COMENTARIOS SOBRE EL aSUNTO DE La WOLLASTONITA El asunto ha sido comentado en ocasiones anteriores, Se ha revisado toda la informacién disponible. El Consejo efectué una breve investigacién de los yaci-- mientos de Wollastonita de Guanajuatito-La Blanca, Zacatecas, - con resultados halagadores. Esto fue confirmado por el Ing. So- lis Vorrath, En el Oficio 154-620 de la Direcci6n Gyneral se da una - opinién al Lic. Gilberto Loyo, que en concreto propone conseguir con la Iniciativa Privada, ei financiamiento solicitado. 1, - El comercio de la Wollastonita en México esté muy - competido; los consumidores reciben tinicamente el mineral de pri mera. - Tal vex México tiene los yacimientos mds importantes- dei mundo, 3, Los yacimientos de Wollastonita conocidos en: Rio Gran de y/o Concepcién del Oro y La Blanca, Zacatecas; Buena Vista de - Cuellar, Guerrero, y Santa Fe, Chiapas, muestran que el mineral - es muy abundante -de varios millones de toneladas- y de calidad -- variable y mediante pepenado se obtiene material de gran pureza. 4.- Las inversiones deben dirigirse a producir mineral tra tado de primera calidad para ser {4cilmente exportado al mercado in ternacional, sobre todo al sur de los Estados Unidos. 5. - Revisar el impuesto de exportacién, pues se tiene enten dido que hay confusién sobre este mineral (se cree que en la exporta ciéa de Sollastonita se contrabandea algGn mineral de valor como -- el 6palo), por lo que el impuesto de exportacién parece ser del or-- SIGMA-CRM Tt [330160den de varios miles de pesos por tonelada. 6.- Por comunicacién verbal se sabe que en el Estado de Zacatecas existen por lo menos 3 sonas productoras, dos en la ~- Blanca (una la de la Sra. Judith Fernandes Fuentes de Martines del Amo) y una en Concepci6n del Oro y/o Rio Grande. 7. > Parece que los yacimientos de Chiapas estén en, 0 ya- fueron explorados. 8.~ En Guadalupe existe una planta (molinos con capacidad- de 3 000 toneladas mensuales, para moler Wollastonita, talco, Fluo- rita y Barita, Los yacimientos de donde se obtiene el mineral (inclu yendo a los de la Sra. Martinez del Amo), dsi-como:la planta, estén- controlados por una compafifa subsidiaria de las grandes empresas - consumidoras de Wollastonita en la Republica Mexicana, y que tienen sus f4bricas de articulos cerdmicos en México y en Monterrey. 9. Una parte de la produccién de Wollastonita debe estar d tinada a que el mineral sea procesado y exportado pues el mercado na cional est pricticamente saturado. 10, - El negocio de la Wollastonita debe ser autofinanciable. 11. - Como el problema o asunto no es de primordial impor- tancia nacional, entonces el Gobierno no tendr& mucho interés en finan ¢iar lo solicitado por la Sra, Mattines del Amo, pero sf se estima que debe ayudérsele para que la Mciativa Privada ya sea mexicana 0 ex--- tranjera, realice el financiamiento. 12. Se sugiere realizar un estudio breve y rapido sobre el -- mercado de la Wollastonita tanto nacional como extranjero, asf como =promover que la Wollastonita sea procesada para que no se des- perdicie el mineral que tiene granate como impureza. 13, - Finalmente se aclara que todos los datos expuestos son producto de platicas con distintas personas, por lo que no se tienen cifras ni datos fidedignos, México, D, F., a 11 de marzo de 1967 Ing. Rubén Pesquera Veléaquez Gerente de Exploracién RPV/mrc.4A SOUR nollastonite Until sbout the mid-'fiftios, the working of doz was solely for ornamental purposes, The increasing demand for wollastonite at that time, particularly for the manufacture of mineral wool and for the making of ceramics, led to the exploitation of industrial grades of the mineral jn 196, Sinve then, the quarrying of industrial wollastonite has yeen intensively followed, and the working of ornamental wollastonite-rock continues, Large and small deposits of wollastonite in many localities are being worked, but full details of all of these are not available, The various deposits are listed below, The lurgest is that in the La Blanca district of Zacatecas State; intensive working by several companies was yielding in 1963 some 5,000 tons 2 year of the best quality mineral, The chief source of ornamental wollastonite rock is that at Kalostoc, liorelos State, Apart from the above figure of output, no production statistics for Mexico are available, neither arc there any export figures, However, the very pure type of uollastonite now being produced, the construction of a grinding plant, and the current demand in the United States ang 2 rope, present encouraging prospects for exporting the mineral, bout 30 miles east of Zacatecas Zacatecas: The La Blanca district lies City towards the border between the States of Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi, This looulity is in the centre of the country and about