A short collection of images illustrating the open-cast mining, just north of Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

This is historically the primary source of wealth and power in the region, and even today the mines feel more like city states than industry – characterised by their high security and ever present patrols, all neatly badged with the company name and emblem.

These images were taken just a few kilometres north of Ouro Preto. This short excerpt from Google maps’ satellite imagery (CNES/Spot) shows some of the scale of the open-cast mining – the opening image in this post is a small area from the lower central area of the map:

More than anything, the mining (including a gold rush) is what has defined the recent history of this region.

In Belo Horizonte you can find a number of “museums” owned and run by different corporations, each presenting a view…