Cidade do Ferro ("City of Iron")[1][2] Cidade da Poesia ("City of Poetry")[3] Capital Nacional da Poesia ("National Capital of Poetry")[4] Capital Estadual do Tropeirismo ("State Capital of Tropeirismo")[5] Ita City
Banded Iron Formation or "itabirite", polished slab from the Paleoproterozoic-aged Minas Supergroup in the Iron Quadrangle District. The red bands are hematite, and the silver bands are magnetite. These are quarried, sawn, polished and sold as decorative stones.
It is currently the twenty-fourth largest city in the state in terms of population, with 120,904 inhabitants, according to a 2020 IBGE survey. It is known as the "Capital of Poetry", by virtue of being the birthplace of poetCarlos Drummond de Andrade, is part of the Circuit of the Gold and of Estrada Real.
History
The first settlements at the site date to the early eighteenth century, when the village of Itabira do Mato Dentro was founded by bandeirantes seeking gold. Itabira was politically emancipated as a municipality on 9 October 1848, through Provincial Law No. 374.[citation needed]
Itabira is a regional economic center, and hosts a thriving iron ore extraction operation headed by Companhia Vale do Rio Doce since 1942, when the company was created by President Getúlio Vargas specifically for the mineral exploration of the Rio Doce valley. As of 2017, it is the second largest mining company in the world, and a considerable part of its iron ore output comes from the mines at Itabira.[citation needed] As a result of the decades-old extraction operations, the city faces air pollution problems.[citation needed]
Brazil
Minas Gerais
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