equidi- stant from each coast, Any exports to surope would be from the port of Tampico, Although not all the deposits have been fully explored, there are two main ones, known respectively as Tuticite and Jujucite, hese ocour close to the village of 31 Saucillo (1st. 22°45'N; long, 102°05'W), The hole area of mineralisation lies in the Guanajuatillo zone, Keserves are estinated at 50 million tons according to the producing company, follastonita De Mexico. Black inpure caleite-rict. rs containing narrow white bands, pro- bably of pure calcite, have been intruded by quartz-monzonite, The caleite-rich rocks dip 45° to 63° to the east ani strike north-south, /Metemorphism ..veMetanorphism of these rocks by “he quartz-monzonite has resulted in the formation of wollastonitic rocks along the reaction sone, “he form of the original irregular and relatively narrow calcite layers, 18 in, or so thick, has been preserved in the formation of the wollastonite, so that the nooks containing this minoral dip conformably with the unmetanorphosed calcite rocks, The wollastonite zones lie in bands parallel to the contact with the quartz-nonaonite, The intrusive rock forms the valley floor to the wost und the outcrop of the wollastonite-caleite assemblage, being feirly steeply dipping, forms low hillocks, The wollastonite layers are intorstratitied or intercalated vith calcite, garnet und possibly diopside. The whole belt is some 20 ft. thick and about one mile long. Innediately against the contact, that is at the base of the metunorpho sed rocks, the wollastonite is impure, but just avay fron it there is » band sone 8 ft, thick of pure wollastonite, This is followed by unaltered caloite rocks, Caleareous tufa and rhyolite partially cover the outerop, and below dt Occurs detrital material made up of rounded fragments of the wollastonitie Tocks locally cemented together to form a conglomerate, The wollastonite in its purest form is clear and very white; crystals of Ae ere either acicular or occur as radial laminse, Its analysis is (company source}: 51,6 per cent, Si0,, 46,2 per cent, Cad, balance A1,0. 3 and Cac0,. Less pure material is abundant, and this form is dark erey with garnet crystals, Thin garnet layers also occur together with other minorals, Most of the bands of wollastonite, whether pure or not, are sbout 8 ft, thick, 30 ft. deep and nowrly 500 ft, long, Mining 1s part opencast and part underground and follows the outcrop (see p. for method); there is no development in advance of the working ror investigation of reserves apart from trial drillings to indicate the Gdrection of future operations, The largest pit is about 500 ft, long, 39 Tt. deep and about 22 ft, wide. Production so far has been sone 5,000 tons 4 year of best quality crude materiel, 8 goes by truck to the railway at Berriozabal ox the aain line from Mexico City to Ciudad Juarez, on the United States border ceross the Rio Grande from Bi Pasc, New KoxLoo, /if the...If the wollastoni 2 tho impure bands could be separcted fro the ‘accompanying minersls, a considerable tonnage cculd tz produced and garnet might also be obtained as a marketable by-product, This may be possible with @ small plant which was being constructed in 1964-65 at Guadalupe (Lat, 22°.7!N; long. 102°30'W ), just south-east of the tom of Zacatecas, for tho grinding and beneficiation of the wollastonite, This will also treat stocks of impure wollastonite conteining a small anount of an extremely hard red garnet, which it is hoped to market as an abrasive, The wollastonite will be produced in the -200 and -325 mesh grades for the ceramic, paint and plastics industries, The rate of production of this plant will be about 100 tons a day; the pos~ ° s sibility of a second plant has been mentioned with a capacity three times greater, or sbout 10,000 tons a month, ikport of the crude material soems not to be advised in its unprotected state, as its great whiteness is subject to staining, The ground material would be bageed and hence suitably protected for export, Prices are mentioned on p, , f.0.b. Berriozabal station and mining on Recently boreholes were put down on behalf of Cabot Corporation in the Guanajuatillo area, Manolote concession, in Zacatecas State, In the first pure wollastonite vas found but subsequent boreholes showod limestone in addition and no developnent took place, In the north-east of the State, wollestonite is described as the character- istic component of Jurassic and Cretaceous linestones, metanorphosed by intru- sive and other igneous reeks, at the Aranzazti group of copper mines near Concepeién del Oro, Copper was worked, partioularly in the first 25 to 30 years of this century, by the Mazapil Copper Company Linited of Manchoster and the matte sent to Swansea but the wollastonite was not considered