonian Energy Participation Fund, which owns 20% of the operating consortium, maximizing their influence in decision-making.
VI. I. II. Jirau
Madeira River’s privatisation process wasn’t funded only by civil construction companies.
Transnational groups, such as GDF Suez, also played key roles in the operations.
As is it shown in the slide above, GDF Suez, a company controled by the French government, owns alone, 50,1% of the investment. Another important detail is the same company’s ownership on Tractebel Energia SA, operating on Estreito’s consortium with 40% ownership.
This shows how these corporations are working to profit from energy production by investing in several projects, through many subsidiaries. Also note that the Mitsui & Co. LTD. are said to be a part of the societary chain on the projetc’s website, but not on ANEEL’s database.
It is important to say the construction areas of Santo Antonio and Jirau are situated in integrated territories, close to urban centres, not isolated ones like in the cases of Belo Monte and Teles Pires. The municipality taken as direct influential area of the project is Porto Velho. There, we found 1.986 requests for mineral rights, a total of 968.607 hectares of land.
The next chart shows the number of requests per year.
Chart 1
Number of Requests per Year Porto Velho – Madeira River
While between the fourty years period prior to the Worker’s Party government there were 1.220 requests, a total of 218.940 hec., in the eleven year period since this party is in charge there were 776 new requests, a total of 750.666 hec. Showing a significant growth in the explored areas. In this case specifically, 36.107 hec are inside conservation unities. It is also important to notice that, from all the endeavors spoken about in this report, this area is the one with the highest potential to the expansion of infrastructure and mining investments.
The chart shows how much area (in hectares) was explored in each year:
Chart 2
Amount of Area Requested per Year Porto Velho – Madeira River
VI.II. Estreito
This case stands out for the change in context. As you can see, there is a similar case of appropriation by the private iniciative here, except this time, instead of civil construction corporations, the players are mining companies. VALE and ALCOA control, together, 55,49%
of the investment, while GDF Suez has 40,07% and Camargo Correa the remaining 4,44%. It is important to note that VALE specifically needs the energy produced in this plant to keep the Carajás Complex in business.
It becomes even more clear how much mining companies are investing in energy production, corroborating our hyphotesis. It is fundamental to state that this project shows the most complex corporation network domination we have seen, as it was shown in the slide.
The municipalities under direct influence in this case are – Carolina, Estreito, Aguiarnópolis, Babaçulandia, Barra do Ouro, Goiatins, Palmeirante, Palmeira do Tocantins and Filadélfia, a total of nine. In this region we found 570.291.76 hectares of mineral rights requests in the following years. Next page’s chart shows the number of requests per year.
Chart 3
Number of Requests per Year Carolina, Estreito, Aguiarnópolis, Babaçulandia, Barra do Ouro, Goiatins, Palmeirante, Palmeira do Tocantins and Filadélfia – Estreito
Next chart points to an increase in requests, and in explored areas, starting in 2011, when the auctions started being planned- they actually happened in 2012. Estreito is the result of a union among VALE, ALCOA, Camargo Correa and Tractebel. Its construction was based, prioritarily, on fulfilling the mining sector’s energetical needs. It is worth to mention ALCOA reached 70% of its self-sufficient energetical operations therefore, the company can now supply energy to VALE’s mining activities.
Chart 4
Amount of Area Requested per Year Carolina, Estreito, Aguiarnópolis, Babaçulandia, Barra do Ouro, Goiatins, Palmeirante, Palmeira do Tocantins and Filadélfia – Estreito.
VI.III. Teles Pires
Note that this area is the home of a very wealthy mineral soil, which raises the interests from mining companies. The plant is mostly controlled by Neoenergia S/A, the consortium articulated by the Brazilian State after Odebrecht and Camargo Correa’s drop out. You will find that the company is now controlled by pension funds, one of Banco do Brasil’s subsidiaries and Iberdola Energy SA.
The direct influence areas on this endeavor are the municipalities of Paranaíta, Alta Floresta, in Mato Grosso and Jacareacanga, in Pará. This basin is part of a geological complex of more than 1200 km. The requests sum up to 385 in the three localities. See the next chart:
Chart 5
Number of Requests per Year Paranaíta, Alta Floresta and Jacareacanga – Teles Pires
Chart 6
Amount of Area Requested per Year Paranaíta, Alta Floresta and Jacareacanga – Teles Pires
The year of 1996 was the most expressive, with 48% of the total amount of requests, but 2006 was the winner in area explored, and even though the bidding happened in 2010, 2011 doesn’t show a big number of requests. In the period between 2006-2011, 2.183.769,52 km were explored, which means less requests, but wider areas of exploitation, including inside conservation unities and indigenal reserve areas.
Reasserting that the project’s locations will open a gateway to the growth in exploration, in 2005 Canadian transnacional company Megellan Minerals bought, from small and medium explorers, the rights to mining extraction in the area; in 2012 the government expedited a primary licence to Eldorado Gold Corporation, also canadian, predicting 12 years of exploration in an open sky mine.