the mines in order to break the stalemate. Brazil learned a great deal from this and began nationalising most of the larger mines and finally began on the road to political strength in the eyes of the Latin American axis. And later in the depression, which began in 1929, the government proceeded to nationalise the vast majority of the mines. This also proved to be an ingenious idea, as it helped to keep the wealth in Brazil as the great depression caused a massive drop in both the demand and the price of metals.
             By this time the government could clearly see that two types of mining were evident wherever the mines hadn't been nationalised. On the one hand you had mines owned by large corporations which were very capital intensive and focused on bulk mining of low value minerals and also have low labour requirements. Then on the other hand you have small scale mining which was run by ordinary individuals called "garimpeiros" who came from shanty-towns and moved inland to make their fortunes on the gold strikes. "The garimpeiro
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