The Piriá aluminous lateritic profile: mineralogy, geochemistry and parent rock

• Autor(a) principal: Santos,Pabllo Henrique Costa dos
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Outros Autores: Costa,Marcondes Lima da, Leite,Alessandro Sabá
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Brazilian Journal of Geology
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2317-48892016000400617
• topic: Gurupi region; mature laterites; bauxite

ABSTRACT: Relatively small aluminous lateritic deposits are abundant in the northeast and northwest parts of the Pará and Maranhão states, respectively. Most of them hosts aluminum phosphate mineralization forming hills and plateaus that stand out in the topography of the undulating plains of this region. The Piriá ridge is one of those topographic features, covered by lateritic iron crusts that have been studied in the 1970s as part of iron ore exploration campaigns and recently for phosphates prospection. This study improves the knowledge about the evolution of the lateritic Piriá deposit and demonstrates its relationship with the most evolved laterites of the Amazon, known as mature laterites, which formed major ore deposits during the Paleogene. Samples of a 17 meter-deep borehole were investigated through mineralogical (X-ray diffraction -XRD, optical and electron microscopy) and chemical methods (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry - ICP-MS, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry - ICP-OES and X-ray fluorescence - XRF). The studied lateritic profile comprises a clay bauxitic horizon overlaid by an aluminous iron crust. Upwardly continuous dissolution of kaolinite occurs with the formation of gibbsite, as the result of intensive leaching, resulting in a higher Al2O3 content in the crust. The continuous formation of hematite from goethite resulted from the transition to more arid conditions. Anatase is a newly formed mineral (100-400 nm crystallites), showing a gradual increase, following the increase in TiO2 content, which is high and indicative of a mafic parent rock, confirmed by the Ti × Zr dispersion pattern. Prominent zoning in the lateritic profile is characterized by the mineralization in bauxite and augelite and abrupt chemical transition between the horizons, marked by a decrease in Si and increase in Fe content from the bottom to the top of the profile. These features are compatible and indicative of mature laterites formed in Amazon during the Paleogene.