Geology and Mineral Resources of the Altiplano and Cordillera Occidental, Bolivia

摘要

The bulletin contains some of the most important information about Bolivianeconomic geology that has been produced in recent years. Bolivia has long been known for the rich polymetallic vein deposits located in the Cordillera Oriental, Cerro Rico de Potosi being the best example. After hundreds of years of mining, these deposits are still productive and the Cordillera Oriental has been the most traditional domain for mineral exploration. However, their richness also limited perspectives for investigating other geological domains of the large territory. It was now possible for exploration of two large, important and almost unknown areas. In the future it is expected that the Bulletin will help investors in exploration to convert the Altiplano and the Cordillera Occidental into what the Cordillera Oriental was in the past. The area of the project covered 150,000 sq km of the Western Andean region of Bolivia, a region between 3,500 to 6,000 m in elevation. This difficult terrain includes some of the most remote areas in Bolivia. In addition to the compilation and reprocessing of existing information, the latest techniques in remote sensing, geochemistry, and geophysics were used. The already existing aeromagnetic data, that covered almost 60 percent of the area, were reprocessed and contributed funding will be used to cover areas not previously surveyed. Even though Bolivia has the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salar and lithium reserves of the world, this is the first time that they have assessed the potential of industrial minerals in the region.