It was a mining phenomenon that occurred in Pará between 1980 and 1992. It all started when a gold nugget was found on the Três Barras farm at the end of 1979 (there is controversy over the date), attracting over 30,000 people in the following months. The farm was invaded by miners and came under the control of the military dictatorship – the leader was Sebastião Rodrigues de Moura, Major Curió, who had made a “fame” chasing guerrillas in Araguaia (in 1982, the major became a federal deputy and, in 1988, named Curionópolis, where Serra Pelada is officially located). Armed with shovels and pickaxes, the prospectors dug up the 150-meter-high hill, leaving a 24,000-m2 crater in its place that became a 200-meter-deep lake with the action of the rains. Serra Pelada was the largest open-air mine in the world, from where tons of gold were extracted.
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1. After the initial discovery, more than 30,000 people went after the gold. Vale do Rio Doce, which had rights over the mine, received compensation from the government for the loss of the area, which was invaded. Everyone was supposed to sell the gold to federal coffers, but in practice smuggling did exist. Vale banned the pit several times to mechanize exploration, but the garimpeiros returned there
two. In mining, it wasn’t every man for himself. The land was divided into “gullies” (pieces of land measuring 2 by 3 m), which were conquered by force in the beginning and, later, raffled, including deeds. The owners of the ravines were the “capitalists”, who had subordinates and kept almost all the profit. At its peak, Serra Pelada had 300 ravines
3. Just below the capitalist was the half square, basically the guy who said who was going to dig where. For giving orders, the meia-praza was the “middle class” of the prospectors – and, unlike the others, who were wage earners, they earned by commission. He received a small percentage of the gold found (from 2 to 5%)
4. The other employees were the digger, the sharpener, the finder and the ant. Work began with the latter: he dug the ground until he found rock. Afterwards, he gathered up to 35 kg of this earth in a bag, put it on his back and carried it out of the pit, climbing improvised stairs called “goodbye-mother”. His payment was proportional to the weight carried
5. The digger was the most important employee: guided by the half-square, he hammered the rock with pickaxes after nuggets. A lot depended on luck, as it was not possible to know if the ravine was winning or not before exploring it. Gold nuggets the size of a golf ball were often found.
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6. Then there was the wash. In this part, the drainer drained the earth through a gutter covered with liquid mercury. The substance united with the gold, forming an alloy. The pan (a kind of concave metal tray) was used to separate the alloy from the earth. Afterwards, this mix was heated to evaporate the mercury and only the gold remained.
7. next to the ravine there was a Caixa Econômica Federal window. By law, it was the only place where garimpeiros could sell the mined ore. There was a scale to weigh the gold and payment was made in cash. However, Caixa set prices, which were up to 60% below the real value of the stones.
8. In the mine, alcohol, weapons and women were prohibited – there were federal police (the “fedecas”) monitoring everything. Faced with prohibitions on the deposit, the Vila Thirty, a village 30 km from Serra Pelada, on the PA-175 highway, with bars and many brothels. In addition to partying, the village was a place to lighten up on firearms. Between fights and settling scores, murders were routine.
9. The golden phase was between 1982 and 1986, when 100,000 people jostled in Curionópolis (today with 18 thousand inhabitants). The mining in Serra Pelada lasted until 1992, when the government closed the mine. By the end of the year, 56 tonnes of the valuable metal had been extracted (including clandestine extraction). In 2002, mining returned, but in a mechanized way
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READER’S QUESTION – Thaís Matias Pamplona de Oliveira, Ribeirão Preto, SP
CONSULTANCY Estêvão Barbosa, geographer and researcher at the Mining and Sustainable Development Center at UFPA, Luiz Jardim Wanderley, geographer and professor at UFRJ, Salvador Tavares de Moura, historian and professor at UFMA, Valdeci Monteiro dos Santos, economist and professor at the Catholic University of Pernambuco
SOURCES Documentary Serra Pelada: The Legend of the Golden Mountain, by Victor Lopes; film Serra Pelada, by Heitor Dhalia; book Serra Pelada: An Open Wound in the Jungleby Ricardo Kotscho