978-1-4222-3341-2

Brazil is the world’s largest producer of coffee—responsible for 10.2 percent of all Brazilian exports in 2011. Experts say there are 300,000 coffee planta- tions in Brazil mostly in São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, Bahia, Paraná, and Goiás. Not only does Brazil export the most coffee, roughly 43.4 million bags in 2013, but Brazilians love to drink the drink. A bag of coffee weighs 132 pounds (60 kg) and in 1990, Brazilians drank 8.2 million bags of worth of the brew, a number that skyrocketed to 20 million in 2012. Gold mining is also big business, much as it was back in the 1700s when the gold rush opened the interior of the country to settlement. In 2011, Bra- zilian gold production topped 60 tons (54 metric tons) and is today a major source of income for Brazil and several other nations in the Amazon region. Brazil is the fourth largest producer of gold on the planet. IRON PROPORTIONS Brazil is one of world’s leading producers of iron ore. In fact, Brazil has five of the world’s largest iron ore mines, second only to Australia. The largest mine is the Carajás Mine, located in northern Brazil. The mine holds 7.9 billion tons (7.2 billion metric tons) of iron ore.

However, there has been much contro- versy as more mines open. Many people say the chemicals used in the mining process are wreaking havoc on the envi- ronment. Despite these issues, Western Europe, Japan, and the United States rely on Brazil for its mineral exports. Tourists explore the Passage Mines in Ouro Preto, the largest decommissioned gold mine open to visitors in the world. It's so huge that its tunnels connect two neighboring cities.

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MAJOR NATIONS IN A GLOBAL WORLD: BRAZIL