GEOLOGY OF CENTRAL MINAS GERAES, BRAZIL 407 



GOLD 



Gold was known to occur in Brazil even in the early days of 

 its settlement and it was the search for this metal which brought 

 many of the explorers and settlers to the new country. However, 

 not until the beginning of the eighteenth century was the great gold 

 field of Brazil, that occurring in central Minas Geraes, actively 

 worked. It was at this time that the towns of Sahara, Marianna, 

 and Ouro Pre to, the latter then known as Villa Rica, were founded 



Fig. 18. — Ouro Preto, former capital of Minas Geraes. A city built by the gold- 

 mining industry. The hills on all sides show the results of placer mining. 



in rapid succession. A period of great excitement and activity 

 followed, which continued in waves as districts were extended and 

 new ones discovered, almost to the middle of the nineteenth century. 

 From that time on the industry rapidly decreased in importance 

 until 1889 when gold mining as a general industry practically ceased 

 as a result of the abolition of slavery. At the present time there 

 are only two important gold mines operated in Minas Geraes. These 

 are the Morro Velho mine at Villa Nova de Lima near Bello Hori- 

 zonte and the Passagem mine at Passagem near Ouro Preto. 



