20+ Shocking Photos of The Hell of Serra Pelada Mines (1980s)

One fine day in 1979, a local child took a swim in a river in Serra Pelada when he found a 6-gram nugget of gold. His discovery traveled fast and wide. By the end of the week, hundreds of gold prospectors flocked to Serra Pelada to see for themselves. By the end of the year and early 1980s, the numbers of prospectors swelled up to over 110,000 working on the site. At its peak, the Serra Pelada site was the largest open-air gold mine in the world. It was also the most violent and chaotic.

Below are some of the most powerful photos ever taken showing the sheer madness and chaos of the situation. When Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado visited the mine, he was stunned. “Every hair on my body stood on edge. The Pyramids, the history of mankind unfolded. I had traveled to the dawn of time,” he said.

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Serra Pelada was located in a remote area in Brazil, measuring 270 miles south of the mouth of the Amazon River. The only way to get there was by plane or foot. Some miners would pay high prices to have taxis drive them from the nearest town to the end of a dirt track, then walk 9.3 miles to the mines.

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Huge gold nuggets were quickly discovered, the biggest weighing 6.8 kilograms valued $108,000 at the time, which is about $310,173 today. During the peak of the gold rush, this desolate place was notorious for its appalling conditions and violence. The town that sprouted beside the site became known for both murder and prostitution.

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Each worker known as garimpeiros was assigned a 2m x 2m area and would just start digging down.

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Miners would gather soil at the bottom of the pit, put it into their sacks each weighing 60 kilograms, depending on how much one can carry. They would then carry them up to the top of the mine through some 400 meters of wood and rope ladders. The soil would then be sifted for gold.

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Workers are paid 20 cents for digging and carrying each sack. If gold was discovered, a bonus is given.

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The Brazilian military took over the operations three months after the gold’s discovery. This is to prevent exploitation of the workers and stop conflict between miners and owners.

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The government banned women and alcohol at the mines. But the nearby town became known for booze and whores.

Sebastião Salgado

Thousands of underage girls prostituted themselves for gold flakes and nuggets. There were also around 60 – 80 unsolved murders occurred in the town every month..