El Criollo Mine, Cerro Blanco pegmatite district, Tanti, Punilla Department, Córdoba, Argentina

Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):	31° 21' 28'' South , 64° 39' 9'' West
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):	-31.35778,-64.65250
Köppen climate type:	Cwb : Subtropical highland climate or temperate oceanic climate with dry winters

Granite pegmatite quarry about 10 km from the town of Tanti. The blue cobaltoan genthelvite from here, now widely distributed in collections, is not from the pegmatite body itself, but from a younger vein of friable specular hematite that cuts across the pegmatite body.

Main Mineralization:
Triplite (coppery brown color):
Mines El Criollo and El Gaucho, Cerro Blanco, Tanti Department. Punilla, Cordoba: The core zone, large masses or bochones of up to 5 m in diameter. The meteoric action alters it to strengite, phosphosiderite, bermanite, libethenite, dufrenite, eosphorite, and rockbridgeite.

Eosphorite (reddish-brown color):
El Criollo Mine, Cerro Blanco, Tanti Department Punilla Córdoba. With bermanite, phosphosiderite and manganese oxides as products of alteration of triplite.

Bermanite (microcrystals, brown caramel color):
In pegmatites of the Cerro Blanco, Tanti, Punilla Department, Córdoba. In thin crusts between the products of alteration of the triplite present in this locality's pegmatites. It is associated with phosphosiderite, eosphorite, and pachnolite. Also deposited directly on manganese oxides or covered partially by them.

Strengite (microcrystals, rose-purple color):
El Criollo Mine, Cerro Blanco, Department Punilla, Cordoba. Occurs in drusen material altered pegmatitic bodies, accompanied by apatite, sulphides and quartz; also in thin crusts covering cracks in triplite; less frequent as aggregates of radial-fibrous spherulites.

Phosphosiderite (microcrystals, violet color):
El Criollo Mine, Cerro Blanco, Department Punilla, Cordoba. Frequently as druses with beautiful crystals of 1 mm, well developed, very varied habits.

Torbernite, Metatorbernite:
Cerro Blanco, Tanti, Punilla Department, Cordoba. The pegmatite carries primary and secondary uranium minerals.

Mineral List

65 valid minerals. 1 (TL) - type locality of valid minerals.

Rock Types Recorded

Regional Geology

This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.

Click on geological units on the map for more information. Click here to view full-screen map on Macrostrat.org

Paleozoic - Neoproterozoic 252.17 - 1000 Ma ID: 3191425

Precambrian-Phanerozoic intrusive rocks Age: Neoproterozoic to Permian (252.17 - 1000 Ma) Lithology: Intrusive igneous rocks Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154]

Data and map coding provided by Macrostrat.org, used under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

References