In the Seridó Mobile Belt, more than 700 mineralized
granitic pegmatites occur in an approximately 15,000
km2area. These pegmatites comprise the northern part
of the Borborema Province, which is known for rareelement
mineralization including tantalite-columbite
(tantalum-niobium), beryl (beryllium), and cassiterite
(tin; Da Silva et al., 1995). Other commodities exploited
from the region since the 1940s include gold (found in
skarns together with tungsten) and quartz veins, both
occurring in the metasedimentary Seridó Formation
(Souza Neto et al., 2008).