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Research about Minas Gerais

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Minas Gerais.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS1975

Depositional environments and paleocurrent directions in the Precambrian Moeda Formation, Minas Gerais, Brazil

The middle Precambrian Moeda Formation of Minas Gerais, Brazil, contains uranium and other minerals believed to be of detrital origin. Two areas of anomalously high concentrations of uranium have been discovered in conglomeratic zones that are interpreted as paleochannels. Because the distribution of uranium is believed to be controlled at least in part by sedimentation, a reconnaissance study was undertaken to assess the depositional environment and sediment dispersal pattern of the Moeda Formation.

Minas Gerais↗
USGS1974

Geology and mineralogy of phosphate rock in the Bambui group near Cedro do Abaete and vicinity, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Discontinuous lenticular masses of phosphate rock are present near or at the contact between the green mudstone and the underlying red and yellow clay-stone units of the Serra da Saudade Member of the Rio Paraopeba Formation of the Bambui Group of late Precambrian to early Paleozoic age. The lenses are as much as 8 meters thick and 400 meters long. The phosphate rock is folded and faulted and is overlain by flat-lying rocks of Cretaceous age. The phosphate mineral is a carbonate fluorapatite, but only a small amount of C0 2 substitutes for PO 4 . Crystalline apatite in veinlets is clearly younger than the groundmass apatite, and contains almost no C0 2 . Surficial parts of the phosphate lenses have been altered to a rock characterized by aluminum phosphate. Samples of the green mudstone contain muscovite-illite, quartz, and what is believed to be glauconite. Samples collected adjacent to the phosphate lenses also contain veinlets of apatite or wavellite. Chemical analyses of the phosphate rock show that it contains from 16 to 35 percent P 2 0 5 , and all samples are deficient in Ca0 relative to P 2 0 5 , indicating that some of the phosphate in all samples is combined with alumina. The samples contain as much as 8 percent K 2 0 in the minerals muscovite-illite or glauconite. All the samples collected are extremely fine grained. The rocks are laminated and show the effects of slight deformation; for example, crumpled bedding, offset veinlets, and slight development of muscovite along bedding planes. The phosphate probably is not economically important on the world market, but possibly could be used locally for direct application depending on agricultural lands.

Minas Gerais↗
USGS1969

Physiographic, stratigraphic, and structural development of the Quadrilatero Ferrifero, Minas Gerais, Brazil

The Quadrilatero Ferrifero is an area of some 7,000 square kilometers in central Minas Gerais, Brazil centered about lat. 20°15' S, long. 43°30' W. For 250 years the region has poured forth a variety of mineral riches, now totaling more than $2 billion, and future production will undoubtedly be even greater. The main products are iron ore, manganese ore, and gold. To assist this development, the Braziliam and American Governments in 1946 jointly undertook the first detailed geologic study of the region: this report is a synthesis of the results of work and mapping by 17 Brazilian and American geologists under this program; other reports discussing the economic geology, the metamorphic geology, and the igneous geology of the region as a whole are being prepared.

Minas Gerais↗
USGS1965

Nature and origin of the high-grade hematite ores of Minas Gerais, Brazil

The high - grade hematite deposits of Minas Gerais , Brazil , are those averaging more than 66% Fe and less than 1.5% H20+. They occur in the Caue Itabirite, a metamorphosed oxide-facies iron formation of Pre-cambrian age. This formation was intricately folded during an orogeny that metamorphosed pelitic rocks to the greenschist and almandine-amphi-bole fades, accompanied by the formation of granitic rocks. The folding produced much plastic rock flowage toward the axes of many folds, thickness of the itabirite ranging from a few to more than 1,400 m. Of 40 ore bodies on which enough information for judgments is available, 11 probably contain more than 100 million tons, 22 between 10 and 100 million tons, and 7 less than 10 million tons. At least two are thought to be larger than 400 million tons. The great majority of these ore bodies are associated with folded structures in the host itabirite, a few are associated with preore thrust faults, and some with abrupt steepening of regional linear structure. Most of the ore occurs in the lower, more siliceous two-thirds of the itabirite; some occurs in the upper third, which is locally dolomitic. Some of the ore is foliated, some unfoliated; the unfoliated cuts the foliated and heals ore breccias. The ore mineral is dominantly hematite . Ore was formed during the metamorphic cycle, after the folding. It is localized in relatively low-pressure, hence higher permeability, parts of folds. Ore replaced pre-existing itabirite, preserving structures. Regional metamorphism indicates that the metasomatizing fluids were at high temperature and under high confining pressure. Increasing solubility of quartz with gradually rising temperature caused metasomatic replacement of quartz by hematite picked up from iron formation by throughpassing fluids during the rising temperature cycle of metamorphism. Source of fluids is thought to have been first the metasedimentary rocks, then granitic gneiss and intrusive granite; the source of heat to have been the metasomatizing fluids and intrusive granite. The unfoliated iron ore healing brecciated foliated ore was deposited during the waning metamorphic cycle. Gold ore with associated tourmaline and cassiterite is found in porous but not massive iron ore . The abundant soft high - grade hematite ore formed from the more porous parts of the hard ore bodies, where metasomatism had not been complete, by supergene leaching of very minor quantities of hematite from crystal boundaries.

