 Directors meeting in London c. 1890 | |
| Industry | Gold mining |
|---|---|
| Founded | April 1830 |
| Defunct | 1985 |
| Headquarters | London , England |
Area served | Minas Gerais, Brazil |
| Products | Gold |
The Saint John d'El Rey Mining Company was a British mining company that operated in Brazil in the 19th and 20th centuries. The company employed skilled miners from Cornwall and elsewhere in Britain in its gold mines in the state of Minas Gerais, and also employed black slaves.
Coordinates: 19°59′09″S43°50′49″W / 19.985833°S 43.846944°W
The Nova Lima and Rio Acima quadrangles to the east and southeast of Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, were an important source of gold in the 19th and 20th centuries. [1] The climate is subtropical, with average daytime temperatures ranging from 18 to 22 °C (64 to 72 °F) and average rainfall about 1,500 millimetres (59 in) per year. [2] The Rio das Velhas is the main river, running northward though the two quadrangles. The terrain is fairly rugged, with peaks rising to 1,380 metres (4,530 ft), just over 680 metres (2,230 ft) above the river. [3] Old gold washings from the colonial period are found along the Rio das Velhas. There are many small abandoned gold mines and explorations, some worked before the second half of the 19th century, often with no surviving records. The main settlements are Nova Lima, Sabará, Rio Acima and Raposos. [3]
The Saint John d'El Rey Mining Company [lower-alpha 1] was established in Britain in April 1830 as a joint stock company. [4] John Diston Powles served as the company's first chairman. [5] It obtained a lease to work the São João del-Rei mines in Minas Gerais from the owners, three British merchants and a German physician. In June and July 1830 a group of Cornish miners travelled to Brazil to work the mines. The venture ran into problems with low-grade ore and legal disputes, and was closed within two years. [4]
The company searched for other mining properties in the region, and bought the Morro Velho gold mine in 1834. [4] The Morro Velho mine had been worked for perhaps 50 years before the Saint John Company acquired it, at first as an open pit operation. [6] The company also bought the Raposos mines and other properties. [4] Properties owned by the St. John del Rey Mining Co. included the Morro das Bicas mine just south of Raposos, the Bella Fama mine about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) southeast of Nova Lima, the Gaia, Faria and Gabirobas mines southwest of Honório Bicalho, the Bicalho mine at Honório Bicalho and the Urubu mine about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south-southeast of Honório Bicalho. [3]
In 1845 the company made an agreement with the Cata Branca company to rent 385 slaves for a period of 14 years. It said "all of the said Negroes... shall at the end of such term of fourteen years be and become absolutely free and emancipated." When the term of fourteen years was completed in 1859 the clause was quietly forgotten. [7] An 1879 report opened by saying, "One of the last acts of injustice and inhumanity which one would naturally expect from an enlightened and just people would be an illegal retention of freedmen in Slavery by Englishmen." [8] It went on to state that, "The S. João d'El-Rei Mining Company has at this day, fully two hundred blacks in Slavery, who were made free and emancipated in the year 1859, by a contract made in 1845, to which this same Company was a party...". [9] Soon after this the Brazilian authorities freed the slaves under pressure from local abolitionists. The case was one of the early events leading to full abolition of slavery in Brazil in 1888. [10]
The Morro Velho mine is in a low valley near Nova Lima, about 12 miles (19 km) from Belo Horizonte. [11] The company invested significant amounts into improving infrastructure, and quickly increased production. The first dividends were paid in 1842. The company encouraged British miners to come to work in Brazil, and employed slaves until they were emancipated in the late 19th century. [4] After the Gongo Soco mine closed in 1856 some of the Cornish miners found work in Brazilian mines operated by the Saint John d'El Rey Mining Company. [12] The Cornish formed the majority of British miners at Morro Velho, numbering about 350 in the 1860s. [11]
A fire caused the mine to collapse in 1867, and it took seven years to bring it back into operation. In the 1870s the superintendent was found to be engaged in fraud and had to be fired. A rock fall in 1886 caused the mine to collapse again, and the company went into temporary liquidation. The mine was reopened and again became profitable in the 1890s. [4] At one time the Morro Velho mine was the deepest in the world, as 2,545 metres (8,350 ft) below the entrance adit. [3] After the revolution of 1930 a miner's union was formed. Strikes reduced production and the infrastructure fell into disrepair. [4]
