Qualla: Pitinga Mine https://qualla.com/pitinga-mine en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_res/siteimages/rsslogo.png Qualla: Pitinga Mine https://qualla.com/pitinga-mine Pitinga Mine: Introduction https://qualla.com/pitinga-mine/ The ore was found first. Then the reservation was made smaller. That sequence explains more about the Pitinga mine than any geological report could. In 1976, geologists from the Brazilian Geological Survey detected traces of cassiterite - tin ore - in a tributary of the Pitinga River, just outside the boundary of the Waimiri-Atroari Indigenous Reservation. The assays came back extraordinary: 2.1 kilograms of tin per cubic meter of alluvium, far richer than typical deposits in Rondonia. Then the geologists looked upstream, into the reservation itself, and found that the concentrations grew denser. The cassiterite was inside. In 1981, Presidential Decree 86.630 removed 526,800 hectares from the Waimiri-Atroari reserve, reclassifying it as a Temporary Restricted Area for the Attraction and Pacification of Indians. The tin deposits, newly outside any protected area, were opened for mining.

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/x/v/7/pitinga-mine-wp/6xv7-pitinga-mine-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Pitinga Mine: Paranapanema and the Paperwork https://qualla.com/pitinga-mine/ The company Paranapanema led the effort, assisted by FUNAI - the Brazilian government agency responsible for indigenous affairs - and the National Department of Mineral Production. The word pacification in the 1981 decree carried weight. The Waimiri-Atroari had violently resisted...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/x/v/7/pitinga-mine-wp/6xv7-pitinga-mine-paranapanema-and-the-paperwork.mp3 0:06 2 full Pitinga Mine: The Scale Underneath https://qualla.com/pitinga-mine/ The deposit exceeded early expectations. In 1982, the US Bureau of Mines estimated that all of Brazil held about 67,000 tonnes of contained tin. By 1986, Pitinga alone was estimated at 575,000 tonnes of tin - nearly ten times the national figure from four years earlier. The ore b...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/x/v/7/pitinga-mine-wp/6xv7-pitinga-mine-the-scale-underneath.mp3 0:06 3 full Pitinga Mine: A Town in the Forest https://qualla.com/pitinga-mine/ Running an open-pit mine 300 kilometers from Manaus required building an entire town. Mineracao Taboca constructed Pitinga village from scratch - roads, treated water, sanitation, a housing estate for 5,000 people, schools, restaurants, health facilities, a bank branch, a post of...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/x/v/7/pitinga-mine-wp/6xv7-pitinga-mine-a-town-in-the-forest.mp3 0:06 4 full Pitinga Mine: The Dykes Broke https://qualla.com/pitinga-mine/ In 1987, the dykes of four tailings ponds failed. Mining tailings - the slurry left after ore extraction - flowed into the Alalau River, which carried the sediment downstream through the Waimiri-Atroari Indigenous Reserve. The contamination affected fish populations. The Waimiri-...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/x/v/7/pitinga-mine-wp/6xv7-pitinga-mine-the-dykes-broke.mp3 0:06 5 full Pitinga Mine: New Owners, Enduring Deposit https://qualla.com/pitinga-mine/ In 2006, Mineracao Taboca began to extract ore from primary rock in place of the exhausted alluvial deposits - a more technically difficult and expensive operation, but necessary to keep the mine alive. Two years later, the Peruvian company Minsur acquired both Mineracao Taboca a...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/x/v/7/pitinga-mine-wp/6xv7-pitinga-mine-new-owners-enduring-deposit.mp3 0:06 6 full