Brazil: The Devil's Digs

There are places in Brazil, that troubled but rich giant, where just scuffing a shovel in the dirt might produce treasures to dream about. To prove it, communities like Diamantina, Turmalina, Esmeralda, Ametista dot the country. Last week the scene was Cristalina (pop. 3,800), an interior town some 60 miles south of Brasilia, once the center of a fabulous quartz-crystal boom and now devoted largely to agriculture and cattle raising.

Off to the Farm. Last month two wandering prospectors stumbled on a 13-lb. hunk of white crystal on a 1,900-acre farm near Cristalina...

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