Brazil court orders suspension of activity at Amazonian mine

A court has ordered Brazilian mining giant Vale to suspend activities at an Amazonian nickel mine and compensate indigenous people who say they are adversely affected by its operations.

Prosecutors have argued that pollution from the Onca Puma mine in northern Brazil's Para state has caused fetal deformations and serious diseases.

The court decision, which was published Saturday, stipulates that Vale immediately begin paying one million reais (around $300,000) per month to three villages inhabited by Xikrin indigenous people in the Catete region where a river has been polluted with heavy metals.

The text did not specify the number of months that the payments were to be made.

The prosecutor for the nearby city of Redencao, which filed the case, said that the financial compensation would help the indigenous population "adapt to a new reality because it can no longer fish or swim in the river."

The mine began production in 2011.

Vale has already filed an appeal to resume mining operations, O Globo newspaper reported. The company maintains that it is authorized by the Para environmental authority, it added.