Neoextrativismo e efeitos derrame: a mineração de ouro em Riacho dos Machados - MG

Abstract

The present study approaches the activity of gold extration developed in the cities of Riacho dos Machados and Porteirinha, located in the North of Minas Gerais and the socio-enviromental results unleashed by this activity. The objective of this work was to analyze the effects of the environmental spill on the water, with the resumption of the activities of gold extration in this region. For this, the following methodological procedures had been articulated: documentary research, bibliographical revision and interviews semistructuralized with the agents who have contested the effect on the water,decurrent of the enterprise. With approximately seven years of installation this enterprise has been object of pleas about the degrading effect that has generated to the place, mainly on the water, on the other hand the installation of barrage of tailings in affluent of the river Gorutuba, main water contributor for some cities in the microregion where the enterprise is inserted has been target of disputes and pleas around the water, about risks of contamination or some type of accident with the structure in the region. In a scenario of high mineral demand, incentives and investments for the sector that directly reflects in the place of the activity, the work points to effects of has environmental spills on the appropriation of the water for the mining, inequality of access, violation of rights and relaxation of the ambient control, revealing still the tensioning of conflicts around the water.