Phosphorites of the Brazilian continental margin, southwestern Atlantic ocean

Abstract

The existence of phosphate deposits in the Brazilian continental margin is known since the 1970’s and 1980’s after the Global Recognition of the Brazilian Continental Margin Program-REMAC Project (Programa de Reconhecimento Global da Margem Continental Brasileira-Projeto REMAC) a joint program to explore the Brazilian continental margin. Phosphate deposits were collected on the seamounts offshore the northeastern Brazilian margin. In the early 2000’s, phosphate samples were taken incidentally by demersal fishing fleet in the southern Brazilian continental margin which contributed to the knowledge of these deposits in the southwestern Atlantic. This paper describes the mineralogy of the samples with scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The new phosphate deposits in the Brazilian continental margin suggests a much wider phosphate distribution than imagined in the REMAC publications, thus representing a contribution to the effort of the Brazilian Government, through the Ministry of Mines and Energy, the Geological Survey of Brazil (CPRM), the Inter-ministerial Commission for the Resources of the Sea and the Marine Geology and Geophysics Program who together undertake a Program to the Evaluation of the Mineral Potential of the Brazilian Legal Continental Shelf (REMPLAC), whose goal is to conduct a further investigation of the mineral potential of the Brazilian Territorial Sea and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).