A profound respect for the environment permeates all the activities of the Mineração Curimbaba. Starting with the licensing phase for mineral deposits, passing through the stages of industrial processing, all applicable legal norms are strictly observed by means of a rigid control over aspects relating to preservation from potential environmental impacts.

The extraction of minerals is conducted so as to minimize the adverse effects on the environment and enable a rapid rehabilitation of depleted areas, which occurs simultaneously with the exhaustion of work fronts.

In addition to complying with legal requirements, Mineração Curimbaba implements a series of actions, alone or in partnership with organized elements of civil society and public authorities, in activities/projects related to the preservation and improvement of the environment.

In order to rehabilitate depleted areas, the company has a plant nursery that produces 100,000 seedlings a year of 120 different native species and plants, of which 13,000 to 15,000 seedlings a year are earmarked solely for its own mining areas.

Mineração Curimbaba is also concerned with techniques for the control of soil erosion and planting of fruit trees, in order to assure the reestablishment of the natural process of succession.

Each year, the company opens five to eight hectares, but 20 to 30 hectares have been rehabilitated since 2002, including areas that had already been rehabilitated in a deficient manner in the past. Currently, the opening of each new work front in the mine is preceded by the implantation of a drainage system and rehabilitation is conducted every three years, sometimes beginning before extraction has been terminated.

The company’s commitment to the community is demonstrated by its Environmental Education Program, instituted in 2002, which has already reached almost 2,000 children from local public schools and which every year donates 50,000 seedlings to small farms and public agencies in Poços de Caldas, Caldas, Andradas, Senador Amaral, Bom Repouso, Manhuaçu and Simonésia. Other environmental compensation measures exist, such as the creation of a Private Natural Heritage Preservation Reservation, the Fazenda das Pedras Leste, with an area of 260 hectares, situated in the Serra de São Domingos Municipal Park and the project for the management of the water basin of the Saturnino de Brito dam, one of the city’s main water sources.

In order to reduce the environmental impact of industrial operations, the company has developed and implanted an atmospheric emission control system, comprising cyclones that retain larger particles and gas washers to retain fine ones.  In order to diminish even further the dispersion of particles, the industrial plant has been surrounded by a 2 km wide green belt of eucalyptus trees.

The company has recently instituted a Selective Collection program, consisting of the collection, sale and final disposal of all the residues of the industrial process, such as scrap, lubrication oil, paper and plastic.