I didn´t find any gold readily available to take to the bank but there is a great deal of gold available to anyone who could extract the gold from this gold mine. The federal government of Brazil and the United Nations would never allow it. Ouro Preto was declared a "World Cultural Monument" by the United Nations in 1981. Some of the mines more than 80 Kms of tunnels are located under the main plaza (Praça Tiradentes) of the city. The gold ore in the area has been assayed at 2-13 grams per ton of ore. To be viable you would need to introduce modern, mechanized, gold-extraction techniques used in South Africa, Canada, Russia and the United States. This exploration would threaten the surrounding area. Therefore mining this rich gold mine is prohibited. Sometimes, money isn´t everything.