Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro visited two indigenous reservations in the Amazon on Thursday for the first time as head of state, despite protests by some tribal leaders against his push to open up their protected lands to commercial mining.

Bolsonaro, flanked by army officers and a Tukano chief wearing a feathered headdress, watched the local community perform a ritual dance in the Balaio reserve, where he inaugurated a bridge.

The wooden bridge was built by the Brazilian army on a road that goes to the border with Venezuela, passing through the Balaio reserve, where important niobium reserves have been found. The metal is used to make light steel for jet engines and other specialty applications..

Bolsonaro has regularly mentioned its value in speeches about the untapped riches of the Amazon that Brazil must exploit.

The Balaio reserve is located on the upper reaches of the Negro River in the far northwest of Brazil, near the borders with Colombia and Venezuela.

Later, Bolsonaro visited and spent the night at a military border post in Maturacá, which is located on the western edge of the Yanomami reserve, the largest in Brazil.

Illegal minery

The eastern section of the reserve in Roraima state has been invaded by more than 20,000 illegal gold miners, emboldened by Bolsonaro's support for legalizing wild mining in Brazil.

The Yanomami leaders lamented the far-right president's visit to their reserve and reiterated their calls on the authorities to expel the miners.

“The government must urgently remove the invaders from our territories to safeguard our health and that of Mother Earth,” they said in a letter to Bolsonaro.

“We do not accept the legalization of mining activities on our lands, because it will not bring any benefit to the Yanomami,” said the letter signed by the Maturacá leaders.

Bolsonaro's visit came a day after gold miners illegally panning indigenous lands along the Tapajos river in the Amazon fired on a Munduruku village and burned down the home of one of their leaders.

Brazil's lower house of Congress, where Bolsonaro's supporters hold a majority, is considering government-proposed legislation that would open the door to commercial mining and farming on indigenous reservations.