Systematic exploration of the area around the Raposos mines to the east of Morro Velho seems to have started shortly before 1910. By 1930 the main lodes that had been discovered were the Mina Grande and Espirito Santo lodes, both west of the das Velhas River, and the Morro das Bicas lode about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) south of Raposas on the east of the Rio das Velhas. 23,404 tons of ore were extracted from the Raposos mines between 1910 and 1928, from which 8,388 ounces (237,800 g) of gold were extracted. Mining at the Morro das Bicas was suspended in the early 1930s but continued at the other mines, which were important producers. [13] As of 1955 the main lodes were the Espiritu Santo, Mina Grande and Espiritu West, which were connected by underground workings and had reached a depth of about 640 metres (2,100 ft). [14] At the end of 1955 the Raposos mines had total reserves of 1,694,080 metric tons of ore with an average of 9.5 grams of gold per ton. [15]
The company drove an exploration adit in the Bicalho mine in 1925, and seems to have opened a lode before halting operations. In 1936 the mine was pumped out and exploration continued to a depth of 610 metres (2,000 ft). 36,800 tons of ore gave 8,238 ounces of gold in 1940–41, and 40,700 tons of ore was processed in 1942–43. There was no activity in 1944-45, 200 tons extracted in 1946, after which operations stopped. The company bought the Fernan Paes estate to the west of Honorio Bicalho around 1863 and began working the Gaia and Gabirobas mines. 5,777 ounces of gold were produced between 1867 and 1873, after which mining halted. Some exploration was resuming in 1887 after the Morro Velho mine collapsed, but results were discouraging. [15]
The Faria mine, about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) south of the Gabirobas mine, was developed and worked by a French company for a short period around 1900. The Saint John Company began to pump out and explore this mine in 1931. The company started to drive an adit known locally as the Gaia tunnel from the west side of the Rio das Velhas at Honorio Bicalho in 1934, running in a west-southwest direction. It was meant to unwater the old Gaia mine and provide access to deeper levels of that mine. In 1935 the adit was extended further to the west-southwest, and reached the foot of the Faria mine in 1936. The Gabirobas mine was pumped out in 1936 and explored for 30 metres (98 ft) below the original workings, and the Gaia mines was explored to 30 metres (98 ft) below the Gaia tunnel. There explorations were stopped in 1937 due to the low price of gold. [15] The company continued to develop the Faria mine, and began regular production in 1940. Between 1940 and 1947, when production was suspended, 176,286 tons of ore were milled. [16]
As of 1957 there were two active mines, the Morro Velho mine at Nova Lima and the Raposos group near Raposos. [1] That year a group of investors bought a controlling interest in the company and sold its iron properties to the Hanna Mining Company of Cleveland, Ohio. [4] The company was formally closed in 1985. [17]
| General | |
|---|---|
| National libraries | |
Ouro Preto, formerly Vila Rica, is a city in and former capital of the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, a former colonial mining town located in the Serra do Espinhaço mountains and designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO because of its outstanding Baroque Portuguese colonial architecture.
The War of the Emboabas was a conflict in colonial Brazil waged in 1706-1707 and 1708-1709 over newly discovered gold fields, which had set off a rush to the region between two generations of Portuguese settlers in the viceroyalty of Brazil - then the Captaincy of São Vicente. The discovery of gold set off a rush to the region, Paulistas asserted rights of discovery and non-Paulistas challenged their claims. Although the Portuguese crown sought more control in the area and the Paulistas sought protection of their claims, the Emoboabas won. The crown re-assessed its position in the region and made administrative changes subsequently.
The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada, which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States and named after American miner Henry Comstock.
Vale S.A. is a Brazilian multinational corporation engaged in metals and mining and one of the largest logistics operators in Brazil.
