Geochemical and reflectance spectroscopy data integration to characterize emerald deposits: the case of the Paraná deposit, Brazil

• Autor(a) principal: ARAÚJO NETO,JOSÉ F.
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Outros Autores: BARRETO,SANDRA B., CARRINO,THAIS A., SOUZA,IGOR M.B.A., SANTOS,GLENDA L.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0001-37652021000101218
• topic: Geochemistry; mineral chemistry; Paraná emerald deposit; petrography; reflectance spectroscopy

Abstract The Paraná emerald deposit is one of the few occurrences of emerald, a rare beryl variety, in Borborema Province, northeastern Brazil. We characterized the Paraná deposit by combining field geology, petrography, whole-rock geochemistry, mineral chemistry, and reflectance spectroscopy. The mineralization is associated with phlogopite-, actinolite-phlogopite-, and phlogopite-phengite schists, mylonitic gneisses, and several acidic rocks (e.g. granitic pegmatites/aplites, quartz ± feldspar veins) along the Portalegre Shear Zone. Emerald can be found in quartz-feldspar and aplite veins and veinlets interleaved with phlogopite- or actinolite-phlogopite schists, or within the foliation of the schists. The presence of albitites and the compositional variation of the schists suggest a metasomatic origin for emerald with variations of the metasomatic process. All these different lithotypes can be readily identified through reflectance spectroscopy especially in the range of 2,150-2,450 nm, where the main mafic minerals show absorption features related to Al-OH (phengite), and Fe-OH and Mg-OH bonds (phlogopite/actinolite). Our study shows that possible mineralized phlogopite schists can be distinguished from other sterile rocks, although point spectral analysis does not separate emerald-bearing phlogopite schists from schists without emerald due to the dominance of major phlogopite absorption features rather than emerald features.