Lavra Berilo Branco: The original "Sapucaia" rose quartz occurrence, Minas Gerais, Brazil

In 1959-1960 a spectacular pocket of large rose quartz crystal clusters was discovered at a small, obscure Brazilian pegmatite. Excepting a few small, pale crystals from Maine, this find was the first known occurrence of well-crystallized rose quartz.

INTRODUCTION

Crystallized rose quartz from Brazil is known today from a number of famous localities, including the Lavra da Ilha (Cassedanne and Cassedanne, 1973), the nearby Lavra do Ademar (Cassedanne and Cassedanne, 1980), and Alto da Pitora (Cassedanne and Alves, 1990).* The first such occurrence, however, was discovered at a small prospect called Lavra Berilo Branco ("White Beryl mine"), but known to the world as the "Sapucaia mine," probably because of its close proximity to the small town of Sapucaia do Norte. This choice of a popular name was unfortunate, because another mine just a few kilometers to the south had been given the name "Sapucaia" during the 1940's and was already famous as a source of rare phosphates (Cassedanne and Baptista, this issue). Consequently the two localities became confused, and would have remained so had it not been for the good memory of Mr. Constantino Vasconcelos, a long-time Brazilian mineral dealer who was active in the 1950's-1960's, and who communicated his knowledge for inclusion in this article.

LOCATION

Lavra Berilo Branco, the "Sapucaia" rose quartz mine, is located approximately 8 km south of the town of Divino das Laranjeiras and about 3 km east-southeast of the town of Sapucaia do Norte (at map coordinates 7914N x 238E). The Sapucaia phosphate/mica mine is located about 5 km farther south (coordinates 7910N x 239E), and the Pitora rose quartz occurrence is another 10 km south from there (at 7900N x 240E). Access is via a dirt road proceeding eastward from Sapucaia do Norte, past the fazenda (farm) Bela Vista and on down to the Rio Laranjeiras, just north of the retiro da fazenda Laranjeiras.

GEOLOGY

The Berilo Branco pegmatite is situated within the Lower Precambrian Paraiba Group. The intrusion of a granitic batholith into the Sao Tome mica schist complex about 600 m.y. ago was accompanied in its late phase by the emplacement of dozens of pegmatite veins in the Conselheiro Pena area.

Unfortunately the Berilo Branco pegmatite has never been mapped, and the extent of its working is currently unknown. For more information on the general area see Pecora et al. (1950).

The Berilo Branco pegmatite is identical to many others in the area; it is a granitic pegmatite with replacement zones, containing the usual quartz, K-feldspar, muscovite and albite with accessory white beryl (prismatic to flattened) gem-grade tourmaline and rose quartz (Dilermando Rodrigues, personal communication, 1999).

In the immediate area surrounding the Berilo Branco pegmatite are several other noteworthy occurrences including the Frente Boca de Fogo mine (fine beryl), the Boca Rica mine (good rockbridgeite and hureaulite crystals) and the Fazenda Campo Alegre (where 3 tons of large heliodor crystals up to 80 kg each were found).

HISTORY

The Conselheiro Pena area was known to contain at least 66 mica-producing pegmatites as of 1950 (Pecora et al., 1950). The Sapucaia and the Berilo Branco were among these, though the latter was considered minor. The Sapucaia phosphate mine, also called the Sapucaia Velha ("Old Sapucaia"), and the Sapucaia do Norte ("North Sapucaia," after the nearby town), is actually several kilometers farther from the town of Sapucaia do Norte than the Berilo Branco. (Edgar Miranda, a former owner of the Sapucaia mine, confirms that no crystallized rose quartz has ever been found there.)

The owner of the Berilo Branco property in 1959 was Sebastiao Ferreira (also known as "Sebastian do Odete"); he was working it for mica and other minerals. In early 1959 his miners on the site (Fio Ferreiro, Jose Gama, Joao Eduardo, Paulinho Maritaca, a man named Nasario, and several others) began to encounter small pockets containing small crystals and clusters of rose quartz. Specimens soon reached the dealers in Govemador Valadares and Teofilo Otoni, the commercial distribution points for minerals in that part of Minas Gerais.

The specimens were such a surprise that rumors immediately sprang up suggesting that (a) the crystals were actually man-made, or (b) the crystals were natural but the color was fugitive and would fade with exposure to sunlight (Bancroft, 1973). These speculations were ultimately disproven, as more specimens came to light in the following months.

Pockets of smoky quartz appeared first, and as the pockets grew larger, so did the crystals. Small clusters of very pale pink quartz went almost unnoticed at first. Next a zone of large muscovite sheets and stocky quartz prisms was uncovered, behind which the main rose quartz pocket was found. The vug measured 10 to 16 cm across and perhaps 32 cm (about a foot) tall, but it extended for more than 5 meters (over 16 feet!). The rose quartz in this pocket was deeply colored, in wonderful sprays, fans and rings overgrown on large, blocky crystals of pale smoky quartz (Bancroft, 1984). Of the several rose quartz occurrences now known in Brazil, the "Sapucaia" (Berilo Branco) specimens ultimately proved to be the finest in color, luster and aesthetics.