Ten mines account for roughly 55 percent of Brazil's gold production.
high-grade underground operations in the greenstone belts of Bahia and
aggregate tonnage ever could.¹
measurement, and roughly 100 tonnes on the broader IBRAM-aligned
measurement that includes licensed artisanal mining.²³ A sector review
published by Revista Minérios in December 2025 identified the ten
highest-producing operations and their contribution to national output;
the top ten together accounted for close to 55 percent of the domestic
tonnage.¹
concentration overlaps with Brazil's oldest gold-producing regions, but
recent greenfield commissioning in the Center-West has begun to shift
the balance.
and operated by Kinross Gold, the open-pit mine produced 601,000 ounces
in 2025, and a March 2026 technical report confirmed 4.8 million ounces
of reserves and mine life extending to 2034.⁴
the engineering work that makes large-volume low-grade production
economical. No other Brazilian asset has matched its combination of
scale, longevity and price leverage — and no Brazilian gold atlas can be
drawn without it at the centre.
on the tonnage. Paracatu is the asset that foreign majors point to when
defending the quality of Brazilian gold operations in the eyes of
capital-markets investors. That reputational role matters
disproportionately for newer, smaller mines seeking their own capital.
long-life underground mine working a conglomerate-hosted gold system.
underground mine in the Rio Itapicuru greenstone belt that has seen
multiple life extensions.
geology, long operating history, reliable annual output. Neither is
large enough to anchor a single-asset investment thesis, but together
they give Bahia the second-largest state production footprint behind
Minas Gerais.
operations — both run by Jaguar Mining: the Pilar Complex at 5.8 percent
and Turmalina at 4.6 percent.¹ Both are underground, both target
high-grade narrow-vein systems, and both have faced the operational
challenges typical of such mines: selective stoping, grade variability,
ventilation costs.
improvements that have lifted throughput and reliability. For investors,
the Jaguar story is the closest Brazilian proxy to the Australian
underground narrow-vein producer archetype — smaller tonnages, higher
grades, operationally demanding, but capable of attractive all-in
sustaining cost performance when executed well.
both generate gold as a by-product of copper concentrate production. The
implication is important: Pará's gold supply is not responsive to the
gold price in the same way that a primary gold mine is, because the
decision to run the pit depends on copper economics.
price was volatile, Pará's copper-gold block kept producing because
copper kept being sold. For a national production picture that relies on
reliability, Sossego and Salobo are exactly the kind of assets that
smooth the aggregate line.
The by-product dynamic also creates an unusual revenue profile for Vale.
meaningful value to a segment of the company that investors typically
model for copper fundamentals alone. The copper-gold combination inside
piece of the Brazilian precious-metals story.
to Aura Minerals for US$76 million — a transaction that reshuffled
and Mineração Apoena at 2.1 percent, both open-pit operations in Mato
quarter of 2025 and Serra Grande acquired, Aura is now the most active
mid-tier in the country, and its Center-West and Northeast positions are
likely to gain share in the 2026 atlas.
programmes in Goiás and Mato Grosso have been active, and the SGB's
its geological potential.⁵
in the interior of Goiás and Mato Grosso is measurably better than it
was a decade ago, and the road and rail corridors that support
agribusiness in these states translate directly into cost reductions for
mining logistics. A mine commissioned in 2026 in northern Mato Grosso
enjoys infrastructure that a comparable mine in 2016 would not have had.
top and the Bahian anchors in the next band. The interesting movement
will come in the middle — particularly in the Center-West, where Aura's
expanded footprint and greenfield commissioning could push new names
into the ranking. For investors building exposure to Brazilian gold, the
atlas is the practical starting point: the geography of production is
also the geography of opportunity, and in 2026 it is wider, deeper and
more clearly mapped than at any point in the last decade.
Meta: Ten mines delivered around 55% of Brazilian gold in 2025.
and what it reveals.