Livro EDM

A Herança das Minas Abandonadas 15
Mina de São Domingos - Fábrica de enxofre na Achada do Gamo. (JB)
São Domingos Mine - Installations for sulphur production at Achada do Gamo. (JB)
bar too high by imposing environmental
and social requirements
that are relatively strict and costly
in comparison to other countries’
conditions. Where the industry
is nationalised, it is in the government’s
interest to keep costs
down, sometimes by cutting environmental
and social investment.
• In the absence of strong and effective
regulatory oversight, individual
companies sometimes take
voluntary action to improve their
environmental and social performance.
Society and governments
have done little to reward progressive
actions, and this weakens the
economic case within companies
for continuing to be proactive
and self-regulating. If there is no
financial benefit from being more
responsible, this creates pressure
to use the lowest acceptable
standards of behaviour.
• Mining communities are often
formed or rapidly expanded by immigration
when economic opportunity
is offered, and they shrink or
disappear altogether by emigration
when those opportunities diminish.
These processes do not create
the stability and social cohesion in
communities that can make them
more resilient to socio-economic
change.
• Of those who emigrate, it is the
possessors of high-value transferable
skills who tend to move out
of the region first after the closure
of a mine. This leaves the remaining
community less skilled and
entrepreneurial, and less able to
identify alternative and sustainable
livelihoods.
• In the past, the closure of mines
was accepted as an unavoidable
product of economic conditions or
of the exhaustion of resources, or
both. There was no requirement
for mine operators to plan for closure
or to make financial provision
for the costs of closure. The mine
would only close when it ceased
to make money, so there was little
point in pursuing non-existent
cash flow.
• The shock of mine closure is amplified
by the cyclical nature of the
mining sector. Rapid movements
in mineral commodity prices are
endemic and rarely foreseen accurately,
creating phases of rapid
mine development and expansion
followed by rapid and unexpected
closure and abandonment.
• The resulting cycles of growth and
decline in production are reflected
in tax and royalty payments to
governments, but many governments
fail to invest in local infrastructure
and social capital in the
times of plenty. When revenues dry
up, mining regions are often not
equipped with the physical assets
(roads, railways, housing, utilities)
or social capacity (health, education,
governance) they need to enable
them to develop sustainable
local options after mining.