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[dontgogreen]

I read the information that was summarized by Jordi Fabre about the gold occurrence near Pontes e Lacerda and I'm left with a few questions:

What are the details behind the "great political turmoil" that caused a "relaxation of authority"? Can someone familiar with Brazilian politics explain what events led to the encroachment of the mining area by the garimpieros?

In the "Corrida do ouro..." movie, why are so many people in the camp simply lounging around? Had most work ceased at the time of filming?

Is there any indication that the companies who have rights to the area will attempt to produce more gold specimens?

And finally, does anyone have any background on the original geology of the area? It's speculated that there were original gold-bearing veins in a granitic rock that decomposed in place (according to What's new in minerals in the MR) and it's also stated that the sedimentary rock hosting the gold now was hydrothermally altered.

Source of the information:
https://www.foro-minerales.com/forum/gen_imag/Gold_Brazil_Serra_do_Caldeirao/Gold_Brazil_Serra_do_Caldeirao.pdf

[alfredo]

I have just finished translating the Revista de Minerales article on this area into english for publication in the next issue of Mineral Up. So more details will be available there.

Basically, the land surface there belongs to cattle ranchers, but in Brazil (as in most of Latin America) the minerals in the subsoil belong to the State, and mining claims can be filed on it whether or not the surface already belongs to someone else, and some professional gold mining company had already done that in this case. However, after filing a claim, there is still a ponderous bureaucratic process to go through before any actual mining can start, which is why the mining company wasn't doing any work yet. The "garimpeiros" (prospectors and adventurers) took advantage of this, and of the relative lawlessness in this very remote area, to illegally move in "en masse" and start digging without permissions. Naturally the legal mining company is unhappy about this and eventually manages to shake up the bureaucracy at a high enough level to ensure that funding is liberated to send enough police and/or soldiers out to the remote area to chase off the illegal prospectors and restore order. It's a cycle that has been repeated many many times in many mineral-rich districts of Brazil, Bolivia, Peru...

Unfortunately for mineral collectors, illegal garimpeiros working with hand tools are much better at saving undamaged specimens than are mining companies working on a large scale with heavy machinery. So the best specimen producing days may well be over.

[Jordi Fabre]

What Alfredo says is absolutely right and I also strongly recommend to read the article that will be published in the next issue of the Mineral Up

This article will be not only very instructive due the great text but also by the numerous and excellent images. Don't miss it!