Mineração nos Gerais: análise do licenciamento ambiental do projeto bloco 8.

Abstract

This dissertation proposes to study and analyze the environmental licensing process of the mining project of the Chinese capital company Sul Americana de Metais - SAM, currently called Block 8 Project, and the tensions caused by the enterprise in the North of Minas Gerais, especially considering the processes of struggles undertaken by the traditional communities of Geraizeiros, affected by the project. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the dynamics of power relations within the scope of the enterprise and the formal instances of licensing procedures, having as a starting point the strategies, official discourses and positions of the mining company, of state agents , the Public Ministry and the traditional peoples and communities of the region. To this end, the work employs a descriptive approach, through a bibliographic review of authors such as Gudynas (2015); Zhouri (2005); Bronz (2016); Zucarelli (2018); Costa, J.B. (2021) and Acselrad (2004), and documents researchs of licensing processes and Environmental Impact Studies/Reports of the project(s).Thus, the research, at first, will be presented by the survey of the main analytical categories and strategies used in the environmental licensing processes of "development" ventures by economic social actors and state agents, in order to identify the genesis and effects of the processes of domination that emerged in the environmental field. From this view, it will seek to investigate theenvironmental licensing process of the Vale do Rio Pardo Project (name initially assumed by the project), identifying configurations, official decisions and positions of the main active subjects, highlighting the opposition trajectory of traditional peoples and communities and social movements. Finally, it will examine the environmental licensing process of the Bloco 8 Project (current project nomenclature), in order to examine weaknesses, violations of rights and ―alegalidades‖, as well as highlight the ―second stage‖ of resistance by local actors. As a result, it appears that over the decade of the environmental licensing process for the project(s),there was a reiterated presence of normative flexibility and/or ―alegalidades‖, which operated in favor of the permanence of the asymmetries of power that confer the prevalence oftransnational capital in the face of different alternatives for the allocation of territories and resources, allowing not only the possibility of installing these enterprises, but also the occurrence of violence in its multiple dimensions, in the face of the environment and the collectivities historically inserted in the territories. There is a violation of the rights of the Geraizeiros communities, which, despite the normative guarantees, were not previously, formally and freely consulted about the project.