Copper sulfide + Au ore deposits are common in the Carajás Mineral Province and systematically occur in Archean metavolcano-sedimentary sequences associated or not with granitoid intrusions. Two of these deposits, Igarapé Bahia and Gameleira, have been chosen for a geochronological and isotopic study with the purpose of not only determining their ages, origin and relationships with the host rocks, but also the formation and evolution of the crustal segments within which both deposits are located. The Igarapé Bahia Group hosts the Igarapé Bahia deposit and is composed of mafic metavolcanic (MVR), metapyroclastic (MPR) and meta sedimentary rocks (MSR), besides banded iron-formations and hydrothermally altered breccias zone (HBZ). The whole rock pile is crosscut by mafic dikes (MIR). The Cu-Au ore forms disseminations to massive bodies, mostly occurring in the HBZ which marks the contacts between the MVR and the MSR/MPR rock units. Petrographic and geochemical data about the MVR (basaltic meta-andesites), MPR (laminated and lapilli metatuffs) and MIR (quartz diorites) show them all to be derived from mafic magmas of tholeiitic affiliation, in spite of the alteration evidence. These rocks also show geochemical similarities (major and trace elements, including REE) with the coeval Grão Pará Group volcanic rocks. Chloritization (dominant), carbonation, sulfidation and magnetitization are the most important types of hydrothermal alteration. The ore is chiefly composed of chalcopyrite with variable amounts of pyrite, bornite and chalcocite. Chrorite, magnetite, siderite are abundant as gangue minerals, whereas tourmaline, molybdenite, fluorite and biotite are subordinate. Pb-Pb dating on zircon yield crystallization ages of 2745±1 Ma and 2747±1 Ma for the MVR and MPR, respectively. Similar whole-rock ages were obtained for the MVR (Pb-Pb / 2776±12 Ma and Sm-Nd / 2758±75 Ma) and the MPR (Pb-Pb / 2758±36 Ma). A Pb-Pb age of 2764±22 Ma for the chalcopyrite and gold suggests the mineralization to be contemporaneous with the host Igarapé Bahia Group. Similar Pb-Pb ages are recorded on chalcopyrite from the HBZ (2772±46 Ma), MVR (2756±24 Ma), MPR (2754±36 Ma) and MIR (2777±22 Ma), and in gold from the MVR (2778 Ma). All these geochronological data support a syngenetic to late syngenetic origin of the Igarapé Bahia Cu-sulfide + Au ores. Pb-Pb ages of 2385±122 and 2417±120 Ma obtained by leaching of the BHZ chalcopyrite may indicate a period of remobilization probably related to tectonic reactivations of the Carajás-Cinzento Strike-Slip System. δS18 values of +0.1 to +4.2%0 in ZBH sulfides (mostly chalcopyrite) corroborate both the involvement of magmatic hydrothermal fluids and exhalative deposition, whereas δC13PDB values of -7.28 to -15.78‰ in ZBH siderite suggest the mantle as a likely source for the homogeneous CO2- rich fluids responsible for the carbonate precipitation (carbonatic source) although, if it does not have evidences of the existence of this type of rock in the Carajás region. In turn, δO18PDB values of -15.51 to -20.96%0 in the same siderite indicate some contribution of meteoric waters to the fluids that altered the breccias. The Gameleira ore deposit is hosted by the Archean Igarapé Pojuca Group which consists of mafic metavolcanic rocks (MVR), amphibolites, schists, banded iron-formations and hydrothermalites. Neoarchaean mafic intrusive rocks (MIR), Paleoproterozoic quartz-feldspathic apophyses and granitoids crosscut all the Igarapé Pojuca rocks. Petrographical and geochemical data allow the MVR and MIR to be classed, respectively, as basaltic meta-andesites and quartz diorites of tholeiitic affiliation. The schistose rocks can be classified as plagioclase-quartz-biotite schist. Biotitization, chloritization, sulfidation, tourmalinization and silicification are the most remarkable types of hydrothermal alteration. The ore occurs chiefly in veins and veinlets and is characterized by selvages of chalcopyrite, pyrite, pirrhotite, bornite, molybdenite, rare cubanite, besides quartz, tourmaline, fluorite, chlorite and biotite. The MVR seem to be contemporaneous with those of the Grão Pará, Igarapé Bahia and Igarapé Salobo groups, adopting the age of the Grão Pará Group as the age of formation of these rocks. Dating of the MIR (Pb-Pb on zircon) yields a value of 2705±2 Ma interpreted as the crystallization age of these rocks and similar to those found for the mafic sills (2.70 to 2.65 Ga) that occur in the neighboring Águas Claras deposit. Pb-Pb ages of 2615±10 and 2683±7 Ma on zircon from a saprolith of the Igarapé Pojuca Group domain probably represent rocks coeval with those sills. Pb-Pb ages of 2646±30 Ma (MVR / whole-rock), 2422±12 Ma (vero sulfides) and 2218±14 Ma (leaching of chalcopyrite) are indicative of a superimposed event on the Igarapé Pojuca metamorphic rocks, either the emplacement of granitoid intrusions (1.87-1.53 Ga) or the reactivation of the Caraj ás-Cinzento Strike-Slip System. This event probably caused remobilization of pre-existing ore as well as (partial or total) resetting of the Pb isotopic system. Both the Igarapé Bahia and the Igarapé Pojuca groups, and other greenstone-like metavolcano-sedimentary sequences of Carajás, overlie a basement made up of rocks that are contemporaneous with the Xingu and Pium complexes as well as with the Arco Verde tonalite, which are the likely sources of the inherited zircon found in the MVR and MIR of the Igarapé Bahia Group and dated at 3.03-2.86 Ga. Therefore, the ranges of 3.03-2.86 and 2.76-2.74 Ga represent, respectively, well-defined periods of crust formation and expressive volcanism in the northern portion of the Carajás Mineral Province. Sm-Nd model ages (TDM) of 3.17-2.99 Ga, obtained for the rocks of both the Igarapé Bahia and Gameleira deposits are consistent with those determined for the basement rocks and granitoids that occur in the Carajás Mineral Province. ΕNd(t) values for these rocks (-0.36 to -2.12) indicate nor only participation of older crust material in the parental magmas but also that magmas were generated in a continental rift environment. This supports the current hypotheses about the tectonic environment of formation of the Itacaiunas Supergroup to which belong both the Igarapé Bahia and the Igarapé Pojuca groups. In conclusion, both studied deposits seem to have a similar primary genesis, but distinct further history in the Neoarchaean and Paleoproterozoic times, which certainly affected their mineralizations.
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