The MCSA Mining Complex’s active mining and development projects are within the Curaçá Valley mafic-ultramafic complex, located within the Curaçá high-grade metamorphic gneissic terrain, a part of the Salvador-Curaçá orogen, a northern extension of the Atlantic Coast Granulite Belt in the São Francisco Craton.
Given uncertainties with the most likely deposit models for the Curaçá valley copper deposits, it is quite possible that previously undocumented processes were responsible for mineralization and a new deposit model is required. This might be a variant of the magmatic sulphide or IOCG models, a hybrid model with magmatic and hydrothermal processes, or something different.
Mafic-ultramafic units occur within the charnockite and biotite gneisses as lenses or sills with thicknesses generally less than 50m. The mafic-ultramafic lenses are composed of hypersthenite (pyroxenite), norite, gabbro-norite, gabbro and rarely, anorthosite that are less than 1m thick. Extensive pyroxenite has been described within the mafic-ultramafic lenses at the Caraíba Mine and the Vermelhos UG Mine, whereas to date pyroxenite reportedly occurs as a minor part of the mafic-ultramafic lenses at the R22W Mine, Surubim OP Mine and the Angicos Mine. Biotite schist and amphibolite occur in shear zones, in contact with granite, or as isolated lenses within gneiss.
Known copper deposits are hosted within the Rio Curaçá and Tanque Novo sequences, differentiated by metamo ........
