Serra Pelada was a large gold mine at the south of the mouth of the Amazon river. In 1979, a farmer, Genésio Ferreira da Silva, found a nugget of gold. Soon within few days, word had spread, and people rushed towards the Serra Pelada site. After five weeks, 10,000 speculators were scratching through the soil and finding pieces of gold as large as 13 pounds.
At first, the only way to get to the remote site was by plane or foot. Miners would often pay exorbitant prices to have taxis drive them from the nearest town to the end of a dirt track; from there, they would walk the remaining distance—some 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) to the site. At its peak, an estimated 100,000 garimpeiros (an independent prospector for minerals) worked in the yawning mine. It was notorious for both murder and prostitution.
Flood ended mining operations in 1986. In six years, the officially recorded yield was 44.5 tons of gold. However, over 90% of the gold was smuggled out and sold on the black market. Today, the mine is a small, polluted lake, which still sits on top of tons of undiscovered precious metal.
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