Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
between a formal legal system and an informal, local or customary legal system, but
instead between the federal Brazilian and Pará state legal systems.
The modern cycle of small-scale gold mining in the Brazilian Tapajós region, a
tributary of the Amazon in the Southwestern part of the state of Pará, started in 1958
with the discovery of the first gold deposits. Migrant miners from other regions in
Brazil, but also from neighbouring countries such as Guyana, moved into the region
to explore and exploit the mineral-rich soil. The lack of state presence in the region gave
the social actors involved in the gold extraction the liberty to auto-organise their own
regulatory framework for the exploration and exploitation of the mineral resources.
One of the bases of this unwritten miners' law is the social consensus that the property
rights on land and the mineral resources it holds belong to the miner who has first
discovered the gold deposit and started its exploration (Cleary 1990). Other miners
are allowed to explore parts of a territory at the discretion of the mining area's owner,
who usually charges a flat fee of 10% of the gold production.
Property rights are recognised in the sense that they can be bought and sold,
and over time owners have registered their properties and acquired documentation.
In addition to the regulation of property rights, the mining law also contains social
norms regarding the work relations of the mining process. The work regime is known
by the small-scale gold miners as
sociedade
(partnership), and means that the workers'
remunerations are linked to the production of the mine (Mathis 1995: 9). The workers'
part is generally 30% of the physical gold production, but this percentage is lower in
the case of mechanical excavators or the use of crushers (both of which make the work
less arduous). Although this working regime is not in accordance with the Brazilian
working legislation, all parties involved consider the system to be fair. The fact that
the worker has a share in the outcome of the extraction process creates a stabilising
mechanism as the owner and the worker have the same interest in the production.
The mining region of Tapajós was legalised 25 years after its discovery, in July 1983,
when the Ministry of Mines and Energy created the
Reserva Garimpeira
, the Tapajós
small-scale gold mining reserve.
The regulatory framework of mining in Brazil includes the Mining Code (Decree
Law 227 of 28.02.1967) and legislation concerning environmental licensing proce-
dures, but also specific devices that deal with small-scale mining and its regulations.
The Mining Code defines all mineral deposits as an asset of the state, which has the
right to grant licences for research through the Federal Mining Agency (DNPM -
Departamento Nacional de Produção Mineral
) or grant the mining rights by the Min-
istry of Mines and Energy (MME). The code establishes different legal regimes for
the exploitation of mineral resources. Small-scale mining is acknowledged as a viable
economic sector. The Mining Code also provides the possibility of declaring certain
areas for exclusive use by small-scale miners through the implementation of small-
scale mining reserve areas, like the
Reserva Garimpeira
of Tapajós. The combination
of formal legislation and miners' law was the basis for a small-scale mining economy
and society where, at its height in the 1980s, 100,000 people found a living. Several
mining camps developed into villages over time, and now places like Creporizão, Cre-
porizinho, Cabaçal and Água Branca have schools, medical posts and a local police
force.
From 1989 onwards, the pressure from the Federal and State governmental insti-
tutions grew and, through a series of regulations, small-scale gold mining became
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