“…Este é um artigo publicado em acesso aberto sob uma licença Creative Commons In general, it would be incorrect to say that only mining causes environmental impacts, as they result from various human activities, such as: unbridled exploitation of resources, agriculture, livestock, industries, construction of dams for power generation, among others. Even so, the environmental issue is one of the main problems of the sector, because the environmental impacts are divided into two categories: internal (water, air, soil, subsidence of the ground, radiation, contamination, among others); and external (climate and environmental changes, land use conflicts, depreciation of surrounding properties, generation of degraded areas, risk of accidents, imbalance of the natural environment, conflicts with the local or regional community, human health disorders, among others (Farias, 2002).…”