History of Barro Alto: from farm to nickel town

Barro Alto is a young town: the village formed in the 1940s and 1950s, became a municipality in 1958 and changed scale in the 21st century with nickel mining. This account follows the official history published by IBGE and the municipality and, for mining, documents from the company and the industry.

The Barro Alto farm

Settlement began on the Fazenda Barro Alto farm around 1949, according to IBGE, attracted by fertile, cheap land. The brothers Jerônimo, José and Manoel Rabelo da Silva, who had lived there since 1940, are considered the founders. The name is practical: the first houses were made of clay (barro) and wood, on a high (alto) area known for its sticky clay soil.

The road and the chapel

• 1951: a road link to Goianésia ends the village’s isolation.
• 1956: the chapel of Our Lady of Abadia is built. According to IBGE, it attracted the first businesses and many houses around it.

From district to municipality (1958–1959)

• 22 October 1958: Municipal Law no. 145 creates the district of Barro Alto, part of Pirenópolis.
• 14 November 1958: State Law no. 2,139 makes Barro Alto a municipality — the date of the town’s anniversary.
• 1 January 1959: the municipality is installed.

The farming town

For decades Barro Alto lived from farming. In 2007, an Ibram publication described a town of about 7,000 people where the City Hall was the largest employer. The parish was created in 1993 and the current main church was dedicated in 2008.

The nickel era

According to an Anglo American document (2020): first signs of silicate nickel in 1934; geological surveys from 1969 to 1996, with the company BAMISA created in 1972; new drilling from 1998 to 2000; acquisition of mining rights by Anglo American in 2002 (Ibram); mining from 2004, with ore trucked to the Codemin plant in Niquelândia; project approval in December 2006 (Ibram); and, in 2011, the start of ferronickel production in Barro Alto. See nickel mining in Barro Alto.

Barro Alto today

The population grew from 8,716 in 2010 to 10,371 in 2022, combining mining, farming — notably natural rubber — and services.