This article presents the results of the Partnership Project developed during 2007-2010, aiming to aid ASCER's brickmaker partners in technically managing the correct way to conduct the activities of extracting raw materials from deposits used by the brickwork industry. The activities developed in this project include the mining legalization of current extraction areas, guidance on the recovery of areas degraded by mining and the characterization of ceramic materials used in clay brick production. Fourteen brickworks located in the Rio Claro (SP) region were studied. The legalization of mineral extraction activities in the deposit area of each brickworks automatically led to environmental legalization, which has been currently achieved. Two of the brickworks could not regularize their extraction because the areas of their properties had been encumbered by DNPM, and two other brickworks had no legal documentation related to their enterprises, which is required to legalize their areas. The clay materials used by brickwork owners were characterized as noble material, appropriate for the manufacture of high-quality tiles and bricks.
Brickworks; clay; red ceramic
