Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2007 / ii / Paper 2 / 24H / iii

At a non-planar point of a minimal surface, the shape operator is not zero. Minimality gives nonzero opposite principal curvatures, so $K<0$ nearby and $dN$ is invertible. The inverse function theorem makes the Gauss map a local diffeomorphism onto a patch of the sphere; part (ii) makes it conformal.

Choose stereographic coordinates $(u,v)$ on that sphere patch. Their metric is $4(d{u}^2+d{v}^2)/(1+u^2+v^2{)}^2$. Pulling them back by $N$, the conformal identity $N^{\ast }{g}_{S^2}=\lambda g_S$ givesThe positive coefficient shows that these are local isothermal coordinates. No general isothermal-coordinate existence theorem is needed: the nondegenerate conformal Gauss map supplies them explicitly.