At the Morro do Ouro mine at Paracatu, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Doug Kirwin (Ivanhoe Mines, Thailand), our guide and mine geologist, João Carlos Möller of Rio Tinto Brasil, and Doug Jones (Delta Gold, Australia), look out across the vast shallow pit (a small segment of which is shown above) on the flat lying, oxidised, Neoproterozoic, sediment hosted orebody that requires no blasting or overburden removal, thus allowing 0.5 g/t Au ore to be mined profitably.

The group had departed Brasilia early for the 2 hour drive south in a chartered van to arrive at Paracatu by 8:30 am. The visit included a detailed presentation on the setting, geology and mineralisation, followed by a traverse of the deposit in the open pit, and the host sequence outside of the mine. The group departed in the mid to late afternoon to return to Brasilia before sunset.

Photographs by Mike Porter