NO FUNDO DA COVA: DETERIORAÇÃO DO TRABALHO NO SETOR EXTRATIVO MINERAL EM GOIÁS, BRASIL

Abstract

The mining model in Brazil is based on impetuous exhaustion of landscapes, territorial resources and workers' health. The disasters that occurred in Mariana (MG) and Brumadinho (MG) in 2015 and 2019 revealed the predatory risks and effects of this sector. However, tailings dams and the risks they pose are only part of the problem. Mining is an activity that operates in global extractive networks and its effects are not reduced to mine or tailings dams. Waste piles, railways, ore pipelines, steel mills, ports and roads are part of mineral production networks and their impacts and conflicts. Nevertheless, this work was focused an analyzing on degradation of working environment in an open pit mine. For this, the geographic focus was concentrated in Boa Vista mine in Catalão (GO), where occurs extraction of niobium. The methodology included qualitative and quantitative procedures such as field research, interviews, survey and systematization of data and information. The importance of a health inspection action on workers' health carried out at the Boa Vista mine in July 2019 was highlighted. In summary, it is expected that the results of this research, by unveiling the deteriorating work environments in mining, will contribute to research in the critical field, support policies aimed at health surveillance in workers' health and assist the struggles of social movements and unions against the predatory mining model.