Pitinga Province is one of the main tin provinces of the Amazonian craton. The oldest unit in the studied area is the Iricoumé Group, which consists of rhyolites and rhyodacites with a ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb zircon age of 1888 ± 3 Ma. This volcanic sequence is intruded by five A-type granite plutons. The studied portion of the Europa pluton is homogeneous, and composed of a peralkaline alkali-amphibole hypersolvus granite that yielded a ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb zircon age of 1829 ± 1 Ma. The early facies of the Madeira pluton consists of a metaluminous amphibole-biotite syenogranite (rapakivi facies) with a ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb zircon age of 1824 ± 2 Ma. It is intruded by a 1822 ± 1 Ma, mildly peraluminous biotite syenogranite. The later facies of this pluton consist of a porphyritic, hypersolvus, alkali-feldspar granite and an albite granite. Field relationships and an extensive drilling survey indicate that these two facies are sheet-shaped and were emplaced almost simultaneously. The hypersolvus alkali-feldspar granite has a ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁶Pb zircon age of 1818 ± 2 Ma. Taking in account its field relationships with the albite granite, a similar age is assumed for the latter. The albite granite intrudes the biotite granite and rapakivi granite facies of the Madeira pluton, which was emplaced by shallow-level cauldron subsidence. The albite granite is sheet shaped and consists of a magmatic peralkaline cryolite-bearing core facies partially surrounded by an autometa-somatic peraluminous fluorile-bearing border facies. Both albite granite facies are strongly tin-mineralized and display anomalous contents of Nb, Rb, Zr, and REE. A massive body of cryolite and pegmatitic rocks is associated with the albite granite. The contrast in age between the Iricoume Group and the Europa + Madeira granites demonstrates that the plutons are not subvolcanic intrusions related to the extrusives. The ages of 1824 ± 2 Ma, 1822 ± 2 Ma, and 1818 ± 2 Ma obtained, respectively, for the amphibole + biotite syenogranite, biotite granite, and porphyritic hypersolvus granite of the Madeira pluton are consistent with the emplacement sequence inferred for these facies. These ages indicate that the Madeira pluton was emplaced in a relatively short time. Its facies are a little younger than the peralkaline granite of the Europa pluton, suggesting that the latter is not coeval with the Madeira peralkaline albite granite.

International audienceThe 1.818 Ga magmatic, subsolvus, Madeira albite-rich granite of the Pitinga province, exploited at the Pitinga mine, in northern Brazil, crystallized from a F-rich melt, also enriched in Sn, Rb, and HFSE. It is composed of a peralkaline, cryolite-bearing core facies and a peraluminous to metaluminous, oxidized, fluorite-bearing border facies, generated by autometasomatic processes after the crystallization of the core facies. A metaluminous to peralkaline hypersolvus granite is comagmatic with the albite-rich granite. Petrographic studies indicate that quartz was the first phase to crystallize, at ~700°C; the quartz – K-feldspar cotectic was attained at around 650°C, and the ternary feldspar solvus and onset of albite crystallization, down to the solidus, estimated at around 500°C. Massive cryolite and pegmatitic rocks found in the center of the stock were derived from the residual melt. The albite-rich granite probably originated by crystallization of a dense, F-rich, peralkaline phase derived from a peralkaline to metaluminous parental melt by immiscibility

MINERAL CHEMISTRY OF CASSITERITES FROM PITINGA PROVINCE, AMAZONIAN CRATON, BRAZIL