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PALLADIUM AND PLATINUM MINERALS FROM THE SERRA PELADA Au–Pd–Pt DEPOSIT, CARAJÁS MINERAL PROVINCE, NORTHERN BRAZIL

Alexandre Raphael Cabral^1,, Bernd Lehmann¹, Rogerio Kwitko-Ribeiro² and Carlos Henrique Cravo Costa³

¹ Institut für Mineralogie und Mineralische Rohstoffe, Technische Universität Clausthal, Adolph-Roemer-Str. 2A, D–38678 Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany
² Centro de Desenvolvimento Mineral, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, BR 262/km 296, 33030-970 Santa Luzia – MG, Brazil
³ Diretoria de Metais Nobres, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, Caixa Postal 51, Serra dos Carajás, 68516-000 Parauabepas – PA, Brazil

E-mail address: cabral{at}min.tu-clausthal.de

The Serra Pelada garimpo (1980–1984) was the site of the most spectacular gold rush in recent history, but the mineralogy of the bonanza-style mineralization has not so far been documented in detail. Rediscovery of an early drill-core, recovered in 1982 from the near-surface lateritic portion of the garimpo area, has provided coarse-grained gold aggregates for this study. The centimeter-long aggregates of gold occur in powdery, earthy material. They exhibit a delicate arborescent fabric and are coated by goethite. Four compositional types of gold are recognized: palladian gold with an atomic ratio Au:Pd of 7:1 ("Au₇Pd"), Hg-bearing palladian gold (Au–Pd–Hg), Pd-bearing gold with up to 3 wt.% Pd (Pd-poor gold) and pure gold. A number of platinum-group minerals (PGM) are included in, or attached to the surface of, palladian gold: "guanglinite", Sb-bearing "guanglinite", atheneite and isomertieite, including the noteworthy presence of Se-bearing PGM (Pd–Pt–Se, Pd–Se, Pd–Hg–Se and Pd–Bi–Se phases, and sudovikovite and palladseite). They define an As–Sb–Hg–Se mineral assemblage typical of hydrothermal vein-type deposits formed at relatively low temperatures. Native palladium, characteristically situated in the goethite coating, is intimately associated with a Pd–O phase. The remarkable occurrence of native platinum associated with Pd-bearing gold, PGM (compositionally close to mertieite-II and isomertieite) and berzelianite from a nearby prospect (Elefante prospect) is also recorded.

Keywords: palladian gold, platinum-group minerals, Pd–O phase, native palladium, native platinum, Serra Pelada garimpo, Carajás mineral province, Brazil.

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