Brazil's environmentally destructive iron ore industry

Brazil’s environmentally destructive iron ore industry

The Amazon rainforest is rich in minerals such as copper, manganese, aluminium, nickel, tin, gold, diamond, uranium and iron (BBC). As a result, the mining industry has been steadily expanding in the Amazonian basin thanks to considerable investments by mining companies over the past decades (WSJ). Unfortunately, mining in the Amazon has numerous environmental impacts such as deforestation, pollution and conflicts on indigenous lands (WWF). In this blog post, I will focus specifically on iron ore mining in Brazil which is the world’s third largest iron exporter.

Indeed, Brazil has two large natural iron ore reservoirs: The Carajás mineral province in north-western Brazil (figure 1) and the iron quadrangle in Minas Gerais in the south-eastern Brazil (figure 2).

Figure 1: (the Carajas mineral province)                    Figure 2: The Iron quadrangle mining region

Large scale mining of the the Carajás mineral province, home to the world’s largest iron ore reservoir, began in 1982 when Brazil’s military dictatorship launched the The Carajás project (Americas Program). This project involves 900’000 square kilometres of Brazilian land in the eastern Amazon which is used for ranching, forestry and mineral extraction activities.

As could be expected, the iron ore industry has been responsible for many large scale negative impacts such as deforestation.  Indeed, around the Carajás mines (figure 3) there is an annual deforestation rate of 6’100km² (WWF). This is because of the smelting process which produces a base metal from its ore. This energy dependant process consequently relies on the burning of charcoal to fuel the smelting done in the pig iron plants. For reference, it requires around 2’396’230 metric tons of charcoal to fuel just 20 pig iron plants (Philip M. Fearnside). To produce this amount of charcoal, 700’000 hectares of Eucalyptus trees is required. Unfortunately, only a tenth of that area consists of silviculture plantations. Since these plantations are expensive, the remaining 90 percent of trees come from the unsustainable deforestation of the native forest.

Figure 3: the Carajás mine, world's the largest iron mine

The Carajás mines (owned by Vale: the world’s second largest mining corporation) are also becoming increasingly reliant on hydroelectric energy to power their operations. Indeed, Vale has invested in 10 dams including the highly controversial Belo Monte damn of which they own 9.2 percent (International Rivers). This dam which is still under construction will divert more than 80 percent of the 1’700 mile long Xingu River (Belo Monte Dam case study) and will become the third largest dam in the world once completed. This will lead to the flooding of 193 square miles of forest and the drying up of a 62-mile stretch of the Big Bend river. This is expected to cause a significant decline in the water table leading to large losses of aquatic and terrestrial fauna.

Not only has the Grande Carajás program contributed to environmental destruction it has also negatively impacted thousands of the region’s 8 million people. Many had to be dislocated as the land where they used to live and work has been unethically appropriated by the Brazilian government. The Belo Monte dam mentioned above provides a perfect example of this as it will cause the displacement of around 20’000 to 40’000 people (Belo Monte Dam case study) from both rural and urban areas. This will destroy their livelihoods with little or no compensation. Many indigenous tribes for instance, will no longer be able to depend on rivers for their survival.

As mentioned earlier, the Iron Quadrangle also has large iron ore deposits and is therefore subject to extensive mining operations which are a major source of pollution. Indeed, iron ore extraction creates large amounts of mining waste and by-products which are simply poured into tailings dams. Unfortunately, many of these dams are poorly constructed resulting in the leakage of these products into nearby rivers. The leakage of Fe rich mining waste can be seen in many fluvial sediments such as the ones of the Gualaxa do Norte River Basin which show a very clear Fe enrichment (Aline Rodrigues). Fe enrichment not only creates direct problems; it also causes indirect problems. For instance, Fe’s ability to absorb and form complexes with other toxic metals (from the mining industry) increases the extent and dispersal of the pollution.

Not only do these tailings dam leak, they are also at risk of failing. Sadly, on the 5^th of November 2015 that’s exactly what happened. The Belo Rodriguez dam failed, releasing 60 million cubic meters of iron waste and mud leading to Brazil’s worst environmental disaster ever (Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff) (figure 4). These muds then travelled 500km polluting the region’s most important river: The Rio Doce. The dam burst is attributed to the insufficient regulations of the Brazilian mining sector. It is difficult however to comment on the full extent of the environmental pollution as full environmental assessment by independent contractors has yet to be made (france 24).

 Figure 4: Before and After the Belo Rodriguez dam disaster

In conclusion, as mining extraction technologies continue to improve so will the extent of Amazonian mining. This coupled with the clear lack of regulations and attractive tax incentives by the Brazilian government (WWF), will lead to further environmental and social degradation. The need for a massive reform of the Brazilian mining industry cannot be overstated and is vital in saving and protecting the precious ecosystem of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.