At the São Bento gold mine, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The last visit of the module and the tour.   On arrival from Belo Horizonte, the group changed to go underground, and waited for a personnel train (top right) which took them through the portal into the main adit, and then to the adit level plat of the main shaft. From there they caught a cage to a deeper level, where they were given a briefing on the geology, structure and mineralisation of the deposit by the mine geologist Juliano Ferreira over mine plans and sections (lower right). They then walked to a stope and crosscut to traverse across ~400 m of the host sequence, lodes, structures and iron formations. This was followed by further discussion before returning to the plat to catch the next cage to the surface via the main shaft ( left). Over and after lunch, discussion continued until they were shown drill core from representative drill holes, before departing in the mid afternoon to return to Belo Horizonte.

The following day, the group dispersed around the world.

Photographs by Mike Porter