Abstract
Since the early 1970s, the global economic model based on the metal-mechanic industry has shown signs of exhaustion, a development which has coincided with the arrival of a new economic order based on technological development and services. The situation has led to overproduction and mounting stockpiles of minerals around the world. These changes have reverberated on the world mineral market, yet it is in this setting that the state of Pará of Brazil has undertaken a series of mineral developments. This paper was presented to the First International Symposium on Mining & Development, July 1995, Campinas, Brazil.