U–Pb geochronology of the Lagoa Real uranium district, Brazil: Implications for the age of the uranium mineralization

The Lagoa Real uranium district in Bahia, northeastern Brazil, is the most important uranium province in the country and presently produces this metal in an open-pit mine operated by Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil. Uranium-rich zones are associated with plagioclase (dominantly albite ± oligoclase) -rich rocks, albitites and metasomatized granitic-gneisses, distributed along NNW/SSE striking shear zones. We have used the ID-TIMS U–Pb method to date zircon and titanite grains from the São Timóteo granitoid, and albite-rich rocks from the Lagoa Real district in order to assess the age of granite emplacement, deformation/metamorphism and uranium mineralization. The isotopic data support the following sequence of events (i) 1746 ± 5 Ma – emplacement of the São Timóteo granitoid (U–Pb zircon age) in an extensional setting, coeval with the beginning of the sedimentation of the Espinhaço Supergroup; (ii) 956 ± 59 Ma hydrothermal alteration of the São Timóteo granitoid and emplacement of the uranium mineralization (U–Pb titanite age on an albite-rich sample); (iii) 480 Ma metamorphism, remobilization and Pb loss (U–Pb titanite age for the gneiss sample), during the nucleation of shear zones related to the collision between the São Francisco-Congo and Amazonia paleoplates. The 956 ± 59-Ma mineralization age is apparently associated with the evolution of the Macaúbas-Santo Onofre rift. This age bracket may bear an important exploration implication, and should be included in the diverse age scenario of uranium deposits worldwide.