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W–Au skarns in the Neo-Proterozoic Seridó Mobile Belt, Borborema Province in northeastern Brazil: an overview with emphasis on the Bonfim deposit

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Abstract

The Seridó Mobile Belt (SMB) is located in the Borborema Province in northeastern Brazil and consists of a gneiss basement (Archean to Paleo-Proterozoic), a metasedimentary sequence (marble, quartzites, and schists), and the Brasiliano igneous suite (both of Neo-Proterozoic age). In this region, skarns occur within marble and at the marble–schist contact in the metasedimentary sequence. Most of the skarn deposits have been discovered in the early 1940s, and since then, they have been exploited for tungsten and locally gold. Recently, the discovery of gold in the Bonfim tungsten skarn has resulted in a better understanding of the skarn mineralization in this region. The main characteristics of the SMB skarns are that they are dominantly oxidized tungsten skarns, with the exception of the Itajubatiba and Bonfim gold-bearing skarns, which are reduced based on pyrrhotite as the dominant sulfide, garnet with high almandine and spessartine component, and elevated gold contents. In the Bonfim deposit, pressure estimates indicate that the skarns formed at 10- to 15-km depth. The mineralized skarns present the prograde stage with almandine, diopside, anorthite, and actinolite-magnesio-hornblende, and titanite, apatite, allanite, zircon, and monazite as accessory minerals. The retrograde stage is characterized by alkali feldspar, clinozoisite–zoisite–sericite, calcite, and quartz. Scheelite occurs in four ore-shoots distributed within the marble and at the marble–schist contact. The main ore body is 5–120 cm wide and contains an average of 4.8-wt.% WO3, which occurs in the basal marble–schist contact. Fold hinges appear to control the location of high-grade scheelite. The late-stage gold mineralization contains bismite (Bi2O3), fluorine-bearing bismite, native bismuth, bismuthinite (Bi2S3), and joseite [Bi4(Te,S)3], and also chlorite, epidote, prehnite, chalcopyrite, and sphalerite. This gold–bismuth–tellurium mineralization exhibits a typical late character and occurs as a black fine-grained mineral assemblage controlled by conjugate brittle-ductile faults (and extensional fractures) that crosscut not only the banding in prograde skarn but also the retrograde alkali feldspar and clinozoisite–zoisite–sericite assemblage. The Au–Bi–Te-bearing minerals are intergrown with retrograde epidote, prehnite, chlorite, chalcopyrite, and sphalerite, indicating that gold mineralization at Bonfim is linked to a late-stage skarn event. The polymetallic nature of the Bonfim deposit can be used as an important guide for the exploration of this type of skarn deposit in the Borborema Province, which potentially contains significant new, undiscovered gold and polymetallic deposits.

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Acknowledgment

The authors express gratitude to Edilton J. Santos and Hartmut Beurlen for the historical data about the skarns of the Seridó region, to Wanilson Luiz-Silva for providing unpublished data about gold–quartz veins of the Seridó, to Gaston Giuliani for bismuth-related bibliography, to Jacques Wautier and Marco Bravin for microprobe analysis and thin section preparation, to Fabriciano L. Neto (Tomaz Salustino company) for access to drill cores, to the director and staff of Docegeo Company, to Harrizon L. Almeida (Ecudor company), to Eurico Pereira (Bonfim farm owner) for access to the mine and private documents, to Adriana B. Garlipp for drawing figures, and to Hartmut Beurlen and Germano M. Júnior for the review of the text. The authors also wish to thank the Brazilian Funds (FINEP/PADCT II, Research Project Mass and Fluid Transference in the Continental Crust) and the Belgian Funds (Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, and France–Belgium cooperation of the Communauté Française de Belgique-Tournesol Project Dernières Phases Magmatiques) for financial support for field work and analyses. The first author is also grateful to the Brazilian National Research Council, CNPq, for a doctoral grant (process 200.871/95-1). Constructive criticism by Andreas G. Mueller, Craig Hart, Steffen Hagemann, and Bernd Lehmann helped to significantly improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Geologia, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Av. Acadêmico Hélio Ramos, s/n, Cidade Universitária, CEP 50.740-530, Recife, Brazil

    João Adauto Souza Neto

  2. Departamento de Geologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Campus Universitário, Lagoa Nova, CEP 59.072-970, Natal, Brazil

    Jean Michel Legrand

  3. Centre de Recherches sur la Synthèse et Chimie des Mineraux (CRSCM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), 1A rue de la Férollerie, 45071, Orléans Cedex 2, France

    Marcel Volfinger & Marie-Lola Pascal

  4. Département des Sciences du Milieu et de l’Aménagement du Territoire, Université Catholique de Louvain, 2 Place Croix du Sud, Boîte 10, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Philippe Sonnet

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  1. João Adauto Souza Neto
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  2. Jean Michel Legrand
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  3. Marcel Volfinger
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  4. Marie-Lola Pascal
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Correspondence to João Adauto Souza Neto.

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Editorial handling: S. Hagemann

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Souza Neto, J.A., Legrand, J.M., Volfinger, M. et al. W–Au skarns in the Neo-Proterozoic Seridó Mobile Belt, Borborema Province in northeastern Brazil: an overview with emphasis on the Bonfim deposit. Miner Deposita 43, 185–205 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-007-0155-1

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