The Development of the Amazon
1958 Volume 8 Issue 28 Pages 89-100
Details
1958 Volume 8 Issue 28 Pages 89-100
During 1955-57, the writer was engaged in a geologic survey of the Amazon Basin, Brazil under the Technical Assistance Program of UNESCO. He was one of 16 members of the FAO-UNESCO Amazon Mission of UN at Belém, Parà. This group helped the SPVEA (Superintendencia do Plano de Valorização Economica da Amazonia) of the Brazilian Government in their economic planning for the development of the Amazon Basin.
Various organizations now engaged in the investigation of mineral resources are as follows:
Organizations:
Federal government:
SPVEA
DNPM (Departamento National da Produção Mineral)
FAO-UNESCO Amazon Mission (UN)
Petróbras (Brazil)
Drill-Ex (USA)
Geophysical Service Inc. (USA)
Schlumberger Co. (USA)
Prakla (W. Germany)
Prospec S/A (Brazil)
Cruzeiro do Sul (Brazil)
Bethlehem Steel Corp. (USA)
Kaiser Aluminum Co. (USA)
Hanna Mining Co. (USA)
Activities:
Aerophotogrammetry, Mineral resources in general Ditto (Araguaia Project)
Mineral resources in general, tropical soils
Drilling for oil
Seismic prospecting
Electrical coring
Seismic prospecting
Aerophotogrammetry, physical prospecting with airborne magnetometer and scintillometer Ditto
Operation of manganese mines
Search for bauxite deposits
Prospecting of iron ore deposits
Mineral deposits of importance which are known in the Amazon are as follows:
Manganese
Iron ore (hematite)
Iron ore (limonite)
Oil
Rock salt & anhydrite
Aluminum phosphate
Bauxite
Rock crystal
Diamond
Tantalite-Columbite
Gold
Residual deposits in pre-Cambrian metamorphic rocks
Iron formation in pre-Cambrian metamorphic rocks
Laterite on diabase
Reservoir in a bed of Mississippian sandstone
Beds in Pennsylvanian series
Phosphatized bauxite
Lateritic bauxite on pre-Cambrian metamorphic and basic igneous rocks
Pegmatites in pre-Cambrian metamorphic rocks
Placer deposits
Geological mapping in the Amazon has been underway since the beginning of this Century so the area is not entirely terra incognita. It is true, however, that the Amazon is still a frontier with vast expanses of virgin forest in interfluves which have never been traversed by geologists or prospectors. Since World War II, the investigations of mineral resources have been conducted by the most modernized field parties equipped with aerial and sub-surface instruments. The Amazon is changing very rapidly.
