PATOS DE MINAS

city, west-central Minas Gerais estado (state), Brazil. It lies at 2,808 feet (856 m) above sea level in the highlands. Made the seat of a municipality in 1866, it gained city status in 1892 with the name of Patos, which was lengthened in 1944 to Patos de Minas. The cultivation of feijo (beans), corn (maize), cassava, rice, coffee, and oranges, along with phosphate-fertilizer processing and livestock raising, are the main sources of income in the locality. Dairy products, xarque (jerked beef), and hog by-products are processed in the city, which is linked by air and by roads with railroad connections to Belo Horizonte, the state capital, 314 miles (506 km) by road to the southeast. Pop. (1991 prelim.) mun., 102,698.