Abstract
The Pb-Zn (Cu-Ag) Santa Maria deposit, part of the Camaquã Mines, south-center of the Rio Grande do Sul state, corresponds to one of the largest base metal deposits hosted by the Neoproterozoic volcano-sedimentary successions of the Camaquã Basin. Because of their economic importance, Camaquã Mines already were the target of a serie of studies, with the consequent proposition of diverse metalogenetic models, which point to an epithermal or magmatic-hydrothermal origin. Hydrothermal deposits have a common geochemical zoning pattern of indicator elements which can be used as an effective prospective criterion. Several geochemical hydrothermal halos are identified in this paper that can potentially serve as a useful exploration guide in the Camaquã Mines region. For that, the vertical geochemical zoning of the Santa Maria deposit was investigated through petrographic and/or geochemical study of 562 samples from his 3 ore bodies. The results obtained here are preliminary (they need to be tested in soil geochemical profiles over Santa Maria ore bodies), but indicate that the multiplicative ratios (Ag × Cd)/(Pb × Zn) and (Ag × Cd)/(Cu × Zn) and the elemental ratios Ag/Zn and Ag/Cu can be useful in the search for new Pb-Zn deposits in the Camaquã Mines.
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