as of economic interest at that time, It is locally abundant, however, especially along the margins of veins bearing copper minerals and garnet, and is accompa- nied by calcite ani quartz, o altoraticn of the voliastonite has taken place with the formation of chloropal (nontronite), an iron silicate; this change vas caused by reaction with the acid solution of iron sulphate formed by decomposition of chalcopyrite in the veins,‘Morelos: Ornamental wollastonitic rock is produced on the Ransho Sen Juan, near Zalostoc, Sierra Tlayacac, Wollastonite, idocrase (vesuyi. site), and grossularite garnet ocour thore in a metamorphosed limestone near its cone tact wth igneous rocks, The rock containing those minerals which have about the same hardness, polishes uniformly: well and is used as an ornamon= tal stone, the pure white fibrous wollastonite contrasting with the pink garnot and yellow idocrase, Sometimes calcite also ocours, The + in. thick slabs of polished rock are particularly attractive by transmitted light. It had been estimated that over 200,000 tons of this material ocour thore, Shiapas: During the working of gold, silvor and copper in the early part of this century at the Santa Fé mine, a considerable body of wollastonite was described, The mine, owned by the Chiapas Mining Company of London, lies 35 miles east of Pichucalco in the Department of that name, in tho northwest of Chiapas State, its latitude being 17°18! N and its longitude 93°02! W, The wollastonite rock, superficially similar to a white limestone, is in the form of an elliptical, dome-shaped, mass about a quarter of 2 mile long north south und some 400 ft, from east to west, sxtonsive drilling has shown the mass to be at least 300 ft, thick and to contain over 2 million ouyd, of wollastonitio material of nearly uniform composition, The wollastonite shows 4 parallel criontation over many feet with two well-developed cleavages at right angles to each other, The wollastonite unconforuebly overlies not only igneous rocks, including syenites, mica-dicbaso and felsite porphyry, but also sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, including slates, shales and sandstones, These latter rocks are also unconfornsble with the ignoous rocks, The countyy rock is syonitic granite, Gold-silver-coppor-load minoralisation has taken place in the igneous rocks near the interface; the ore-bodies contain bornite, cheleopyrite, galena, pyrites and other minerals, cllastonite rock was barren of iineralisation and fherefore regarded as waste mterial, It is 2 somincrystalline to highlys crystalline-marbiey~the-wollastonite being-predominantly of the pure white massive varioty though locally pink, yellow or chocolate brown where deconposod or stained «Jor theFor the most part it is free of other minerals but peripherally some quarts, caleite and andradite garnet occur; these minerals may also occur locally within the mass, No economic working of the wollastonite took place at the time of the copper mining except as far as was necessary to reach the copper, Tho area ds intractable, tho wollastonite forming steep hill slopes; difficulties inolude dense vegetation, snakes and hidden precipices, The nearest wator- way for transport is 35 miles from the mine, ‘There has been no recent geological survey of this area, but a 1960 national map issued by the Geological Survey of Mexico shows the intrusive rock as of Tertiary age (Cenozoic) and the sedimentary rocks, partly meta~ morphosed, as Oligocene, Older references describe the area as having under- gone @ volcanic upheaval, the intrusive igneous rocks from below having brought about cracking and fissuring of the white wollastonite rock which at the same time underwent mctanorphisn, Breceiated trap rocks occur beneath the wollastonite, There have been recent reports of a new investigation of the deposit with the purpose of exploiting the wollastonite. Another wollestonite mass occurs one mile away snd three other occur- renees aro known, two being in the district of Pichuealco and the third in the Contro district. Chihuahu: Gently dipping shects of wollastonite-grossularite-idocrase skarns a few yards thick extend laterally over large areas in the Naica nining district of the south-central part of this State, The wollastonite is coarsely crystalline, white or pale pink, and is manganiferous in one zone, It is usually in pods and small masses with some crystals reaching about 1 ft, The mineral may comprise about one-third of the rock, Although the area has becn worked for ores of zinc and other metals, the deposit has not apparently been considered as an economic source of wollastonite, Pusbla: Wollastonite occurs es a result of the metamorphism of limestone beads by intrusive diorite in the Sierra Magistral area of the Llanos