Da ocupação do território à degradação ambiental: o caso da mina de São Domingos

A grand-scale enterprise as it was carried out in Sao Domingos, from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, for the exploitation of pyrites, had to have impact on the environment. In this story of the modern exploration of a geological resource we describe the case of the mine from this small village in Mertola area, highlighting the identified environmental problems. The project that motivates this study was also reflected in regional and national press, the sources that we privileged as reflex of a hypothetical debate in the public space, along with documents from the official survey that regulated the activity of the operating company, at economic but also at environmental level. The occupation of a virtually deserted territory, within Alentejo, where English capital has given rise to a thriving village, was followed by environmental degradation, as evidenced by the impact on the landscape, the air pollution and the water pollution, without forgetting the human desertification associated with the closure of the mine, despite the efforts to the economic conversion of the region that the company and the national authorities made.