Morro Velho, also called AngloGold Ashanti Brasil Mineração, after its current owner

AngloGold Ashanti AngloGold Ashanti Limited is a global gold mining company. It was formed in 2004 by the merger of AngloGold and the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation. It is now a global gold producer with 21 operations on four continents. The company is listed ...

, is a complex of

gold mine Gold Mine may refer to: * Gold Mine (board game) *Gold Mine (Long Beach), an arena *"Gold Mine", a song by Joyner Lucas from the 2020 album ''ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characteri ...

s located near the city of

Nova Lima Nova Lima is a municipality of about 87,000 people, whose downtown is located about 20 kilometers south of Belo Horizonte, the capital of the south-eastern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Mining is one of the main economical activities of the ...

in the

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It is one of two mining operations of the company in Brazil, the other being the

Serra Grande Gold Mine The Serra Grande Gold Mine is a gold mine located 5 km from Crixás, in the Goiás state of Brazil. It is jointly owned by AngloGold Ashanti and Kinross Gold Corporation Kinross Gold Corporation is a Canadian-based gold and silver mining co ...

. In 2008, the Brazilian operations contributed 8% to the company's overall production.AngloGold Ashanti: Country report Brazil
AngloGold Ashanti website, accessed: 13 July 2010

History

The mines have been in operation since 1725 and came under the proprietorship of the English

Saint John Del Rey Mining Company 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, ...

in 1834. In this period the mine was amongst others instrumental in the establishment of a hydro-electrical power plant, a state of the art hospital, the Villa Nova AC association football team, which had some importance between the 1930s and 1970s and the construction of a circa 10 kilometre tramway line between Nova Lima and

Raposos 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. Geography The municipality contains the Raposos gold mines open ...

, considered the first in South America. In 1915, the Morro Velho mine reached a vertical depth of 5,824 feet, which made it the deepest mine in the world. The miners continued going deeper, and the mine kept the title of world’s deepest until 1928, when the Village Deep mine in South Africa reached a vertical depth of 8,000 feet, exceeding the depth of the Morro Velho, which was 7,126 feet in 1929.Jacob E. Gair, Geology and Ore Deposits of the Nova Lima and Rio Acima Quadrangles, Minas Gerais Brazil,” US Geological Survey, Professional Paper 341-A, p.A54-A55. The mine changed its ownership later on to the Carvalhaes family. In 1975 the South Africa based ''Anglo American Corporation,'' a precursor to today's AshantiGold, became owners of the operations. These days Morro Velhos is the world's oldest continuously worked mine. Some of the mines' works are over 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) deep underground. Although Morro Velho's main production is

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, ...

, and other minerals are also extracted at the mining complex. Despite closing of the Minha Velha and Engenho D'Água mines in 2003 and 2004, gold production has increased over the past three years, with 240,000 ounces (6,800 kilograms) of gold produced in 2004 at an average recovered

ore grade Ore is natural Rock (geology), rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Ret ...

of 0.222 ounces per ton (7.62 grams per

metric ton The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

). Cash costs of production totalled $133 per ounce, with the mine realizing adjusted operating profit of $45 million. In 2009, the mine employed close to 3,000 people, 2,250 of those being permanent staff.

Production

Recent production figures of the mine were:

Images

Novo Lima (MG) - St John Del Rey Mining Co - 1869.jpg , Saint John Del Rey Mining Company 1868 Kosmos morro velho 1907 3.jpg , Morro Velho 1907 Nova Lima (MG) - Bicame.jpg , Aqueduct constructed by the English to wash gold.

References

External links

AngloGold Ashanti website

AngloGold Ashanti: Country report Brazil
* Jolyon Ralph, Ida Chau:

', Mindat.org (per 2014-05-20). * Augusto Wagner:

', Arquivo Campeões do Futebol, 2012-06-28. *
Centro de Memória Morro Velho: Respeito ao passado, referência para o presente e inspiração para inovações futuras.
',

, 2010. {{AngloGold Ashanti Gold mines in Brazil Silver mines in Brazil Arsenic mines in Brazil Underground mines in Brazil AngloGold Ashanti Buildings and structures in Minas Gerais Geography of Minas Gerais