Revista Estratégica vol.10 - Faap

Final Considerations
The implementation of this study pointed out the issue of environmental liabilities
arising from the extraction of clay, an important mineral resource for the building industry
in which Brazil is among the largest exporters. As a result of this activity, there
are environmental aspects which end when the exploitation finishes. In this regard different
modes of socioenvironmental impacts take place, according to the nature of the
extracted material and the conditions in which exploitation operations are conducted.
When the mining operations are processed in urban areas, the negative outcomes
are summed up in the physical impacts of a social nature. As the exploratory mode,
mining can trigger air pollution, noise, visual, water resources, affecting the society at
different levels.
The environmental damage takes shape at the close of exploratory practice, which
can occur due to the exhaustion of the deposit, the impossibility of economic exploitation
or the effect of intervention of the government. In this regard, the study searched
to point out the possibility of recovering a specific type of environmental liabilities,
especially the abandoned pits of clay extraction. The outlook takes into account the
predicted stability of the ground and it is simple to carry out and it can be extended to
other similar situations where conditions of physical and chemical stability, layout and
size of the pit are permissible.
Finally, the mining should be assessed in its entirety from the stage of research and
implementation to the recovery phase after exhaustion of the deposit, always taking
into account the externalities that are installed with the production process. The need
to consider the most likely balance possible between mineral exploration and environmental
deterioration constitutes a challenge of prime importance for mining.
The lakes resulting from clay extraction pits by Santa Maria Ceramics have environmental
conditions that allow the cultivation of fish in semi-intensive system. The
tambaqui and pirarucu exhibited satisfactory performance when cultivated in tanks
installed in clay mining pits.
With the recovery of degraded areas by the extraction of clay for the fish culture, the
pressure on fish stocks will be reduced and thus it will contribute to the preservation of
pirarucu and tambaqui species today, threatened of extinction, in the main rivers and
tributaries of the river the Amazon basin.
Other fish species should be evaluated for their productivity when grown in semiintensive
pond in clay mining pit.
After completing the calculations for implantation and production using this model,
it can be seen that this branch of activity has a relatively low initial cost, because it uses
only areas already dug to extract clay. So when it is compared the cost of production
with the sale price of the fish, it is clear that the costs are offset by a good margin.
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Estratégica, vol.10(02), dezembro.2010