Cesar Fonseca Ferreira Filho

Instituto de Geociências, Universidade de Brasília-UnB, Campus Universitário, Asa Norte, Brasília-DF, 70910-900, Brazil

Corresponding author: e-mail, cbs@mbr.com.br

The chromite deposits of the Bacuri mafic-ultramafic layered complex consist of 8.8 Mt of ore grading 34 percent Cr2O3 and represent the second largest reserves of chromite in Brazil. The complex is a major stratiform complex overprinted by ductile deformation and associated regional amphibolite-facies metamorphism of the Transamazonian cycle (about 2.0 Ga), intrusive into gneiss-migmatite terranes of the Guyana Shield.

The Bacuri mafic-ultramafic complex consists of a lower mafic zone (>500 m thick), an ultramafic zone (30–120 m thick) and an upper mafic zone (>300 m thick). The chromitite layers are restricted to the ultramafic zone. This zone consists of interlayered serpentinite (olivine cumulate) and chromitite (chromite cumulate). Most of the chromite is concentrated in a thick chromitite layer, known as the main chromitite, located at the base of the ultramafic zone in direct contact with the underlying lower mafic zone. The thickness of the main chromitite is highly variable owing to deformation and ranges from 3 to 30 m (average of 12 m). Several thinner layers of massive chromitite are located above the main chromitite within the ultramafic zone.