Las Pavas
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| Las Pavas Mining Area | |
|---|---|
 Las Pavas area emerald mining, Quipama/Muzo, Boyaca, Colombia | |
| Location | |
| State/province | Boyaca |
| Country | Colombia |
| Regulatory authority | |
| Authority | Ejercito Colombia |
| Website | https://www.ejercito.mil.co |
| Production | |
| Commodity | EMERALDS |
| Production | Colombia produced 1.782.058 Carats in 2015 up 15% from 2014 |
| Employees | 60 |
| Year | 2016 |
The Las Pavas emerald Mine ("Las Pavas") is a Colombian emerald mining area that is neighboring Colombia's largest emerald mine, Puerto Arturo. It is located 200 km (124.27 mi) north-west of Bogota, Colombia in the western emerald belt , and about 235 km (146.02 mi) west of the Chivor which is in the eastern emerald belt.
History
Colombia holds the the worlds largest deposit Class 1 emeralds, following that are Zambia’s and Brazil’s Class 3 emeralds. The Muzo emerald deposits are situated in the western foothills of the eastern branch of the Colombian Andes and are distant about 96 km. (60 miles ±) in a direct northwesterly line from Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. They lie about 8 km. by trail west of the small village of Muzo in the Department of w:Boyaca, and embrace about eight great open cuts, closely grouped, occupying a portion of a steep walled valley, that of the Itoco, also called Quebrada del Desaguadero, an affluent of Rio Minero which empties into the northward- flowing Magdalena, the great artery of commerce for central Colombia.
The emeralds occur at other points in the mountainous region of Boyaca, not only the Muzo locality has been productive but Cosquez, La Pita, Chivor and Peñas Blancas have been highly active in modern times. The so-called Somondoco deposits and those of Coscuez are important historically and enjoy the reputation of being very rich, though locally known as minas. The total number of emerald localities in Boyaca has been stated to be 157 but this figure is probably a rough approximation. The emerald belts West and East are situated over a total of 99,000 hectares, current licenses and production are only focused on 9000 hectares. Moreover, up until the 1970’s emeralds were not known to definitely occur in South America other than in Colombia. Since the 1970’s Brazil (Class 3) has become a recognized producer of emeralds albeit of a lower quality than Colombia. It has been reported, however, in w:Colombia near Bolivar, Province of Velez, Department of Santander, and tradition points to the Manta Valley near Puerto Viejo in Peru as a source, but it seems probable that all the “Peruvian” emeralds came from the Colombian deposits.
The Muzo emerald fields are believed to potentially represent the single largest source of easily mined high quality emeralds in the world. Furthermore, working in the mines is safe, owing to the newly implemented road infrastructure, excellent conditions of the workmen’s quarters and the medical attention and sanitation enjoyed.
Geology of Las Pavas
The Colombian emerald fields are located on the eastern and western flanks of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia and account for 70-90% of annual global supply. Although there are additional sources for emeralds globally, Colombian emeralds are characterized for their superior transparency. The Eastern Cordillera is located in the northern Andean orogenic belt in the central portion of Colombia and is a fold and thrust belt that has been active since the middle Miocene, squeezed and thrust over its two foreland basins. Originally a large Mesozoic basin, the Cordillera is composed of interbedded sandstones, limestones, black shales and evaporites (Cheilletz and Giuliani, 1995). The perspective formations in the district are the Muso and Rosablanca which are lithologically similar. These formations are comprised of sequences of limestones, shales, siltstones and sandstones of variable thickness. The Rosablanca unit is significantly thicker throughout the basin and contains a greater amount of limestone interbedded with the shales.
Emeralds are typically found in calcite-dolomite veins with minor w:pyrite, w:Ankerite, w:Albite, and w:quartz. These veins are the product of an exotic w:hydrothermalfluid and w:metasomaticfluid interaction followed by deposition along structures created by the tectonic activity in the belt. The metasomic fluids appear to be derived from particular shale formations, which are likely the source of Vanadium which is the cause of the vibrant colour characteristic and could be why only formations of a certain composition are perspective target horizons for emerald mineralization. Fluids flow along faults and/or fractures and are at least partially driven by pressure from thrust propagation. Then through pressure drop fluids are able to cool and crystalize the emeralds (Pignatelli, et al. 2015). From observations of several of the mines in the area, the mineralization favours the fractures within an alteration halo around large regional faults in particular formations, like the Itaco Fault where is interacts with the Muso Formation of Las Pavas. "A flower structure that developed at the intersection of the Rio Itoco fault with a N30"E trending strike-slipfault char- acterizesthesmallLaPavadeposit(Fig.2F).[1]"
Las Pavas is an area with unique mineralization and strong untested potential. The area is currently producing emeralds of a consistent quality and size. These emeralds are produced from a unique fold-hinge style of mineralization not observed on other projects in the district, which is related to the Alto La Chapa Anticline. Existing workings access the unique mineralization on 4 different levels, demonstrating good continuity, this target remains open at depth. The untapped potential on the property is the 1.4km of strike extent of the Itaco Fault, which represents the host structural corridor for potential mineralization, hosted in the correct Muso Formation, as mined in the rest of the district.
