The evolution of the Portuguese mining industry- Health, Safety and Sustainability perspectives

• Autor(a) principal: Luísa Matos
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Outros Autores: João Santos Baptista, Miguel Tato Diogo, António Barbedo de Magalhães
• Tipo de documento: Livro
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://hdl.handle.net/10216/148027
• topic: Tecnologia da segurança, Outras ciências da engenharia e tecnologias; Safety technology, Other engineering and technologies

Raw materials demand is a primary indicator of a society's level and rate of development. Within raw materials, mineral resources attain higher consumptions. Mineral raw materials comprise a wide variety of resources, (from concrete aggregates to crude oil) and since the Industrial Revolution support modern society's way of life. From the analysis of the historical evolution of the Portuguese mining industry, from the beginning of the last century to present day, this paper intends to analyze the working conditions evolution in the mining sector which exhibits the national highest injury, illness and fatality statistics. The mining industry being a primary economical activity, having a non-renewable, finite and natural resource as raw material, the intervention mechanisms upon which should sectorial decision maker's act, are within the trinomial sustainability model: environment, economics and society. Occupational health and safety is without any doubt part of the third pillar: society. Strangely enough, ohs has a low level of I&D, least investments rates during periods of growth and higher disinvestment in periods of recession. In a low economical growth rate, but when mineral raw materials, namely metallic and energetic are high in international markets, providing an unique moment to improve and sustain the safety conditions in the mining sector.