Mining protest in my city

This week, a couple blocks from my house, the local chapter of the Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT, a Catholic Church activist institution that defends small farmers and landless peasants) put on public theater and distributed pamphlets denouncing the rise in mining activity in the region. The pamphlet makes a host of accusations about the problems mining presents in Brazil and more specifically, this region of the interior of Bahia. Here goes the translated text in its entirety:

--

Mining: Progress for whom? Not me!

For your information:

-Exploitation of minerals (gold, copper, iron, etc) is growing fast in Bahia.

-The government (President Dilma, Governor Wagner, mayors, congressmen, senators, city councilmen, judges, etc) is allied with the miners and giving full support!

-In 2011 alone, 831 research permits and 6 mining ordinances have already been conceded.

-In February of 2011, the Federal Government launched the National Mining Plan, which includes plans for investment and incentive policies for the next 20 years.

-The Mining Code is being rewritten, to the benefit of mining companies.

-Environmental legislation, especially the Forest Code, is also being relaxed to favor destruction without punishment!!!

-The Federal Government will invest more than R$ 64 billion in mining through 2015, while education and health suffer lack of resources.

Be Careful:

-Mining destroys nature, kills water sources, pollutes rivers, expoits workers, kills and mutilates people, kicks farmers off their land and causes violence, alcoholism, prostitution, etc

-The basin of the Itapicuru river is seriously compromised because exploration is being down irresponsibly and without impact studies.

-It’s a lot of destruction for little employment. Each mine generates fewer than 60 jobs.

-Our wealth is being exported to dominant countries and our people are stuck with the devastation.

Be smart! Public money, including yours, is being used to benefit private companies and devastate the environment.

Are you going to let them?

--

Anecdotal evidence from around here certainly supports the idea that mining as practiced in Brazil has serious problems. From conversations with friends, I’ve heard of entire towns that have been tricked into approving encroachment by miners (say, by getting signatures for a supposed attendance sheet for a town meeting that was actually an approval form for mining activity), and apparently when mines do generate employment, much of it goes to out-of-state workers rather than people from the community, leading to divisions among the population. An acquaintance that works in the mines has described the work to me as “inhuman”, with constant safety hazards and long hours underground.

But is mining all bad? Thinking about the issue brought two major questions to my attention, which I will try to answer in my next posts:

1. How important is mining to the Brazilian economy, and how is this reflected in the country’s mining policies (including the new Mining Code)? Is it true that “Brazilian wealth is being exported to dominant countries and [the Brazilian] people are stuck only with the devastation”?
2. How bad are the social and environmental effects of mining in Brazil? Why can’t the negative effects be reduced, at least enough to avoid turning large segments of the population against mining?