Honório Bicalho is a community in the state of
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...
, Brazil, in the municipality 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 c ...
.
The
Rio das Velhas
The das Velhas River (), is the longest tributary of the basin of the São Francisco river. Its water flows into that river at a place called Barra do Guaicuí, in the municipality of Várzea da Palma, Minas Gerais. The source was found to be the ...
runs through the community from south to north.
Railway
The
Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil
The Estrada de Ferro Central do Brasil was one of the principal railways of Brazil, uniting the states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Minas Gerais.
Origins
On 9 February 1855, The imperial government of Brazil signed a contract with Edward Pr ...
was the first railway line to be built by the emperor
Pedro II of Brazil
''Don (honorific), Dom'' PedroII (Pedro de Alcântara João Carlos Leopoldo Salvador Bibiano Francisco Xavier de Paula Leocádio Miguel Gabriel Rafael Gonzaga; 2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891), nicknamed the Magnanimous (), was the List o ...
, and was a backbone of the Brazilian railway system.
The first stretch was opened in 1858.
The Honório Bicalho station was opened in 1890, named after the engineer Honório Bicalho, who was involved in various public works on ports and railways.
The station has been abandoned, although the tracks remain.
The station was demolished in the late 1990s.
Mining operations
The
Saint John d'El Rey Mining Company operated the Gaia, Faria and Gabirobas gold mines southwest of Honório Bicalho and the Bicalho mine at Honório Bicalho.
The company bought the Fernan Paes estate to the west of Honorio Bicalho around 1863 and worked the Gaia and Gabirobas mines between 1867 and 1873, after which mining halted.
The company drove an exploration
adit
An adit (from Latin ''aditus'', entrance) or stulm
is a horizontal or nearly horizontal passage to an underground mine.
Miners can use adits for access, drainage, ventilation, and extracting minerals at the lowest convenient level. Adits are a ...
in the Bicalho mine in 1925. In 1936 the mine was pumped out and exploration continued to a depth of .
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 drain water from 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.
Notes
Sources
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Populated places in Minas Gerais