For forty years (1957-1997) the state of Amapá experienced a mining cycle that awarded
good social indicators and the implementation of an important logistic infrastructure, resulting
mainly from the appreciation of manganese deposits in the Serra do Navio region. However,
at the end of the last century, the problems arising from the closure of mining projects,
somehow, frustrated the expectations of regional development. After a period of declining
mining activity between 1998 and 2004, from 2005 new projects were started, setting a new
mining cycle in Amapá. In the lack of productive activities in the region, the mining sector
once again presents as an economic opportunity to be used to improve the local and regional
development. Today, however, the challenges are even greater, permeates not only by the
overcoming of social and environmental liabilities left by the previous cycle, but also by the
practice of such a more responsible mining with the community and the local environment,
towards sustainability. With this approach that this research was carried out, which aimed at
investigating the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the recent mining projects in
the city of Pedra Branca do Amapari and older extractive industries installed in the cities of
Vitória do Jari and Mazagão. It was also proposed to examine the contributions and problems
of small-scale mining (artisanal mining and extraction of aggregates) in the cities of Porto
Grande and Calçoene. For that, were collected and analyzed economic, social and
environmental indicators of mining cities in the last decade. In addition, considering the
importance of the quality and action of the institutions to take advantage and maximize the
benefits of mining toward development, were also investigated institutional indicators of the
cities, as well as analysis of the government state performance about the mineral sector. The
indicators found were partially favorable for the city that hosts the new mining projects -
Pedra Branca do Amapari. The city of Vitória do Jari had, as the only benefit of mining, the
increase of public finances, what not necessarily has become in developing or
improving local living conditions. The other mining cities seem to be accumulating
more losses (mainly environmental) than benefiting from the mining, which little
contributes to local development. This scene would be possibly associated with the
institutional weakness in municipal and state levels, constituting the main challenge to
achieve sustainability in the mining sector of Amapá.
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