Abstract

FRANCO, Jose Alejandro et al. Mineralogy and U/Pb ages of rutile-(Nb,Ta) related to cassiterite, and columbite from Mesoproterozoic rocks of the Amazonian Craton near Cachicamo, Colombia. Bol. geol. [online]. 2021, vol.43, n.1, pp.99-126.  Epub Jan 01, 2021. ISSN 0120-0283.  https://doi.org/10.18273/revbol.v43n1-2021005.

In order to clarify if rutile-(Nb,Ta) mega-crystals in the Indigenous Cachicamo community (NE-Vichada-department, Colombia) are derived from rocks of the Parguaza Rapakivi Granite suite, samples were extracted from a ferruginous duricrust layer (composed of hematite, goethite, limonite, ± magnetite, ilmenite, zircon, and rock fragments) of a lateritic profile over granitoid basement rocks and analyzed together with soils and concentrates. Density and pXRF measurements of >250 rutiles revealed a strong variation from low- density (~3.4 g/cm3), nearly-pure TiO -rutiles, to rutile-(Nb,Ta) crystals (up-to 5.9 g/cm3) enriched in Nb, Ta, Fe, Mn, Sn, V and W. Metallography, SEM-EDX, XRF and XRD exhibited up-to 0.2 mm- inclusions of ~17% columbite-(Fe) and 4% cassiterite in a ~78% rutile-(Nb,Ta) matrix, where EPMA values of ~72% TiO2, 11% Nb2O5, 9% Ta2O5, 6% Fe2O3 and 1.5% SnO2 confirm, together with low W and Mn, pegmatitic-pneumatolytic conditions. ICP-MS measurements yielded enough U for encouraging LA-ICP-MS dating in the University of Rennes 1, where, using rutile standards R10 and R19, in ten rutile-(Nb,Ta) crystals, concordant U/Pb-ages of 1512±12 My were determined. These ages confirm the former assumption based on field observation that the Cachicamo rutiles-(Nb,Ta) originally crystalized within the 1500-1550 My-old Parguaza Granite in Venezuela, where secondary deposits contain similar (sub-?) economic cassiterite, rutile-(Nb,Ta), columbite-tantalite and monazite. Additionally, the analysis of different horizons containing zircon, ilmenite and magnetite, showed that rutiles-(Nb,Ta) are restricted to the duricrust horizon. Detrital zircons from the A-horizon (duricrust) revealed a similar age span of 1525 My, which is coeval with the Parguaza Batholith reported in Venezuela, whereas ages of 1415 My of zircons from the C-horizon (regolith) coincide with the local Parguaza Rapakivi Granite ages (1340-1402 My). Hence, this study supports a nonlocal source for the Cachicamo rutile-(Nb,Ta) crystals, which probably had experienced a post-exhumation transport westward over several tens of kilometres through a zone which nowadays is deepened by the Orinoco-river valley.

Keywords : Mineralogy; pXRF; Geochronology; Rutile-(Nb,Ta); Amazonian Craton; Colombia.

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