MANGANESE IN BRAZIL: DISCOVERY, EXTRACTION, CONSUMPTION AND MARKETING FROM A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

This work describes the occurrence and the economic importance of manganese in Brazil, covering a period of almost 130 years. After the gold cycle, manganese ores became the most important mineral commodity of Brazil’s export agenda until 1945. Brazil has one of the largest world reserves and has been among the world’s largest producers of manganese ore for over a century. The influence of international scenario on the manganese market affected its trade balance throughout the twentieth century. The Brazilian manganese ore production was strongly stimulated by external events (such as the I and II World Wars) and the development of the US and the European steel industries in the early XXth century. However, internal consumption increased as the Brazilian steel industry developed. The chief use of manganese in Brazil and in the world is in the steel production. Nonmetallurgical uses include battery cathodes, fertilizers, animal feed, water treatment, analytical chemistry (permanganometry), pigments, cosmetics and glasses. The perspectives for manganese in Brazil in the future are encouraging, but it is necessary to search for new deposits and develop processing of tailings and low grade ores.