Viewpoints of the Great Carajas Project

The main two types of people involved in the Great Carajas Project are the CVRD ( A company which owned mines) and the Garimperos.

Garimperos are the illegal miners or free lance miners. They mine for gold and are forbidden to mine in the Carajas area. The Garimperos come from all over Brazil and usually mine for Gold. They are annoyed with the government because they feel that they have the right to mine in the area as well. If a Garimpero is caught mining where they shouldn’t be, security guards will hunt them down and confiscate their gold.

In Serra Pelada 80,000 Garimperos invaded a Gold mine and took it over. They were extracting around $200 million annually but although they were making good money, they are damaging the environment and working in a very unsafe manor. They are using mercury to separate the gold and this mercury was then getting into rivers and contaminating/poisoning them and various food chains. They also burn the mercury which gave off toxic gas and the safety in the mining pits was appalling; there were regular rock falls and some miners are killed.

In January 1986, Riot police were ordered into the mines to force the Garimperos out. A miner was killed by accident when a policeman intended to shoot a bullet in the air but shot too soon and killed the miner. Soon after, the mine was shut down but the company re-opened it and increased safety levels by using bulldozers.

The CVRD were confident that they would make lots of money and they were very strict about the area; check posts were set up to ensure that only people involved with the mines/CVRD were allowed to enter and all cars were searched, only allowing people to enter who had a permit.

The government were in control of the project and showed interest because of the investment being made. The project had an annual income of $700 million. The company are licensed to run the project, unlike the Garimperos.

The companies are looked upon as being sufficient but inhumane and the Garimperos are seen as trying to fend for themselves but obliviously harming the environment and putting their own lives in danger.

Local tribes who live in the forest called Amerindians are moved out of their settlements so that the CVRD can expand the mining areas. The CVRD destroy their living area and when the Amerindians next settle they are still weary of having to move again.

In My opinion I think that both Garimperos and the CVRD should be allowed to mine there. They should compromise as to who gets what land so that everyone is happy. I think that if this did happen the Government would have to do some serious thinking into safety regulations and the damaging of the environment.