Muzo Formation
Muzo formation (K1m - Hauterivian-Barremian age) This unit, outcropping in the sector of Las Pavas, Peñas Blancas, Coscuez, also appears in Vélez, Chiquinquirá, La Palma, is part of the flanks of La Chapa-Borbur Anticlinal, also observed in the syncline of Otanche, in the sector of Coscuez, in the region of Muzo and Calcetero, also part of the syncline of El Almendro and form The nucleus of the Pauna Anticlinal.
This unit houses most of the emerald-producing mines in the region such as the Coscuez area; Although it also has non-producing mines, so it is of great interest for exploration. The Muzo Formation is a generally calcareous sequence, however to the north of the Ibacapí Fault, it is observed to be weathered and its calcareous composition is not recognized and to the north of Pauna it has a siliceous character. In general it is composed of dark gray calcareous lodolites with lens interpositions and limestone concretions, in addition it is common to find pyrite and calcite veins. These lodolites are interspersed with sandy siltstones and quartz sandstones. Towards the middle of the segment arise lodolites and albitized limestone, somewhat calcareous, at this level appear a brecated and mineralized zone with veins of calcite and sheets of oxidized sulphides. The upper part of the segment is interspersed with layers of gray lodolites with layers of siltstones containing fauna depicted in ammonite molds. At the bottom of this unit is the La Marina mine and you can continue to the south the emerald mines of La Pita, Consorcio, Totumos, Polveros and others. The First calcareous package becomes thicker towards the south, it is as well as in the La 22 mine La Pita, has a thickness of 2 meters and in the sector of Totumos and Polveros reaches 45 meters and is made up of intercalations of limestone (micrita), loam and sandy limolites. The zone of hydrothermal breccias that is immediately above the calcareous rocks, in the Mine the Pita has a thickness of approximately 30 meters and being this one sector of the mines Totumos can reach to have 50 meters. This unit in the area of Coscuez and Muzo presents minerals of emerald, here its characteristic remains limestone in layers of calcareous limolites interspersed with calcareous lodolites. To the south of the area, this unit presents similar characteristics; Acosta and Ulloa (2001), show a stratigraphic column along the La Palma-Yacopí road, where they conclude that this unit is composed of a black terrígena micrograin (marl) with a solid appearance with black calcareous lodolite intercalations towards the In the upper part, intercalations of clayey black shale with gypsum flakes and abundant pyritic micritical concretions appear, some with ammonites (Reyes et al., 2006). [2]
Mining Licence of Las Pavas
The Las Pavas concession agreement is active and registered with the NMA (ANM) National Mining Agency of Colombia. www.cmc.gov.co:8080[3]
The title holders of Las Pavas have a 30 year exploration/exploitation license, this title granted the titleholder the exclusive right to extract the corresponding minerals and to conduct the necessary efforts to explore, exploit, process, transport and ship the relevant minerals. These titles have a 30-year term.
Mine Safety & Security
The mine Safety is critical and is implemented by the owners, operators and the National Mining Agency. All employees and visitors are obligated to wear safety helmets and steal toed rubber boots on site. There is a visitors area to check in with security and they will make sure you have your safety equipment and if not, it will be provided for visitors.
The mining region, despite its poor reputation is actually safe and community orientated, the violence is now a faint memory of the past. Security in the mine is a colaboration between company private security, National Police of Colombia and the Ejército Nacional de Colombia. This presence provides for a very secure work place and community support, where by the Police and Military often participate in community social projects ranging from building homes, aqueducts and road maintenance.
References
http://repositorio.uis.edu.co/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1261/2/124138.pdf, Yannick Branquet, Bernard Laumonier, Alain Cheilletz, Gasto Giuliani - http://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/pleins_textes_7/b_fdi_51-52/010019064.pdf, Colombian Mining Agency - https://anm.gov.co, Mining Ministry of Colombia - https://www.minminas.gov.co/,
- ^ Branquet, Yannick (1999). "Emeralds in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia: Two tectonic settings for one mineralization". 27: 597–600.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ TIPOLOGÍA Y CONDICIONES DE FORMACIÓN DE LAS MANIFESTACIONES HIDROTERMALES DEL SECTOR ESMERALDIFERO “PEÑA COSCUEZ” (MUNICIPIO SAN PABLO DE BORBUR, BOYACA), LAURA MILENA ORTEGA MEDINA Proyecto de grado presentado como requisito para optar el título de Geóloga Director: Ph. D. LUIS CARLOS MANTILLA FIGUEROA, Codirector: M. Sc. OSCAR MAURICIO CASTELLANOS ALARCÓN, pp. 22
- ^ National Mining Agency mining title and solicitation website repository - www.cmc.gov.co:8080
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