Santa Bárbara is a Brazilian municipality founded in 1704 and located in the state of Minas Gerais.
Nova Lima is a municipality of about 87,000 people, whose downtown is located about 20 kilometers of Belo Horizonte, the capital of the south-eastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Mining is one of the main economical activities of the city, including the extraction of Iron Ore and Gold. The most famous mine in the city is Morro Velho, a gold mine of 2,700 metres (8,900 ft) depth.
Morro Velho, also called AngloGold Ashanti Brasil Mineração, after its current owner AngloGold Ashanti, is a complex of gold mines located near the city of Nova Lima in the Minas Gerais state of Brazil.
Paracatu is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. The name is of Tupi origin, translated "good river", from "Para" (river) and "katu" (good).
The Brazilian Gold Rush was a gold rush that started in the 1690s, in the then Portuguese colony of Brazil in the Portuguese Empire. The gold rush opened up the major gold-producing area of Ouro Preto, then the aptly named Vila Rica. Eventually, the Brazilian Gold Rush created the world's longest gold rush period and the largest gold mines in South America.
Mining in Brazil is centered on the extraction of iron, copper, gold, aluminum, manganese, tin, niobium, and nickel. About gemstones, Brazil is the world's largest producer of amethyst, topaz, agate and is a big producer of tourmaline, emerald, aquamarine, garnet and opal.
Raposos is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte and to the microregion of Belo Horizonte.
Santo Antônio do Rio Abaixo is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion of Belo Horizonte and to the microregion of Conceição do Mato Dentro. The estimated population in 2020 was 1,760 inhabitants.
Corta Atalaya is the largest open-pit mine in Europe and was at one time the largest in the world. It is located within the city limits of Minas de Riotinto in the province of Huelva, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It is roughly elliptical in shape, 1,200 metres (3,900 ft) long, 900 metres (3,000 ft) wide, and 350 metres (1,150 ft) deep. It was one of the most ambitious projects of the Rio Tinto Group. At its peak it employed 2,000 workers mining copper; it was actively mined until 1992. Since at least 1994 it has been flooded up to the 16th ring.
Octávio Barbosa was a Brazilian geologist.
Serra do Gandarela National Park is a national park in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It protects a mountainous region holding a remnant of Atlantic Forest that is an important source of water for the city of Belo Horizonte.
Gongo Soco was a gold mine in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, to the east of Belo Horizonte in the mid-19th century. It was worked by skilled miners from Cornwall and by less skilled Brazilian labourers and slaves. Machinery powered by a water wheel and a steam engine was used to pump out the mine, operate the lifts, and operate the grinding mills where the gold was separated from the ore. The mine was closed when the gold ran out, but was later reopened as an iron ore mine. Recently the iron mine was also closed.
Honório Bicalho is a community in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, in the municipality of Nova Lima. The Rio das Velhas runs through the community from south to north.
The Cobre mine was a copper mine in Cuba, the oldest in the new world. The open pit mine was operated from 1544 to 1998. The Spanish used slave labour and free coloured labour to work the mine. After it had been abandoned, in the 19th century a British company acquired the mine and reopened it, again using slaves and free coloured labourers, but also using skilled Cornish miners and steam engines from Cornwall to operate pumps. The mine was abandoned again, then reopened by an American company at the start of the 20th century. After the Cuban Revolution it was taken over by the state. After being finally abandoned the pit is now filled with a mineral-rich lake.
The Iron Quadrangle is a mineral-rich region covering about 7,000 square kilometres (2,700 sq mi) in the central-southern part of the Brazilian state Minas Gerais. The area is known for its extensive deposits of gold, diamonds, and iron ore, being the source of approximately 40% of all gold produced in Brazil between the years 1500 and 2000. The deposits themselves pertain to the Minas Supergroup, a sequence of meta-sedimentary rocks initially formed in the Paleoproterozoic, about 2.5 Ga. In the 2010s, there have been two collapses of large tailings dams, which caused extensive damage and loss of life.
