Field-Trip-Report.Pdf

SUMMARY INTRODUCTION 3 PARTICIPANTS 5 LOCATION OF THE VISITED MINES 6 GEOLOGICAL SETTING 7 DAILY REPORT 19 August, 4th: Arrival in Salvador 19 August, 5th: Braúna Mine - Lipari Mineração Ltda. 19 August, 6th: Ipueira Mine - Ferbasa (Jacuricí Complex) 23 August, 7th: Coitezeiro Mine - Ferbasa (Campo Formoso Complex) 25 August, 8th: Caraíba Mine - Mineração Caraíba S/A 27 August, 9th: Fazenda Brasileiro Desenvolvimento Mineral (FBDM) - LeaGold Mining Corp. 31 FINANCIAL REPORT 39 ACKNOWLEDGMENT 40 REFERENCES 41 INTRODUCTION The Student Chapter of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (SEG-UFRGS) organized a field trip in 2019 to visit mining facilities in the Bahia state, northeastern Brazil. From August 4th to August 9th, the group visited five mines in the north of the state which explore primary deposits of diamond, chrome, copper and gold. The group was able to understand the magmatic deposits and get closer to the industry. Bahia is one of the Brazilian states most wanted by large mining companies due to its iron, nickel, gold and about 80 other types of mineral reserves. Being the main producer of chromium; the second in copper and the third in gold, the state also ranks as the fourth largest mineral producer in the country [1]. The state's highlight in the sector is also reflected in the workforce, being among one of the states that most opened jobs in the mining sector in 2018 [2]. The companies of the visited mines list among the six main producers companies in the state in 2017. They are in decreasing order: Mineração Caraíba S.A., Cia De Ferro Ligas Da Bahia, Fazenda Brasileiro Desenvolvimento Mineral Ltda. and Lipari Mineração Ltda. Together they contributed to more than 25% in the commercialization of the state's mineral production [3]. The group for this Field Trip was composed of 10 students of the UFRGS Student Chapter, a geologist from Vale do Rio Doce and a geologist from Águia Fosfatos. During the field trip, the group stayed in the cities of Feira de Santana, Andorinha, Jaguarari and Teofilândia as they are close to the visited mining companies. The Table 1 indicates the itinerary of the field trip. Table 1: Itinerary of the SEG UFRGS Field Trip 2019 - Bahia Magmatic Deposits. DATE ACTIVITIES Sunday, August 4th Arrival in Salvador, car rental and departure to Feira de Santana. Monday, August 5th Visit to the Braúna Mine - Lipari Mineração Ltda. Review of mining safety procedures Presentation of the mine and discussion of the metallogenetic model Visit to the drill core warehouse Visit to the open pit mine and the beneficiation plant Departure to the city of Andorinha Tuesday, August 6th Visit to Ipueira Mine - FERBASA (Jacuricí Complex) Visit to the long-term geology sector Review of mining safety procedures Presentation of the mine and discussion of the metallogenetic model Visit to the drill core warehouse Visit to the underground mine Return to Andorinha 3 Wednesday, August 7th Visit to Coitezeiro Mine - FERBASA (Campo Formoso Complex) Visit to the long-term geology planning group Review of mining safety procedures Presentation of the mine and discussion of the metallogenetic model Visit to the drill core warehouse Visit to the open pit mine Departure to the city of Jaguarari Thursday, August 8th Visit to Caraíba Mine - Mineração Caraíba S/A Review of mining safety procedures Visit to the underground mine Visit to the long-term geology sector Visit to the short-term geology sector Visit to the open pit mine Departure to the city of Teofilândia Friday, August 9th Visit to Fazenda Brasileiro Desenvolvimento Mineral (FBDM) - LeaGold Mining Corp. Review of mining safety procedures Presentation of the mine and discussion of the metallogenetic model Visit to the drill core warehouse Visit to the open pit mine Visit to the underground mine Return to Salvador Saturday, August 10th Return to Porto Alegre - Rio Grande do Sul 4 PARTICIPANTS Ten members of the SEG UFRGS Student Chapter, who are all undergraduate students of Geology, joined the field trip. They were chosen to participate for having written a motivational letter which was evaluated by the professor advisor José Carlos Frantz. Furthermore, two geologists who work in the Brazilian mineral industry were invited to join the Field Trip with the aim of putting together students and professionals, so that both groups could benefit from scientific exchange. The Table 2 indicates the participants of the Field Trip and their home institution. Table 2: List of participants of the field trip. NAME OCCUPATION INSTITUTION SEG MEMBER ID Luiz Henrique Cadaxa Undergraduate student SEG UFRGS S.C. 910016 President Natanael Cezário Undergraduate student SEG UFRGS S.C. 910017 Vice-president Alice Justi Coan Undergraduate student SEG UFRGS S.C. 913526 Secretary Nicole Padilha