VIII
THE MINERAL WEALTH OF BRAZIL
This
present publication is a continuation of the above works on minerals
with additions of new information as it has become available. There was
the guiding thought of presenting a retrospective panorama of the
production and trade in minerals in the country and the avoidance of
excessively technical aspects of the problem, bringing out the economic
aspects, inasmuch as it is certain that the War will bring
modifications of great importance to the mineral industry in Brazil. In
this connection it is of interest to point out that, in 1913, minerals
represented but 1.70% of the total exports of the country, rising to
6.42% in 1917. With the return of peace and the reorganization of
international trade, the importance of minerals declined and in 1935
accounted for 1.01% of the total. By 1939, its participation in the
whole had increased, amounting to 5.40%, while in 1940 it had already
attained 10.35%.
Today,
the interest in minerals in the country is much more accentuated and in
addition may be said to be more profound since the development of the
iron and steel industry, metallurgical industry as well as the building
materials industries has attained an impressing upward rhythm due in no
small part to the increased capacity of absorption of the internal
market. Upon this subject, tht writer had the opportunity of describing
in greater detail in a booklet, Chegou a Vez dos Minerals, published in 1939.
Taking
a significant part in the development of the mineral industries is that
of official action particularly evident during the Vargas
Administration which in the legal aspects notes the enactment of the
Codes of Mines and Waters which is the fundamental legal document on
the industry. In the sphere of economics, the reader will note the
progress made in a perusal of the statistics, which were purposely
divided, whenever possible, into the decade previous (1920-9) to the
installation of the Vargas Administration and in five-year periods
which followed. An important phase of official action which deserves
particular mention also is that on the part of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs which besides being in constant contact with overseas sources
or markets be it in the field of the exportation of Brazilian minerals
or the importation of foreign raw materials or production equipment,
maintains relations with the official bodies. However, there is another
phase in Brazilian diplomacy which has been exceedingly fruitful during
the present term of Minister Oswaldo Aranha in which, besides the
exceptionally large number of treaties and agreements signed which
facilitate the exportation of Brazilian minerals, there were realized
the huge loans which made possible the construction of the large scale
iron and steel works of Volta Redonda in Estado do Rio and others which
accelerated the improvement of the internal transportation system in
order to accomodate, in no small part, the distribution of the minerals
from mine to factory or export port.
There
may be mentioned, in addition, the great interest manifested in the
industry in the state of Minas Gerais, which in part may be traced to
that which arises naturally, accounting as the state does for about 50%
of the national total, and that which in greater part may be said to
arise from the
