Mining activity in Brazil and negligence in action

Salvador, Gilberto Nepomuceno; Leal, Cecília Gontijo; Brejão, Gabriel Lourenço; Pessali, Tiago Casarim; Alves, Carlos Bernardo Mascarenhas; Rosa, Gustavo Ribeiro; Ligeiro, Raphael; Montag, Luciano Fogaça de Assis

doi:10.1016/j.pecon.2020.05.003

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…According to Salvador et al . (2020), conflicting data provided by public agencies and independent organizations about the extent of impacts may have long‐term consequences for the fish fauna. Therefore, despite any IUCN threat category ranking, we cannot disregard the impacts caused by the Córrego do Feijão collapse, and the real possibility of further collapses of tailings dams in the Rio São Francisco Basin.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When destruction comes first: Two new species of Hypostomus Lacépède, 1803 (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from a deeply‐impacted river in the Rio São Francisco basin in Brazil

Penido

Pessali

Zawadzki

2021

Journal of Fish Biology

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Environmental disasters affecting Brazilian rivers have been frequent recently, especially involving mining activities. Two recent dam-rupture events suddenly released millions of cubic meters of iron tailings downstream into two major Brazilian watersheds. These events generated major losses to the environment and human life.Additionally, the biodiversity in both watersheds was still incompletely known. Two new species of the armoured catfish genus Hypostomus were discovered in the Rio Paraopeba and surrounding rivers of the Rio São Francisco Basin. The species share some main characteristics including a depressed body, large dark spots on a clearer background and the absence of keels on flanks. However, while one species (Hypostomus freirei sp. n.) has a large mandibular ramus and numerous slender teeth, the other (Hypostomus guajupia sp. n.) has a shorter mandibular ramus and few robust teeth. The discovery of these two new mid-sized fish species emphasizes the presumption that the effects of major environmental disasters cannot be fully estimated as local biodiversity is not completely known. This discovery in a recently devastated area also shows that tough environmental laws for the protection, supervision and mitigation of major impacts are urgently needed in developing countries.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

When destruction comes first: Two new species of Hypostomus Lacépède, 1803 (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from a deeply‐impacted river in the Rio São Francisco basin in Brazil

Penido

Pessali

Zawadzki

2021

Journal of Fish Biology

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“…Forest Code), fostering illegal activities and creating new settlements in some regions of the basin. Other policy changes include new incentives for the expansion of mining (Ferreira et al, 2014; Meira et al, 2016), agribusiness (Lapola et al, 2014) and aquaculture (Lima, Oliveira, Giacomini, & Lima‐Junior, 2018) that have fostered deforestation and pollution and increased the risk of species invasions (Meira‐Neto & Neri, 2017; Padial et al, 2017; Salvador et al, 2020).…”

Section: A Political Tsunamimentioning

confidence: 99%

A political tsunami hits Amazon conservation

Pelicice

Castello

2021

Aquatic Conservation

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The history of conservation of the Amazon can be viewed as a war involving many battles with interests in agribusiness on one side and in biodiversity conservation and sustainability on the other side. Trends in large‐scale deforestation in the 1970s spurred a series of policies, stakeholder alliances and international and grass‐roots movements, which decades later led to the establishment of protected areas and interventions in soy and beef supply chains of agribusiness. Together, these advances epitomized a conservation framework for the Amazon, which at one point nearly curbed deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, although it included very few protections for freshwater ecosystems. While those conservation advances were taking place, however, a series of policy changes started to undermine them through expansions in deforestation, river regulation and mining activities. The election of Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro in 2019 then hit the Amazon conservation framework much like a tsunami of policy setbacks and the re‐establishment of the economic policies that sparked the Amazon war in the past. The current trajectory is one of large‐scale degradation of Amazonian ecosystems and biodiversity with consequent impacts on local people. Because freshwater ecosystems are highly sensitive to human activities on water and on land, these growing impacts are particularly large. It is too early to know, but four decades of institutional and policy developments to conserve the Brazilian Amazon may soon be pushed past the point from which they will be able to recover. Four conditions will be pivotal to allowing the Amazon conservation framework to recoup: (a) the end of Bolsonaro’s mandate in 2022 or earlier; (b) remobilization of stakeholders; (c) investments in environmental research, policy and multiple collaborations; and (d) moving conservation beyond terrestrial landscapes to also encompass freshwater ecosystems and their people.

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“…Furthermore, a larger amount of mine tailings is generated when compared to hematite ores, demanding an even more rigorous control and monitoring of tailings disposal. Unfortunately, tailings disposal in dams involves risks, and these have become evident in Brazil in the last decade from the tailing dam failures at two iron ore mines near the municipalities of Mariana and Brumadinho [7,8], both located in Minas Gerais.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, multiple factors have imposed challenges to present and future operations that rely on the lower grade iron ores (itabirite) from the Brazilian southeast. These include the socio-environmental impacts of mining activities and the risk of recurrence of such disasters in the region [7], the legitimate societal concern and disapproval (i.e., lack of social license to operate-SLO) in response to the recent dam rupture events, and flaws in Brazilian legislation (see, for instance [7,8]), alongside the high volatility of the iron ore price in the market from late 2004 onwards [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Holistic Pre-Feasibility Study of Comminution Routes for a Brazilian Itabirite Ore

2021

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Comminution is an essential step in processing itabirite ores, given the need to liberate silica and other contaminants from the iron minerals for downstream concentration and then pellet feed production. In general, these ores in Brazil are not particularly hard to crush and grind, but both capital (CAPEx) and operating (OPEx) expenditures in this stage of preparation can be critical for the project, in particular due to uncertainties in iron ore prices. Several circuits have been designed and are in operation for this type of ore in Brazil; however, it is not yet clear which technologies are more cost-effective and in which configuration they should be applied. This work critically analyzes four comminution circuits for an undisclosed case study. For these circuits, CAPEx, OPEx, and some environmental sustainability indices, as well as qualitative technical criteria, were used in the comparisons. This work concludes that two of these process routes, especially those based on more energy-efficient technologies (and one of these still rarely explored even at bench-scale), have demonstrated to be very attractive from multiple standpoints.

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Mining activity in Brazil and negligence in action

Cited by 19 publications

References 19 publications

When destruction comes first: Two new species of Hypostomus Lacépède, 1803 (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from a deeply‐impacted river in the Rio São Francisco basin in Brazil

When destruction comes first: Two new species of Hypostomus Lacépède, 1803 (Siluriformes: Loricariidae) from a deeply‐impacted river in the Rio São Francisco basin in Brazil

A political tsunami hits Amazon conservation

Holistic Pre-Feasibility Study of Comminution Routes for a Brazilian Itabirite Ore

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