Lourenço is a town and district in the Brazilian municipality of

Calçoene Calçoene () is a municipality located in the east of the state of Amapá in Brazil. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean in the Amazon jungle basin near French Guiana. Calçoene covers and has a population is 11,306. The name Calçoene is a corr ...

, in the interior of the state of

Amapá Amapá (; ) is one of the 26 federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil. It is in the North Region, Brazil, North Region of Brazil. It is Federative units of Brazil#List, the second-least populous state and the eighteenth-largest state by area ...

. The main economic activities of the town is

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...

. It is one of the oldest mines in

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

History

Gold mining in Lourenço began in the 19th century. In 1894, at the height of the gold rush, there were 6,000 to 10,000 gold miners in the area around the

Calçoene River Calçoene River is a river of Amapá Amapá (; ) is one of the 26 federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil. It is in the North Region, Brazil, North Region of Brazil. It is Federative units of Brazil#List, the second-least populous state an ...

. In 1984, Mineração Novo Astro (MNA) and Mineração Yukio Yoshidome (MYYSA) were awarded concessions for mining on an industrial scale. This resulted in conflicts with the ''

garimpeiros Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a blanket term for a type of subsistence mining involving a miner who may or may not be officially employed by a mining company but works independently, mining minerals using their own resources, usually ...

'' (illegal gold prospectors). In 1992, the Mining Cooperative of Garimpeiros of Lourenço (COOGAL) was founded, and the concessions were transferred to COOGAL in 1994. As of 2014, COOGAL operates five mining concessions and employs 1,100 ''garimpeiros''. The official census figures for the district are an underestimation, and the actual population is estimated at 4,500 people. Lourenço is located in an area surrounded by

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

s and indigenous territories. The region around Lourenço has been polluted with mercury, and has been

deforested Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...

. The school and clinic are functioning below standard. In 2017, Lourenço received 24 hour electricity. The town is connected to the

BR-156 BR-156 is a federal highway of Brazil. The road consists of 552 km between Oiapoque and Macapá, and 271 km between Macapá and Laranjal do Jari (except via Santana city), totalling 823 km of road through forest and savannah. Only the road be ...

highway via an unpaved road.

References

Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lorenco Gold mines in Brazil Populated places in Amapá