The area in which Cuiabá is located is known as the Iron Quadrangle and is host to a number of historic and current gold mining operations, as well as a number of open pit limestone and iron ore operations. The geology of the Iron Quadrangle is composed of Proterozoic and Archaean volcano-sedimentary sequences and pre-Cambrian granitic complexes.

Cuiabá is a “gold-only” Archaean banded iron formation (BIF)-hosted gold deposit. The deposit consists of an intermediate meta-mafic sequence of the Archaean Greenstone Belt type. It is characterised by hydrothermal alteration of the rocks, with the mineralisation occurring mainly in BIF layers, and subordinately in quartz veins or in the host schists. The host to the gold mineralisation is the volcano-sedimentary Nova Lima Group that occurs at the base of the Rio das Velhas Super Group. The upper sequence of the Rio das Velhas Super Group is the meta-sedimentary Maquiné Group. The gold mineralisation at Cuiabá has features and characteristics that are in agreement with the epigenetic orogenic gold deposit model presented for Archaean gold-lode deposits.

Cuiabá mine has gold mineralisation associated with sulphides and quartz veins in BIF and volcanic sequences. Structural control and fluid flow ascension are the most important factors for gold mineralisation with a common association between large-scale shear zones and their associated structures. Where BIF is mineralised the ore appears strongly stratiform d ........

Cuiabá is an underground operation which is located near Sabará, southeast of the city of Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais State, in the southeast of Brazil.

The mine currently operates using two main mining methods: sub-level longhole open stoping, and triple stoping. A variant of sub-level longhole stoping with a free face horizontal tunnel is also applied over low inclination high-grade areas. The cut and fill mining method was reintroduced to increase ore recovery. It is applied in the narrow veins below Level 14.1 (Balancão, Galinheiro and Canta Galo orebodies) where the dip is lower. In the Galinheiro footwall, the mining method remains sub-level stoping as the orebody shows a reasonable steep dip and thickness.

Cuiabá Mine has a shaft system (846m deep) for production and personnel transport, the current nominal airflow capacity is 1,035m3 /s, of which 320m3 /s are refrigerated.

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