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THE Ni–Cu–PGE SULFIDE ORES OF THE KOMATIITE-HOSTED FORTALEZA DE MINAS DEPOSIT, BRAZIL: EVIDENCE OF HYDROTHERMAL REMOBILIZATION

Carolina Michelin de Almeida¹, Gema Ribeiro Olivo^,1 and Sebastião Gomes de Carvalho²

¹ Department of Geological Science and Geological Engineering, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada
² Departamento de Petrologia e Metalogenia, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Rio Claro, São Paulo, 13506-900, Brazil

E-mail address: olivo{at}geol.queensu.ca

The Fortaleza de Minas Ni–Cu–PGE sulfide deposit is hosted by Archean komatiitic rocks of the Morro do Ferro greenstone belt, near the southwestern margin of the São Francisco craton, Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The deposit contains 6 million tonnes of ore with an average grade of 2.2 wt% Ni, 0.4% Cu, 0.05% Co and 1.2 ppm PGE+Au, and comprises (i) a main orebody, which is metamorphosed, deformed and transposed along a regional shear zone, consisting mainly of disseminated, brecciated and stringer sulfide ores that are interpreted to be of early magmatic origin, and (ii) PGE-rich discordant veins that are hosted in N–S- and NE–SW-trending late faults that cross-cut the main orebody. The discordant PGE-rich ore (up to 4 ppm total PGE) is characterized by thin, discontinuous and irregular veins and lenses of massive sulfides hosted by serpentinite and talc schist, and is relatively undeformed if compared with the early types of ore. It is composed mainly of pyrrhotite, pentlandite, chalcopyrite, magnetite, carbonates, and amphiboles, with minor cobaltite–gersdorffite, sphalerite, ilmenite, and quartz, and rarely maucherite (Ni₁₁As₈), tellurides and platinum-group minerals (PGM). Omeeite, irarsite, sperrylite, and Ni-bearing merenskyite are the main PGM, followed by minor amounts of testibiopalladite and an unknown phase containing Ru, Te, and As. The PGM occur either included in, or at the margins of, sulfides, sulfarsenides, silicates and oxides, or filling fractures in pyrrhotite, pentlandite, and chalcopyrite, suggesting that they started to precipitate with these minerals and continued to precipitate after the sulfides were formed. The mantle-normalized metal distribution of the two samples of discordant veins shows distinct patterns: one richer in Ni–Pd–Ir–Rh–Ru–Os and another with higher amounts of Cu–Pt–Bi. Both are strongly depleted in Cr if compared with the metamorphosed magmatic ore of this deposit, which follows the general Kambalda-type magmatic trend. On the basis of structural, mineralogical and geochemical evidence, we propose that the PGE-rich discordant ore may have formed by remobilization of metals from the deformed, metamorphosed magmatic orebody (which shows a depleted pattern in these elements) by reduced (pyrrhotite – pentlandite – pyrite are stable), neutral to alkaline and carbonic fluids (carbonate-stable). The PGE may have been transported as bisulfide complexes, and precipitated as tellurides (mainly Pd) and arsenides (Pt, Rh, Ru, Os, Ir) in the late N–S and NE–SW-trending faults owing to a decrease in the activity of S caused by the precipitation of sulfides in the veins.

Keywords: platinum-group minerals, hydrothermal remobilization, komatiite, nickel sulfide deposit, Fortaleza de Minas, Brazil.