Pedreira Camaquã

Pedreira Camaquã is a former pit mined for copper extraction, with operations ending in 1996. After that, rainwater and the stabilization of the water table formed the blue lake that now fills the pit.

For more than a century, between 1865 and 1996, the copper deposit sustained the village of Minas do Camaquã, which reached about 5,000 residents. Before the industrial era, mining in the region went through an English phase, from 1870 to 1887, with the company The Rio Grande Gold Mining Limited, and a German phase, from 1888 to 1899, with ore shipped to England. In 1942 the Companhia Brasileira do Cobre (CBC) was founded, with the State of Rio Grande do Sul and the Pignatari Group as its main shareholders. In 1972, the mining village had 3,878 inhabitants, 1,460 of whom were CBC employees. After an auction drew no buyer in 1988, the employees themselves founded Bom Jardim S/A on March 20, 1989 and took control of CBC. With the end of mining, the village became a ghost town.

On the dive, the descent follows the benches of the old mine, which form steps like a staircase, and the water is cold, with a marked thermocline. On the rock faces of the benches around the pit, sedimentary features and copper mineralization can be seen in conglomerates of the Santa Fé Formation, and the pit is classified as a geosite of international relevance. Minas do Camaquã is one of the geosites of international significance in the Caçapava UNESCO Global Geopark, recognized in 2023.