dis- trict, in the north of the State, The area is north-west of Pochintoc and /south of ...MEXICO Mining in the wollastonite ore-deposits of the Santa Fe Mine, State of Chiapas, Mexico, #.T, McCarthy, Trans,Instn Min,Metall, jlond., 1896, Volk, pp. 169-185, Concentration and smelting, 8s applied to the treatment of low-grade gold- copper ores at Santa Fé (Mexico), H.P.Collins, Trans,Instn Min,Metall., Lond., 1902-1903, Vol.12, pp, 58-97, refs. Notes on a rock-mass, and its associated minerals, of the Sants F6 Mine, State of Chiapas, Mexico, H.F. Collins, Minor,Mag., 1903, Vol.13, No.62, pp. 356-362, figs., ref, Nontronit, gebildet durch die Einwirkung von Eisensulfatl§sung auf Wollastonit [Nontronite, formed by the action of iron sulphate solution on wollastonite] [Zacatecas State], A-Bergeat, Zbl,Miner, Geol,Paltont., 1909, No.6, pp. 161-168, refs, [In German. Cupriferous contact deposits of Concepcién del Oro, State of Zacatecas, Mexico, A, Bergeat, MingJ., 1911, Vol. 93, No. 3957, pp. 643-645. Study of 2 contact metamorphic cre-deposit, The Dolores Mine, at Matehuala, S.L.P., Mexico, J.¥, Spurr, G.H, Garrey and C.N, Fenner, Eoon.Geol, 1912, Vol.7, No.5, PP+ MiinlBh, figs., rofs, Wollastonite, osp. PP. 460=462. The copper mines of the Sierra Nagistral [Puebla State]. R.B, Brinsmade, MexsMin,J., 1913, Vol.17, No.2, pp. 394-397, figs., photos., refs. Informe general de 1a region minera comprendida en les municipalidades de Mazapil, Concepcién del Oro y San Pedro de Ocampo, del Estado de Zacatecas, J, Ibarra, sol,Min,, Méx,, 1930, Vol,29, Now, Pp. 255-278, figs., photos,, maps, tin Spanish, } Gemstones of North America [Morelos State], J, Sinkankas, 675 pp., figs.) photos., refs, (New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc,, 1959.) Wollastonite, pp. 292-293, 537. Ore genesis in the Naica district, Chihwahua, Mexico, J.G, Stone, Eoon, Geol., 1959, Vol.54, No.6, pp. 1002-1034, figs., refs,, maps, Wollastonite, esp. p. 1009, Distribution geografica y geologica de ciertas materias primas para le industria ceramica (Geographical and geologicsl distribution of certain primary materials for the ceramic industry], A.R.V. Arellano, Publ, geram., Nex., 1961, Vol.1, No.2, pp. 105-118, refs,, map, Is Queva intrusive complex end dome, northern Goahuile, Mexico. F, Daugherty, Bull.Geol-SoceAmer., 1963, Vol. 74, Now12, pp, 1429-1438, figs., photos,, refs,, maps, Retadisticas Mineras Mexicanas, Departmento de dstudios Teonicos y Boonomicos, 443 pp. (Mexico, D.F.: Consejo de Recursos Naturales no Renovables, 1963.) Wollastonite, p.23, [In Spanish, } Reconociniento geologicce prelininar de los yacimientos de wllastonita, en la zona de Guanajuatillo, mpic, de la Blanca, estado de Zacatecas[Pre- liminary geological survey of the wollastonite deposits in the - Guanajuatdllo-zone, La Blanca township, Zacateces State], 1,5, Jinénes lopez. 6 pp., refs. (Moxico, D.F.: Consejo de Recursos Naturales no Renovables, 1963.) (In Spanish, Unpublished typescript. ]south of the Apulco Rivor, Tho contact rock varies in thickness up to 220 ft,, and apart from wollastonite, contains garni*, opidote, mica, a variety of copper minerals and many others, Copper ore has been exploited, principally fron the Magistrel ond La Paz mines, but the wollastonite does not appear to be in economic quantity. San Iuis Potosi: Metamorphosed Mme-silicate rocks are abundant near the Cobriza intrusion, close to the Delores Mine, In these, fibrous wollastonite ocours in great quantity as a replacement mineral in limestone, and also in veins, sonetimes 3 ft, thick, outting across the altered limestone, Coahila: In the north-western part of this State, wollastonite occurs in skarn rooks forming part of the La Cueva intrusive complex and dome, The locality lies in tho Pico Btereo distriot on the eastern bank of the Rio Grande where this flows in a north-easterly direction opposite the Big Bend National Park, Texas, The sodic igneous rocks have been intruded into Cretaceous sediments with the formation of a variety of rocks and structures, ‘These include contact-metanorphosed limestones, composed largely of calcium silicates, and skarn rocks in which wollastonite occurs to the oxtent of about 5 per cent, This mineral consists of fibrous aggregates and is asso~ ciated with oaloite in large amount, idocrase and garnet. Qaxaca: At least five occurrences of wllastonite are known, all situated near the town of Zimatlan in the central part of the State, Hidalgo: There are two occurrences of wollastonite, both near the city of Zimapan, near the north-west border of the State, Other States: One occurrence is known in Durango (Partia), one in Guanajuato (La luz district), and one in Sonora (Hermosillo district). Hiner AL REE DURCES EMGION OVERSEAS s 64-78 GRAY'S INN ROAY LONDON, W.C.I. ZOLOCIC!