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Predictive Mapping of Prospectivity in the Gurupi Orogenic Gold Belt, North–Northeast Brazil: An Example of District-Scale Mineral System Approach to Exploration Targeting

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Abstract

The Gurupi Belt hosts a Paleoproterozoic gold province located in north–northeastern Brazil, at the borders of Pará and Maranhão states. It is considered to be an extension of the prolific West African Craton’s Birimian gold province into South America. Additionally, the belt has been the object of recent mineral exploration programs with significant resource discoveries. This study presents the results of predictive mapping using up-to-date mineral system concepts and recently finished regional-scale geological mapping, stream sediment and airborne geophysical surveys conducted by the Geological Survey of Brazil. We relate gold mineralization to an initially enriched crust, metamorphism, deep fluid pathways, structurally controlled damage zones and hydrothermal alteration. Prospective targets were generated using only regional public datasets and knowledge-driven targeting technique. This work did not incorporate any known gold deposits, yet it predicted the largest known deposits and their satellite targets. Besides, high prospective targets mapped almost 40% of known primary gold occurrences within 7% of the project area. This work allowed considerable search area reduction and identification of new target areas, thus collaborating on reducing costs, time and risk of mineral exploration. Results indicate that we achieved an efficient understanding of the geological processes related to the Gurupi Belt mineral system.

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Acknowledgements

This work was submitted and published with the permission of the Chief Person of the Mineral Resources Department of the Geological Survey of Brazil. We thank Raphael T. Correa for assisting the generation of the magnetic source profiles. LDC thanks Marco Tulio N. de Carvalho, advisor to the board of Geology and Mineral Resources, for his continued support and discussions on exploration targeting. ELK acknowledges CNPq-Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico for Research Grant (307443/2013-2).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Economic Geology Division, CPRM-Geological Survey of Brazil, Setor Bancário Norte, Quadra 2, Bloco H, 1º Andar, Brasília, DF, CEP 70040-904, Brazil

    Leandro Duarte Campos, Diogo Alves de Sordi & Evandro Luiz Klein

  2. Economic Geology Division, CPRM-Geological Survey of Brazil, Av. Dr. Freitas, 3645, Belém, PA, Brazil

    Sulsiene Machado de Souza & Elem Cristina dos Santos Lopes

  3. Economic Geology Division, CPRM-Geological Survey of Brazil, Avenida Pasteur, 404, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

    Felipe Mattos Tavares

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  1. Leandro Duarte Campos
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  2. Sulsiene Machado de Souza
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  3. Diogo Alves de Sordi
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  4. Felipe Mattos Tavares
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  5. Evandro Luiz Klein
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  6. Elem Cristina dos Santos Lopes
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Correspondence to Leandro Duarte Campos.

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Campos, L.D., de Souza, S.M., de Sordi, D.A. et al. Predictive Mapping of Prospectivity in the Gurupi Orogenic Gold Belt, North–Northeast Brazil: An Example of District-Scale Mineral System Approach to Exploration Targeting. Nat Resour Res 26, 509–534 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-016-9320-5

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