Organizações que matam: o necrocapitalismo da indústria mineradora de nióbio nas mesorregiões do Alto Paranaíba e Sul Goiano

Abstract

Between 2015 and 2019, Brazil faced two of the biggest corporate crimes in the country's most recent history with the breaking of tailings dams in Bento Rodrigues - district of the municipality of Mariana - and Brumadinho, Minas Gerais. Mining is an emblematic sector when it comes to the destruction of nature, deaths and displacement of families. Through postcolonial criticism, an analysis of the dimensions of the concept of necrocapitalism addressed by Banerjee (2008) in the context of niobium exploration in the mesoregions of Alto Paranaíba and Sul Goiano, more specifically in the cities of Araxá, MG and Catalão, GO where the two main niobium producers are located in Brazil, the Brazilian Metallurgy and Mining Company (CBMM) and China Molybdenum (CMOC). Through interviews and documentary research it was possible to create a corpus whose thematic analysis resulted in three categories that allow characterizing the necrocapitalism of the niobium industry: “the necrocapitalist accumulation practices of the niobium industry”, “the context of exploitation” and “the effects of exploitation”. From the thematic analysis and the analysis of the results it was possible to conclude that necrocapitalism of the industry in the sector is characterized by corporate crime as a practice of accumulation in a context of neocolonial exploitation is marked by the subordination of the State to large multinational corporations. In this context, the advance of mining activity is justified through the discourse of development and its effects include the expropriation of communities, the destruction of livelihoods and the resistance of traditional populations. This research contributes to the expansion of discussions on corporate crimes in the context of Brazilian organizational studies through post-colonial criticism and the choice of exploration contexts is justified by the relevance and role that those mesoregions of Alto Paranaíba and Sul Goiano represent in the regional, national and international scenarios in the extraction and export of niobium.