CORUMB

city, Mato Grosso do Sul state, southwestern Brazil. It is situated on the Paraguay River, at 381 feet (116 m) above sea level, near the border with Bolivia. Founded by the Jesuit procurator Lus de Albuquerque de Melo Pereira e Cceres as a military outpost and colony in 1778, it became, after the opening of the river to international commerce following the Paraguayan War (186570), a port terminus for rivercraft from Buenos Aires and Asuncin. The chief commercial centre of southern Mato Grosso do Sul, the city handles manganese and iron ore from the buttes of Morro do Urucum, to the south. In the late 1970s a factory started production of ferromanganese and silicomanganese from Urucum deposits. Factories process animal hides and xarque (dried beef). The city is a junction of air routes and has railroad connections with So Paulo and with Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Pop. (1991 prelim.) city, 75,235; mun., 88,279.