Cordeiro Costa

The municipality of Picuí, located in the eastern Seridó region of Paraíba, is in one of the most important mineral areas in the Northeast. Focusing on this privileged location, this paper aims to analyze the prospects and impacts of mineral extraction activity on the socio-economic development of this town, first analyzing the evolution of the concept of development and sustainability. It then analyzes: the main rules and laws governing the mining sector in the country in general; the benefits that the mining activity in Picuí has brought to miners; its relevance to the city’s economy and how this enterprise has behaved in terms of the sustainable use of this activity in the region. The work is characterized as descriptive and field research, carried out in the aforementioned municipality, with a universe of 20 miners associated with the Miners’ Cooperative and the board of directors, who were submitted to the application of questionnaires. After applying the questionnaires, it can be seen that the mining activity in the town has helped local socio-economic development, etc.