Planning and Execution for Mining Activity
The Environmental Impact Study (EIA) and the Environmental Impact Report (RIMA) are common to all Brazilian states and regulated by CONAMA Resolution 001/1986. The studies are mandatory for all ventures and activities that may cause significant environmental impacts.
The Environmental Impact Study (EIA) addresses technical aspects related to the evaluation of the environmental impacts that will be generated in all phases of the undertaking. This study must be prepared by a qualified multidisciplinary technical team, and must contain at least the following analyses and studies:
I – Environmental diagnosis of the area of influence of the project complete description and analysis of environmental resources and their interactions, as they exist, in order to characterize the environmental situation of the area, before the implementation of the project, considering:
(a) the physical environment – the subsoil, waters, air and climate, highlighting mineral resources, topography, soil types and suitability, water bodies, hydrological regime, marine currents, atmospheric currents;
b) the biological environment and the natural ecosystems – fauna and flora, highlighting the species that are indicators of environmental quality, of scientific and economic value, rare and endangered species, and the permanent preservation areas;
c) the socio-economic environment – the use and occupation of the soil, the use of the water, and the socio-economy, highlighting the archeological, historical, and cultural sites and monuments of the community, the dependency relations between the local society, the environmental resources, and the potential future use of these resources.
II – Analysis of the environmental impacts of the project and its alternatives, through identification, prediction of the magnitude and interpretation of the importance of the probable relevant impacts, discriminating: the positive and negative impacts (beneficial and adverse), direct and indirect, immediate and medium and long term, temporary and permanent; their degree of reversibility; their cumulative and synergistic properties; the distribution of social burdens and benefits.
III – Definition of mitigating measures for negative impacts, among them control equipment and effluent treatment systems, evaluating the efficiency of each one of them.
lV – Elaboration of the follow-up and monitoring program (positive and negative impacts, indicating the factors and parameters to be considered.
The Environmental Impact Report (RIMA) must be prepared in a way that is adequate to the understanding, having as its main objective the greatest clarity for the population regarding all the characteristics of the undertaking, its environmental impacts, and the impact mitigation proposals.
The information must be written in simple and accessible language, illustrated with all possible graphic elements, such as maps, charts, tables, graphs, and other visual communication techniques, so that it is possible to convey all the advantages and disadvantages of the project, as well as all the environmental consequences of its implementation. The RIM must contain at least the following information:
I – The objectives and justifications of the project, its relationship and compatibility with sectoral policies, plans and government programs;
II – The project description and its technological and locational alternatives, specifying for each one of them, in the construction and operation phases, the area of influence, raw materials, and labor, the energy sources, the operational processes and techniques, the probable effluents, emissions, energy residues, the direct and indirect jobs to be generated;
III – A synthesis of the results of the environmental diagnosis studies of the project’s area of influence;
IV – A description of the probable environmental impacts of the implementation and operation of the activity, considering the project, its alternatives, the time horizons of incidence of the impacts, and indicating the methods, techniques, and criteria adopted for their identification, quantification, and interpretation;
V – A characterization of the future environmental quality of the area of influence, comparing the different situations of the adoption of the project and its alternatives, as well as the hypothesis of its non-implementation;
VI – The description of the expected effect of the foreseen mitigating measures in relation to the negative impacts, mentioning those that could not be avoided, and the expected degree of alteration;
VII – The program for following up and monitoring impacts;
VIII – Recommendation as to the most favorable alternative (conclusions and general comments).
