José Vieira do Couto, in 1801, first pointed out that platinum occurs in the sands of the Lages River, near Conceiçao, Minas Geraes. According to E. Hussak[78], platinum in that region occurs only in the alluvium of rivers having their rise on the eastern slope of the Serra do Espinhaço. The platinum is accompanied by black pebbles of quartz-tourmaline rocks, magnetite, hematite, rutile, octahedrite, xenotime, monazite, senaite, pseudomorphs of rutile after octahedrite (_captivos_), zircon and gold, which is sometimes of a copper-red colour (palladium-gold). Palladic gold was formerly called _ouro branco_ (white gold), by the miners. At Condado, further north on the eastern slope of the same Serra, platinum also occurs with very similar associations. The platinum from both localities occurs in bunchy, mammillated and globular forms, concave within, with thin walls, having a radiated fibrous structure under the microscope. It is frequently in thin foliated crusts, having the characteristic structure of hematite. It was accurately described by Wollaston in 1805 and 1809. Hussak thinks the primary formation was an olivine rock, or gabbro, while the platinum is secondary, having been most probably re-deposited from solutions resulting from the decomposition of platiniferous pyrites or of sperrylite (PtAs_{2}), minerals derived, possibly, from the neighbouring schistose quartzite, or from the overlying conglomeratic quartzite. The platinum of Condado, although comparable, as regards density, to the Russian platinum, is very rich in palladium, is non-magnetic and contains practically no iron. An analysis by G. Florence gave the following percentages: insoluble residue, 0·92; platinum, 73·99; iridium, 0·08; palladium, 21·77; iron, 0·10 (= 96·86), undetermined (rhodium and osmium), 3·14.