Although 85 per cent of supplies were bought from Brazil, and 60 per cent from Minas Gerais in particular, less than 14 per cent came from Paracatu itself. Excluding contractors, in fact, local purchases accounted for less than one per cent .

A closer look at these purchases explains this distribution, and helps understand the extent to which a local process of import substitution is feasible. Power, by far, was the main single item, followed by mechanical components, oil products, chemicals, tyres, and gases, all of which would require the pre existence of consolidated markets and a fairly sophisticated industrial base, in order to be produced locally. The relative weight of these items is high: the top 10 purchases accounted for 70 per cent of the total. Not one item among the top 30 purchases was sourced locally.

Scope for further linkage development locally is more likely in smaller items like clothing, stationery, or catering, and within contractors.

Finally, although important in absolute terms, direct community expenditure represented just four per cent of total tax payments, 2.5 per cent of the value of local purchases, or 1.5 per cent of the company's labour costs in 2001. This expenditure took the form of programmes, projects and donations.

How, then, did this overall economic contribution impact on Paracatu? Or to put it another way, how did the local economy cope with this stimulus?

Population growth was no doubt heavily influenced by the mine's inception. Fuelled by subsequent migration waves, over 75,000 people lived in Paracatu in 2000, 84 per cent in the urban area and the balance in the countryside.