One of the five units that make up the morphological relief of Minas Gerais, to the Espinhaço houses the main sources of iron, manganese, bauxite and gold in the state.

Chain of mountains with about a thousand kilometers long and between fifty-one hundred kilometers wide, the hills of Espinhaço rises out of the crystalline plateau, crosses the states of Minas Gerais and Bahia, in north-south direction, and serves as a divider between the tributaries of the right bank of the San Francisco and the rivers flowing into the Atlantic.