Gold mine discovered after part of a house collapsed in Ouro Preto – Gerais

The professor of the Department of Mining Engineering at the Federal University of Ouro Preto (UFOP), Hernani Mota, says that the crater was opened after the accumulation of 200 millimeters of rain in the last weekend in the city. The house is located in Bairro 13 de Maio, formerly Bairro Alto da Cruz, in Serra de Ouro Preto.

Known for conducting studies on open pit and underground mines, the professor was at the site accompanied by the Civil Defense and, after a preliminary analysis, concluded that the rest of the house was compromised.

“The service area of ​​the house came down and left the rest of the property with cracks in the wall and the family had to be removed from the house”.

catalog

According to the engineer, it is still not possible to specify the dimensions of the mine and, after the rainy season, a new analysis will be carried out and the site will be included in the catalog that has more than 170 mines mapped in the historic city.

“We still don’t have the size and we will do an assessment of the mine and the property. Access to the mine is difficult and you can’t see its size from the outside. It is not possible to enter now, there is a lot of rubble and there is still a risk of new landslides”, explained Mota.

The UFOP professor says that the catalog was created to preserve the memory of all traces of the historical period that left marks not only on architecture, but also on the life of the population.

“Some of them have become tourist spots, like Minas do Chico Rei. We started studying the mapping of mines in 1994 and one of our concerns was the collapse of these areas and the impact on urban infrastructure,” he says.

Mota recalls that in February last year another gold mine, 14 meters long, was discovered in a nearby location and, after analyzing the terrain, the two residents were able to return to the property.