Environmental impacts of phosphate mining in the Araxá municipality - Minas Gerais from the residents of adjacent territories perspective

Abstract

Mining is one of the economic activities that has the greatest impact on the environment, that is why it is necessary to permanently study about its environmental impacts, especially in places where these activities are very prominent, such as the state of Minas Gerais. Therefore, this state, as an exponent of mining activity in Brazil, has become an area of significant environmental disasters. In assessing environmental impacts, matrices have been used to the extent that this procedure can identify the impacts resulting from different activities in relation to the environments in which they occur. The main objective of this study was to analyze the views of residents living near mining companies in the Araxá municipality-MG. With regard of methodology, the study was divided into two main stages: the first was the development of the adapted Leopold Matrix to assess the aspects and impacts of the Araxá Mining and Chemical Complex, which exploits phosphate in the municipality; the second stage involved the application of a questionnaire to residents of the Fertiza and Boa Visto neighborhoods, as they are adjacent to the enterprise and therefore receive the most impacts from the company. In all, 28 aspects and 22 impacts were surveyed, allowing for 1,012 interactions in the impact matrix. After evaluation, 245 interactions or impacts were obtained, of which 209 were negative and 36 positives. In addition, 64 residents took part in the survey. The study showed that, despite the economic importance of mining, without proper planning, it has more negative impacts than positive ones and socio-environmental management practices may comply with current legislation, but they are not effective in promoting an environmentally balanced environment for the surrounding residents.