A The land question in the mining enterprise Minas-Rio’s licensing process

Abstract

The expansion of mining activities, through large enterprises, has occurred with intensity in the State of Minas Gerais, in recent decades. The extraction of iron ore to the north of the Iron Quadrangle, along the Espinhaço mountain range, stands out. The Minas-Rio project, in a project of a large mine inside (MG AConceição), resulted in communities of permanent and profound transformations in life in the municipality. This article analyzes the treatment of environmental licensing of mine operations in the municipalities of Conceição Mato Dentro, Dom Joaquim and Alvorada de Minas. To this end, qualitative research was carried out with observation, in a direct research notebook, of a registration document within the scope of the enterprise's environmental licensing process. The universes point out as highlights of the strategies of use of a reduction of results, or non-recognition of the reduction of results, the maintenance on neighboring groups and families, weakening and use of companies, sometimes denial of the traditional forms of appropriation of the territory generating a wide-ranging conflict.