Minas Gerais↗
USGS1964

Supergene iron ores of minas Gerais, Brazil

The iron ores of Minas Gerais , Brazil , fall into two categories: (1) hypogene hematite ore averaging 66 percent or more Fe, and (2) lower-grade supergene ores . Most ore now extracted is high-grade hypogene ore ; lower-grade supergene ores will be of much future value. All supergene ores formed by weathering of itabirite, a metamorphosed oxide-facies iron formation averaging about 38 percent Fe and 44 percent Si02. The Caue Itabirite crops out for about 540 linear kilometers in central Minas Gerais . Supergene ores fall into three intergradational categories: (1) enriched itabirite, averaging 49 percent Fe, easily con-centratable, with reserves about 25,000 million tons; (2) intermediate grade ores , averaging perhaps 63 percent Fe, with indicated and inferred reserves more than 600 million tons; and (3) canga, averaging between 57 and 62 percent Fe, with reserves in the hundreds of millions of tons. Disaggregation of hard and brittle itabirite by solution primarily of quartz and secondarily of other soluble constituents causes residual enrichment in iron with minor hydration of hematite. As weathering continues, most of the quartz is removed and more of the hematite is hydrated, producing intermediate grade ore . Secondary enrichment by limonite is important. The final weathering product is canga. In canga, almost all the iron is hydrated, and the rock is still further impoverished in Si02 and residually enriched in A1203 and P. Canga also forms by cementation of iron -rich detritus by limonite. Four factors control the supergene ore -forming process: (1) physiography, for ores occur on ridges and plateaus; (2) climate, for seasonal rainfall is apparently needed for the formation of extensive canga blankets; (3) grain size of the original itabirite, for quartz with a grain size much greater than 0.1 millimeter is not readily soluble; and (4) composition of the iron formation. The chemically inert and physically resistant canga blanket is essential to supergene ore formation because soft weathering products would otherwise be removed as fast as formed. Thus, canga gives time for the formation of other ore types. Iron fixed as cementing limonite in canga and as enriching limonite in intermediate grade ore was derived by leaching and hydration of hematite from itabirite. It probably moved in the ferrous state and was precipitated as insoluble hydrous ferric oxide primarily by oxygenation of the solutions, to a lesser extent by their evaporation at or near the surface, and to a still smaller degree by pH changes. The data show that the high-grade hematite ore , 66 percent Fe or higher, cannot have formed directly by supergene action. Geochemical processes resulting in supergene concentration of iron also concentrated alumina and phosphorus. The high-grade ore contains about the same low percentages of these materials as unweathered itabirite.

Minas Gerais↗
USGS1959

Composition of monazites from pegmatites in eastern Minas Gerais, Brazil

Two zoned pegmatites in south-eastern Minas Gerais were sampled in detail for their content of monazite and xenotime and the monazite was analysed for certain of the rare-earth elements and thorium. The ratio of xenotime to monazite increases in both pegmatites from the wall toward the quartz core. The content of the less basic rare-earth elements and of thorium in monazite rises in the same direction. These variation trends suggest that during the crystallization of these pegmatites there was a fractionation of the elements leading to a more or less steady enrichment of the less basic rare-earth elements and of thorium in the residual fluids. One mode of explaining these observed effects postulates that the rare-earth elements and thorium were present in pegmatitic fluids as co-ordination complexes rather than as simple cations.

Minas Gerais↗