New player, question about the economy.

To find resources on the map use the RGO map mode, also the colonization map mode shows resources.
It's in the second row the first symbol with the shovel and fork thingy. Sadly you have to find a province with the right resource visiual first bevore you can highlight it.

When you click on a province all provinces with the same resource are highlighted with how much they produce relative to eachother. More red less ammount more green more.
Colonization map mode doesn't have that funktionality ofcourse since it's for colonisation .

I can tell you that there are 2 coal provinces in south america. One in Peru and one in Columbia.

How to get that into your market than? 3 way's conquest, colonisation or sphearing. Sphearing is only an option when you are a Gp so you have to try and take those provinces by force. Possible other target may be Sokoto in Afrika.

It's quite unlikely that you can buy coal on the world market since that depends on your overall rank. And every Nation above you will mostlikely buy up all the coal.
So when you can't conquer coal provinces you have to get more prestige and military score to get your fair share on the world market, to fuel your industry.
It might also be that your artisans use up all the coal you produce yourself. That's when technology and railroads come into play to get more from your RGO's

i am not sure what year you are in but for Brazil industrializing early is simply impossible. Since your prestige rank is quite low compared to available amount of coal in the market, you will not be able to get those coal. (I had the exact same issue when I played Brazil as my first Victoria 2 game)

Although many people recommend Brazil as first nation to play I find it really boring since you don't have much weight to throw around.

My advice is play as USA, you get to enjoy various aspect of the game without much difficulty.

I'm having some fun as Belgium right now in my first attempt at it. Seems easy enough. I've switched to the Liberal Party, they've built a bunch of factories and railroads and such. I'm a great power in 1845 though just barely. I even won a war against the Netherlands which I waged for no good reason at all. Used the humiliate CB, but Britain (my Ally) ended the war prematurely. Now I'm just waiting for a chance to try again without their help.