Undergraduate student SEG UFRGS S.C. 913371 Member Gabriel Endrizzi Undergraduate student SEG UFRGS S.C. 914851 Member Martin Ströher Undergraduate student SEG UFRGS S.C. 914848 Member Jhenifer Paim Undergraduate student SEG UFRGS S.C. 912081 Member Isadora Munari Undergraduate student SEG UFRGS S.C. 914849 Member Bénédicte Kifumbi Undergraduate student SEG UFRGS S.C. 913379 Member Maurício Guimarães Undergraduate student SEG UFRGS S.C. 914845 Member Bruno dos Santos Geologist Vale do Rio Doce - Rafael Diniz Geologist Águia Fosfatos - 5 LOCATION OF THE VISITED MINES The figure 1 shows the location of the mines visited, which were Braúna Mine (Lipari Mineração Ltda.), Fazenda Brasileiro Mine (LeaGold), Caraíba Mine (Mineração Caraíba S/A), Ipueira Mine - Jacuricí Complex (FERBASA) and Coitezeiro Mine - Campo Formoso Complex (FERBASA). The total route traveled was more than 1000 km long. Figure 1: Satellite image from Google Earth illustrating the route, main roads and mining location. 6 GEOLOGICAL SETTING São Francisco Craton The South American continent consists in Precambrian nuclei delimited by two Phanerozoic accretionary provinces: the Patagonian platform, in the west, and the Andean belt, in the south (Heilbron et al., 2017). The South American Platform (Fig. 2) is the oldest and relatively stable part of the continent constituted by the Precambrian nucleus not affected by the Andean orogenies (Schobbenhaus and Brito Neves, 2003). The shield areas of South America, known as “Brazilian shields”, are made up of two lithospheric types: cratons and Brazilian orogenic systems. According to the traditional definition, cratons are continental portions, which have maintained tectonic stability. In other words, they are pieces of the continental crust not involved in orogenic processes. Five Neoproterozoic cratons were recognized on the South American platform: the Amazon Craton, the São Luis Craton, the São Francisco Craton, the Paranapanema Craton and the Rio de la Plata Craton. These ancient cratons later formed the stable portion of the Andean Orogenesis together with the Brasiliano Orogen. Figure 2: South American tectonic subdivision delimiting the South American platform, the shields and the accretionary provinces (From Schobbenhaus and Brito Neves, 2003). 7 The San Francisco Craton (SFC) and its exposed margins in the southeastern Brazil represent the most studied portions of the Precambrian nucleus of the South American Plate. Its counterpart in the reconstructions of West Gondwana corresponds to the Central West African belt exposed in Gabon (Feybesse et al., 1998) (Fig. 3). The São Francisco Craton exhibits the shape of a horse's head, with a maximum length and width of 1100 and 900 km, respectively (Heilbron et al., 2017). The basement of the SFC includes rock units with more than 1.8 Ga (Almeida, 1977). Archean TTG gneisses, granitoids, greenstone belts, Paleoproterozoic plutons and supracrustal successions are the main lithological assemblies of the basement, exposed at its south and northeast tip (Alkmim and Martins-Neto, 2012). The cratonic cover consists of units younger than 1.8 Ga (Almeida, 1977) and occurs in three distinct morphotectonic domains within the Craton: the São Francisco basin, the Paramirim aulacogen (Alkmim and Martins-Neto, 2012), and the Recôncavo-Tucano-Jatobá Rift (Milani and Thomas-Filho, 2000) (Fig. 3c). In addition to Proterozoic sedimentary successions, the São Francisco basin also contains Phanerozoic units (Permo-Carboniferous and Cretaceous rocks) absent in the Paramirin aulacogen and in the Rio Pardo basin. The Recôncavo-Tucano-Jatobá Rift is mainly filled with sediments from the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous (Heilbron et al., 2017). Figure 3: a) Southern Brazil digital elevation model showing the topography associated with the SFC and its marginal strips. b) The San Francisco and Congo Cratons in the reconstruction of Gondwana. c) SFC limits and structures of Proterozoic covers (From Alkmim et al., 2012; 2013). 8 The limits of the Craton are drawn based on the variations in the deformation of the supracrustal rocks and the involvement of the chronic basement by the Orogenesis Brasiliana (Alkmim et al., 1993). At the southern end of the Craton, the Paleoproterozoic orogenic belt covers the region of the Quadrilátero Ferrífero mineral province and the Mineiro belt (Teixeira et al., 2015). The orogenic domain of eastern Bahia in the northeast portion of the Craton is composed of a mosaic of several archaean blocks sutured at about 2.0 Ga (Barbosa and Sabaté, 2004). The essential features of the terrains that make up the São Francisco Craton are found in Bahia, occupying the eastern part of the state surrounded by the river that gives the Craton

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