FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Ben Webb]

Does anyone have any information about mineral museums in Minas Gerais, Brazil?

Today was a little slow at work and it occured to me that the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil must have a great mineral musuem. My Google search turned up two pages in Portuguese about the Museu Mineiro in Belo Horizonte with no pictures of rocks. Here is the most official looking site:
https://museumineiro.blogspot.com/
(link normalized by FMF)

This brings up another question: which museum (or person) has the best collection of Minas Gerais minerals?

[silvio steinhaus]

You will find several museums in Minas Gerais, the best are the Museum of Geology of Belo Horizonte (new), located in Liberty Square, and one of the best of Brazil is the Museum of Geology College of Ouro Preto, a city that is + - 120km from Belo Horizonte, everyone knows the city, in addition to visiting some of the mining region. In Belo Horizonte there is also the Museum of Paleontology at the PUC.

This is the site the museum of Ouro Preto:
https://www.museu.em.ufop.br/museu/mineralogia.php
(link normalized by FMF)

[Anísio Cláudio]

Hello,

Greetings. I would like to attach to the list of museums, museum of mineralogy at the Federal University of Lavras-MG, Museum of Mineralogy "Professor Anísio Claudio Rios Fonseca" of UNIFOR-MG, Formiga-MG. These museums are smaller than those mentioned above.

Sincerely,

Anísio

[Luiz Menezes]

Unfortunatly you will get very disppointed when you visit the mineral museums all over Brazil; the best is the museum of Ouro Preto, but it has only some few wolrd class specimens, and a lot of rarities collected mostly in Minas Gerais more than 50 years ago; it does not have anything produced on the last 20 years; it does not have a budget to buy minerals specimens but, worse than that, the University of Ouro Preto, that owns it, does not want to seek for a bidget; 99% of the visitors don't know anything about minerals and they think that the museum is very nice, so the University does not think it is necessary to have the trouble of getting money and then get the burden of spendiong it wisely.

The old mineralogical museum of Belo Horizonte is an international shame, the only decent specimen on that collection is a large phenakite crystal from São Miguel de Piracicaba, Minas Gerais; it was recently closed and the collection was incoporated to the new Museu das Minas e do Metal ("Museum of Mines and Metals"), where over US$ 15 millions were spent to renovate the historical building where it is located and to assemble an interesting "virtual" exhibit that explain to the visitors the history of Brazilian mining and the importance of mining on our daily life, but only US 35.000 were spent to buy minerals (2/3 from me, 1/3 from Álvaro Lúcio); I advise the mineral collectors that you will find very little to see at that museum.

On the book "Minerals and Precious Stones of Brazil" there are 720 photos of minerals, 50 belong to foreign collectors, 45 to the Brazilian museums and 625 to Brazilian collectors, it shows how poor in world class specimens our museums are. So I disagree with Silvio's opinion, for me the Brazilian mineralogical museums are a shame if you consider the importance of Brazil on the world's mineral scenario.

Luiz

[Ben Webb]

Luiz - It's always difficult to keep up the funding for mineral museums. I think it takes a big private collection and a big donation of money to start a successful one. Maybe that hasn't happened in Brazil yet! Maybe museums aren't a part of the university culture like in the US?

China is going to have a similar problem as they produce more and more excellent minerals along with amazing corruption.

How can foreigners help to support museums abroad?

[Luiz Menezes]

I think that the 2 universities that owns the 2 main mineralogical museums in Brazil (Ouro Preto and São Paulo) could seek donations from mining companies to raise the funds necessary to be able to keep both museums up-dated; the problem is that I discussed the matter with people from both universities and they don't want to ask for these donations, they prefer to leave things how they are.

The museum of Mining and Metals, in Belo Horizonte, is an interesting place to visit if you want to learn about the history of Brazilian mining, but it is not a mineral museum.

Luiz