Abstract
The role of natural resources in the economic development of producer territories is the object of many debates. While some studies highlight raw materials as a source of wealth, others on the contrary connect them to growing poverty rates, at times to the point of identifying resources as a curse. The reasons evoked are however not always the same,depending on the nature of the resource and the spaces at issue. The aim of this thesis is to study the relationship between the abundance of natural wealth and the level of economic development of local population, as exemplified by colored gemstone resources and the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais. This space, which constitutes one of the greatest reserves of gemstones in the world, does not appear to profit fully from its resources because the areas in which mining operations take place are mainly characterizes by socio-economical indexes below the national average. Most local actors involved in the exploitation of these precious minerals must besides face significant difficulties, which have increased over the last twenty years. The main reason for this decrease in production is however not, as it is often suggested, the subordination to foreign powers, nor the intensification of public authorities’ battle against illegal mining activities. The decline of activities observed actually has its origin in the recent improvement of living conditions amongst local populations, which have therefore less inclined to choose physically tiring and badly paid dangerous activities than they were in the past. On the basis of this assessment, this thesis defends the idea accordingto which the specialization of certain territories in the field of mining extraction is not a cause, but rather a consequence of poverty.