Serra Pelada (state of Pará) – Nearly 20 years after the government shut down the then-largest open-air gold mine in the world, Serra Pelada (literally ‘Naked Mountain Range’ in Portuguese), in the state of Pará, will be fully mechanized. Canadian mining company Colossus Minerals Inc., in association with the Mining Cooperative of Serra Pelada (Coomigasp), has gotten permission to explore the area.
Initial surveys of part of the 100-hectare terrain the permit comprises have indicated the presence of at least 50 tonnes of the metal. The figure will be revised by the company in January, but former miners believe the volume is much larger, because the mining company itself informed that there is strong potential for new discoveries in the property.
“It is basically yellow gold, palladium – which is a white variety of gold –, silver and platinum. The metal with the lowest incidence is platinum, but on the other hand its price is twice as much as gold’s,” explained Antônio Ferreira Milhomem, the cooperative director.
The old mine, which staged the largest gold rush in Latin America in the 1980s, was once known as a “human ant colony,” with over 80,000 miners working together. The gold extracted was to be sold exclusively to the Brazilian Federal Savings Bank. At the time, approximately 40 tonnes of the precious metal were extracted, not counting what was illegally extracted. The large hole dug by the miners is now a lake over 100 metres deep.
By the time the operation begins, the Canadian multinational will have invested 320 million reals (US$ 172 million) in building the subterranean mine, dubbed Nova Serra Pelada (New Serra Pelada). The profit, however, will be in the billions of reals. According to the agreement signed y Colossus and Coomigasp, which led to the establishment of Serra Pelada Companhia de Desenvolvimento Mineral (SPCDM – Serra Pelada Mineral Development Company), 25% of the profit will be shared with the 38,000 plus former miners in the region affiliated with the cooperative, and the remainder will be kept by the multinational.
For these workers, who have lived off odd jobs or the income they got from selling their gold since the mine was shut two decades ago, the resumption of large-scale production at Serra Pelada brings hope of a better life, financially speaking. Very few managed to become rich at the time, and out of those, even fewer were wise enough to invest their earnings. Now, organized into a cooperative, they hope to make enough money to lead better lives.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
