The Alberta II research permit is located within the Ribeiro Region to the east of the Ourense province (Galicia), in the Municipality of Avión. It shares a border with the Pontevedra province, and its boundaries are: to the north, the Beariz municipality; to the east, the Boborás and Carballeda de Avia municipalities; to the south, the Carballeda de Avia municipality and Covelo in Pontevedra; and to the west, the Fornelos de Montes and the De Lama municipalities, also in the province of Pontevedra.
The way to reach the area is down A-52, the Las Rías Baixas Highway, which leads to Benavente and Vigo, so it has great access to large populations and merchant ports. The permit can be located near the town of Carballino.
Various old mining jobs can be found at the Alberta II research permit. The works in this zone, most intense to the northern area of the permit, were carried out during the ‘40s and ‘50s, when metal prices were high. Exploitation would be done manually, mainly consisting of small galleries and trenches, where the depth matches the possible height of manual digging.
The deposits exploited in this region are mainly pegmatite and veins of mineralized quartz.
Pegmatites are frequently kaolinized, thus leading to a formation of muds where tin can be found in small concentrations, although this alteration does not reach very great depths.
There has been very little research in this area. Most of it is on the surface and has been done by independent prospectors, or people who exploited minerals manually when prices were high.
Firstly, photointerpretation works were carried out, so as to identify possible areas of interest and developing a general cartography. Then, field jobs were carried out to verify the areas of interest, taking chip samples to perform geochemical assays and develop detailed cartography.
In 2011, we conducted a geological and geotechnical exploration campaign in the Alberta II research permit, consisting of a number of diamond drill holes, digging tests pits, as well as channel sampling and chip sampling in outcrops.
Strategic Minerals Europe has carried out its mining research activities sustainably in order to evaluate the potential of the deposits.
In this sense, because of its environmental commitment and sustainable development Strategic Minerals Europe has established an environmental policy based on the responsibility to protect and rehabilitate the environment in areas where we have had mining research works, according to the following directives:
While we are carrying out the mining research works, we have a responsibility to follow and meet these environmental objectives:
The planning phases for the geological mining research and exploration campaigns, as well as the survey and sampling activities to be conducted in the campaigns, are to be planned and controlled pursuant to the environmental premises described in this section.
The study zone is located to the north of the Central-Iberian Zone of Julivert et al. (1972).
Morphologically, the area is predominantly schistose, where grey micaschists and green albite schists with staurolite and garnet crop out, and is located among three granitic bodies towards the west, northeast (Beariz granite) and southeast.
Location of the study zone in MAGNA n° 186 Puente Caldelas
The Alberta II research permit is located to the south of a pegmatite complex that is approximately 350 meters in width and over 11 km long, from NNW to SSE based on the regional schistosity, and to the east of a two-mica granite.
Mineralization is found in pegmatite dikes hosted by schists, which crop out mainly to the north of the research permit.
Geological map of the Alberta II Research Permit
The main lithologies identified are:
The pegmatite dikes are hosted by the schists, croping out between two granities as dikes and irregular bodies with variable thickness and length, and with main direction NNW-SSE, paralel to the schistosity of the hosting rock.
These pegmatites contains tin, tantalum, niobium and lithium mineralization and seem to be related to the granite located to the west of the permit.
Quartzites crop out to the east of the research permithosted by the schists. They show variable thickness and fine to medium grain size, and were formed due to contact metamorphism. They are not mineralized.
They display the same direction as the pegmatite dikes (NNW-SSE), with less thickness than the quartzites, are located to the north of the permit, and there are no indications of mineralization.
They constitute the main hosting rock throughout the permit, composed of alternating albite green schists and grey micaschists layers with staurolite and garnet.
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