Brazil · Precious opal mining, cutting, and jewelry setting
Lapidação de Opala de Pedro II
The mining, lapidary cutting, and jewelry-setting of opal from Pedro II, a municipality in northern Piauí that holds Brazil's and the Americas' only reserve of noble (precious) opal — the world's second largest such deposit after Australia, formed roughly 200 million years ago and found in gem quality nowhere else outside Australia and Ethiopia. Discovery is specifically dated to 1945, when Francisco Silvino Mendes, known as Chico Simão, uncovered the stone by chance while clearing farmland belonging to Agnelo Matias at a site called Crispim. Contemporary lapidary Juscelino Araújo Souza, a street vendor before training through a government-sponsored cutting course, opened Pedro II's first dedicated lapidary business in 1992 and, together with creative director Áurea Amélia Brandão, founded Opalas Pedro II, which now exhibits at the Tucson Gem Fair — the world's largest gem and mineral show. Roughly 300 miners (garimpeiros) and a further 500 people work directly with the stone, the majority in artisanal cutting and jewelry-making, and a reopened technology center (CETAM) now bridges traditional lapidary knowledge with formal scientific research into the deposit's specific gemological character.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not Applicable — no UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage inscription exists for this craft at time of writing
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