By Andrew Topf
Gold Investing News
Brazil has a long history of gold mining stretching as far back as the 1700s, when a gold rush in the then-Portugese colony opened up the country to the major gold-producing region of Ouro Preto — Portugese for “black gold.”
According to Wikipedia, the gold rush started when “bandeirantes,” a group composed of Indian slaves, mixed-race “aboclos” and whites banded together to explore the country’s interior. Over 400,000 Portugese and half a million African slaves poured into the region to mine gold, abandoning sugar plantations and towns, and by 1725 half the population of Brazil was squeezed into Southeastern Brazil, the locus of the gold rush.
Since those early days, mining has continued to be an important driver of the Brazilian economy, which is the largest in Latin America and the sixth-largest in the world. According to a 2013 report published on FoxNews.com, minerals including iron ore, bauxite, copper and gold account for about 20 percent of Brazil’s exports. While gold produces significant revenue for Brazil, the nation is not one of the world’s largest gold miners, producing only around 50 tons of the precious metal annually. However, it does hold significant reserves, making it an important destination for gold explorers, notes Fox News.