Which of the following minerals occurs in the Minas Gerais province of Brazil ?
Iron ore
Minas Gerais is famous for its iron ore — option 2.
The name is the clue. Minas Gerais is Portuguese for “general mines”, a name the region acquired in the colonial period when gold and diamonds were found there. Its greatest wealth today, however, is iron. The Itabira deposits and the belt known as the Quadrilátero Ferrífero, the Iron Quadrangle, hold enormous reserves of high-grade haematite, and the ore is exported through the Atlantic ports of Vitória and Tubarão.
| Detail | Fact |
|---|---|
| Country | Brazil, in the south-east |
| Principal mineral | Iron ore, chiefly high-grade haematite |
| Famous field | Itabira, in the Iron Quadrangle |
| Also found | Manganese, gold, gemstones |
| Company | Vale, one of the world’s largest iron-ore producers |
Why this matters in world trade. Brazil is, with Australia, one of the two dominant exporters of iron ore, and China is the principal buyer. Brazilian ore commands a premium because of its high iron content and low impurities, and the trade is a mainstay of the country’s exports. Brazil’s other great iron field is Carajás, in the northern state of Pará.
Why the other minerals do not fit. Brazil is indeed a large producer of bauxite, but that comes from the Amazon basin in Pará — the Trombetas and Paragominas deposits — not from Minas Gerais. India, not Brazil, is the country associated with mica, and the Koderma belt of Jharkhand and neighbouring Bihar is its classic field. Brazil is notably poor in good coking coal and imports it, which is one reason its steel industry has developed around exporting ore rather than smelting all of it at home.
Hence, the answer is Iron ore.
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