Guaíba Coal Mine

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Guaíba Coal Mine (Mina de Guaíba) is a shelved coal mine in Eldorado do Sul, Charqueadas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Guaíba Coal Mine	Eldorado do Sul, Charqueadas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil	-30.015319, -51.532337 (approximate)

The map below shows the approximate location of the coal mine:

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Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Project Type	Opening Year	Closing Year
Shelved	Pre-Permit	New	–	–

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
5	–	–	Surface	–	–	50.0*	1154

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
166.0	–	–	Charqueadas	Subbituminous	Thermal	–

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Note: To access more comprehensive data on energy ownership, please visit the Global Energy Ownership Tracker.

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Copelmi Mineração Ltda [100%]	Copelmi Mineração Ltda [100%]	Brazil

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker May 2025 release.

Ownership Tree

This ownership tree is part of the Global Energy Ownership Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

Background

Guaíba Mine or Mina Guaíba was a proposed coal, sand, and gravel mining project in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, intended to be the largest open-pit coal mine in Brazil. In February 2022, a federal judge revoked the mine's environmental license, and in March 2022, the Rio Grande do Sul state environmental authority FEPAM officially shelved the project. The Guaíba Mine was originally proposed by Copelmi Mineração,, Brazil’s largest private coal mining company, which controls more than 80% of the country's industrial coal market. Estimates of the mine's lifetime coal production potential ranged from 4.7 million tonnes per annum (142 million tonnes over 30 years) to 7.2 million tonnes per annum (166 million tonnes over 23 years), with peak annual capacity estimated at nearly 8 million tonnes.

Project Timeline

According to the Projeto Mina Guaíba website, in November 2019, the project was awaiting licensing from the Brazilian government. In February 2020, a Brazilian federal judge suspended the environmental licensing process, citing Copelmi's failure to consider the mine's impact on the nearby indigenous community of Aldeia TeKoá Guajayvi. As of September 2020, permitting for the project remained on hold due to ongoing legal challenges.

News reports in September 2021 indicated that Rio Grande do Sul's state government had withdrawn support for development of the Guaíba mine. However, as of October 2021, the project had still not been officially shelved.

In February 2022, a judge from the 9th Federal Court of Porto Alegre declared the licensing process for the Guaíba mine null and void, based on the owners' failure to properly consult with the Mbyá-Guarani Guaijayvi indigenous community as required by law. Brazilian and international civil society groups celebrated the decision as a victory for indigenous rights and the environment.

In March 2022, FEPAM, the environmental agency of Rio Grande do Sul state, officially shelved the Guaíba mine project, noting four reasons for its decision:

• The original studies presented to the environmental licensing authority were unsatisfactory.
• The supplementary data presented in the updated environmental impact reports were inconclusive and unsatisfactory.
• Requested supplementary information and studies were not provided, even after deadlines were extended.
• The judicial decision from February 2022 in public civil action Nº 5069057-47.2019.4.04.7100/RS nullified the licensing process.

In the wake of FEPAM's decision, Emiliano Maldonado, a lawyer for the Guarani People's Coordination Council, noted that any further development of the mine project would require new environmental studies addressing the inconsistencies cited by FEPAM and respecting the rights of indigenous people as required by convention 169 of the ILO (International Labour Organization).

Environmental Impacts and Health Concerns

There has been strong opposition to the Guaíba mine from indigenous and environmental organizations on the grounds that it would contaminate local air, land and water, threaten Latin America's largest organic rice production zone, and negatively impact the 4.5 million residents of the greater Porto Alegre metropolitan area. Professor Rualdo Menegat of the Institute of Geosciences of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul expressed concern at a public hearing that the mine's location makes it possible for it to contaminate the Jacuí river, and that particulate matter from the site will decrease air quality. In January 2021 the Medical Association of Rio Grande do Sul warned of potential serious health consequences from the mine, including heart attacks, an increase in illness among children under five, and decreased quality of life.

2024 Southern Brazil Floods

In May 2024, excessive rains fell over Rio Grande do Sul state, triggering record-breaking floods described as one of the worst climate disasters in Brazil's history. (The total volume of floodwater was estimated to be 1.5 billion cubic meters—enough water to supply New York City, New York, USA, for more than a year.) Included among the hardest hit areas was the Porto Alegre region, which was inundated by more than 700 mm of precipitation.

Had the Guaíba mine—which was to be located in a flood zone along the banks of the Jacuí River—been built and in operation during these floods, the mine's coal waste would have likely caused catastrophic contamination of the Jacuí River and Lake Guaíba.

2025 marks the third year the Guaíba coal mine plans have remained shelved, and with the flood damage to the project site, the mine project isn't expected to be resurrected.

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Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.