Units and classifications rendered loosely
Resource and reserve categories are defined terms with reporting consequences. Translating them by their everyday meaning misstates the asset.
Industry
Half of this work happens in boots, not in a booth.
Mining and energy assignments move between a licensing meeting and a pit edge in the same day. The documentation is technical and regulated; the interpreting is mobile, loud and safety-critical. Both halves need the same vocabulary.
Mining & Energy
What we support
STIB translates technical and regulatory documentation and interprets for mining, energy and infrastructure projects in Brazil and for the international investors, operators and auditors who work with them.
What distinguishes the sector is the range within a single project. The same engagement can involve an environmental licensing document written for a regulator, a resource statement written for investors, and a safety induction delivered to a visiting delegation at a gate. Terminology has to hold across all three registers.
What we translate and interpret
- Mining permits and licensing documentation — submissions whose vocabulary is fixed by the regulator, not by the writer
- Environmental impact studies (EIA-RIMA) — the technical study and its public-facing report, which serve different readers and need different registers
- Dam safety plans — documentation where ambiguity is a safety issue before it is a translation issue
- Mineral resource and reserve reports — investor-facing statements with internationally standardised classification language
- Joint venture and royalty agreements — commercial documents layered on top of technical annexes
- HSE manuals — health, safety and environment material that people are expected to act on immediately
Failure modes
Where language actually fails in this sector
Not theory — these are the recurring ways a language workstream costs a project time.
Safety instructions made polite
Imperatives in safety material are imperative on purpose. Softening them in translation changes behaviour on site.
Site visits without an interpreter who can move
A booth interpreter and an escort interpreter are different skills. A plant tour needs someone who can work consecutively, on foot, over machinery noise, in PPE.
Live settings
Where we interpret in this sector
Technical and environmental audits
Consecutive interpreting through facilities and document reviews, often over several days.
Investor and JV meetings
Seated sessions where the technical annexes meet the commercial terms.
Site visits and inspections
Mobile escort interpreting, planned around travel time, safety induction and PPE requirements.
Regulatory context
Bodies and frameworks in play
Projects in this sector regularly involve terminology and requirements tied to the following Brazilian bodies.
ANM
Agência Nacional de Mineração, the national mining agency responsible for mineral rights and oversight.
IBAMA
The federal environmental agency responsible for environmental licensing and enforcement.
ANA
Agência Nacional de Águas e Saneamento Básico, the national water and sanitation agency.
Straight answers
Mining & Energy: questions we are asked
Do you provide interpreters for mine or plant site visits?
Yes. Site visits are covered with escort interpreting — the interpreter moves with the group and works consecutively or whispered, because a booth is not an option on a plant floor. Safety induction and PPE requirements are planned into the assignment rather than discovered on the day.
Can you translate an EIA-RIMA?
Yes. The environmental impact study and its public report are treated as two registers of the same material: the study keeps its technical vocabulary, while the report has to remain readable by a non-specialist audience, which is the point of that document existing separately.
How do you handle resource and reserve classifications?
As defined terms rather than descriptive words. The classification vocabulary used in investor-facing reporting carries specific meaning, so it is fixed in the glossary before translation and not varied for style.
Do interpreters need specific preparation for safety-critical settings?
Yes. Safety material, site procedures and equipment vocabulary are studied in advance, and imperative instructions are rendered as imperatives. This is one of the settings where preparation is not a nicety.
Can you cover a delegation visiting several sites in different states?
Yes. One interpreter travelling with the delegation keeps terminology and context consistent across sites; travel time between locations is built into the schedule when the assignment is scoped.
Other sectors
We also work in
Tell us what is on the table.
The documents, the meeting, the dates and the languages. You get a scoped proposal from the team that will run the assignment.