Por: Jhonny Santos Torre Antay, Jesús Fuentes Palomino y Mario Carpio Ronquillo, Instituto Geológico Minero y Metalúrgico.

Abstract

In 2018 and 2019, the Industrial Rocks and Minerals Program (RMI, Programa de Rocas y Minerales Industriales) of the Directorate of Mineral and Energy Resources (DRME, Dirección de Recursos Minerales y Energéticos) of INGEMMET conducted fieldwork and subsequently published two bulletins in 2021 regarding lithium prospecting in Peru. These studies identified potential primary rare earth element occurrences associated with NYF-type pegmatite geological environments (Niobium, Yttrium, and Fluorine), linked to metaluminous, peraluminous, peralkaline, and alkaline magmas.

Some of the primary rare earth occurrences are also associated with alkaline to peralkaline stocks and batholiths, which occur mainly along the Eastern Cordillera and were genetically related to extensional tectonic settings (aborted rifts) during the Permian and Triassic periods.

In southern Peru, based on current results, rare earth potential ranges from moderate to very high in NYF-type pegmatites, mainly associated with favorable geological environments located in the Coastal Cordillera and Eastern Cordillera (Carpio et al., 2021; Link: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12544/3075).

Meanwhile, in central and northern Peru, the potential is considered low (B) to very low (MB), associated with NYF pegmatites located in the Eastern Cordillera, Cordillera Blanca, and Cerro Los Amotapes (Carpio et al., 2021; Link: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12544/3542).

To identify new rare earth prospecting discoveries in Peru, according to the geological environments hosting anomalous rare earth values derived from NYF-type and mixed pegmatites (LCT and NYF), several indicators were considered, including geochemical characterization (major elements, minor elements, and trace elements), mineralogy, and petrography (Sipina Pegmatites case study, Atico-Camaná), as well as tectonic-structural interpretation and the characterization of lithology, alterations, mineralization, and associated pathfinder elements.