In January 1979, a child swimming found a 6-gram mass of gold at the river bank. Genésio Ferreira da Silva who owned the property, then recruited a geologist to investigate whether the gold he found on his property was only the tip of the iceberg.
The news spread immediately that Da Silva was seated upon one of the world’s largest gold deposits in the world, and before the week ended, thousands of people went to the farm to get a chunk of the gold for themselves.
The mine was situated in a remote village in Brazil, and the only route was by plane or foot. Most villagers were drivers, and miners paid ridiculous amounts to be dropped off at the town nearest to the mining site before completing their journey, which included walking for 15 kilometres.
The kilos of gold discovered were huge, and each miner was assigned a 2mx2m area of land to mine. It didn’t take before more of the massive nuggets were found. With a workspace of over 100,000 workers, there was a surge in violence, and death, while prostitution became rampant.
The military took over operations to prevent exploitation from workers and to return peace and stability to the community. Women and alcohol were also prohibited from visiting the gold mine.
Since women and alcohol were prohibited from the mining sites, the neighbouring communities welcomed and housed the whores and liquor. Between 50 – 80 unsolved murders occurred in the town.
Due to the use of mercury in the gold extraction method, sizable areas remain contaminated, and people have heightened mercury levels after eating fish from the nearby streams.
