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Muzo Mine, Muzo Municipality, Western Boyacá Province, Boyacá Department, Colombiai
| Regional Level Types | |
|---|---|
| Muzo Mine | Mine |
| Muzo Municipality | Municipality |
| Western Boyacá Province | Province |
| Boyacá Department | Department |
| Colombia | Country |
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Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):
5° 32' 7'' North , 74° 8' 47'' West
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):
Type:
Köppen climate type:
Nearest Settlements:
| Place | Population | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Quípama | 3,571 (2018) | 3.9km |
| Muzo | 7,977 (2018) | 4.3km |
| La Victoria | 314 (2016) | 9.7km |
| Coper | 814 (2018) | 13.0km |
| Otanche | 3,589 (2018) | 14.1km |
An emerald mine in Lower Cretaceous (130 ma old) calcareous schists.
The emerald deposits in the Muzo area occur in organic-rich black shales. Evidence from the Muzo mine shows that hydrothermal brines transported evaporitic sulphate to structurally favourable sites, where it was thermochemically reduced (Ottaway et al., 1994). The latter authors suggest that the sulphur generated by this process reacted with organic matter in the shales to release trapped chromium, vanadium and beryllium, which in turn enabled emerald formation.
A "challenge" to this locality.
It's not a single mine. There are not just a few official ones, but quite a few tunnels without license, as well as many "guaceros" going through the old spoilheaps, form before when open air mining was limited or even prohibited.
There is also a lot of material in collections, that is incorrectly attributed to this "mine".
An unfortunate problem with material form Colombia, is that vendors in Bogota, very often just say "Muzo", when not sure of exact origin, instead ofadmitting they aren't sure. A combination of local "pride" and the market paying more when they think they know.
Any specimen attributed to Muzo, should in general be accepted as possibly form there, the municipality is fine, but not neccessarily to this "mine"... several might be from Muzo area/municipality butmany aren't even from the region.
Things are getting better in this regard, but caution should be taken and if possible, experts should be contacted about true origin.
(in the case of emeralds, the best is Gerard Martayan)
Select Mineral List Type
Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical ElementsMineral List
15 valid minerals. 1 (TL) - type locality of valid minerals.
Rock Types Recorded
Select Rock List Type
Alphabetical List Tree DiagramDetailed Mineral List:
Gallery:
List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification
| Group 1 - Elements | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ⓘ | Graphite | 1.CB.05a | C |
| Group 2 - Sulphides and Sulfosalts | |||
| ⓘ | Sphalerite | 2.CB.05a | ZnS |
| ⓘ | Chalcopyrite | 2.CB.10a | CuFeS2 |
| ⓘ | Pyrite | 2.EB.05a | FeS2 |
| Group 3 - Halides | |||
| ⓘ | Halite | 3.AA.20 | NaCl |
| ⓘ | Fluorite | 3.AB.25 | CaF2 |
| Group 4 - Oxides and Hydroxides | |||
| ⓘ | Quartz | 4.DA.05 | SiO2 |
| Group 5 - Nitrates and Carbonates | |||
| ⓘ | Calcite | 5.AB.05 | CaCO3 |
| ⓘ | Dolomite | 5.AB.10 | CaMg(CO3)2 |
| ⓘ | Azurite | 5.BA.05 | Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 |
| ⓘ | Malachite | 5.BA.10 | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
| ⓘ | Parisite-(Ce) (TL) | 5.BD.20b | CaCe2(CO3)3F2 |
| Group 7 - Sulphates, Chromates, Molybdates and Tungstates | |||
| ⓘ | Baryte | 7.AD.35 | BaSO4 |
| Group 9 - Silicates | |||
| ⓘ | Beryl | 9.CJ.05 | Be3Al2(Si6O18) |
| ⓘ | var. Emerald | 9.CJ.05 | Be3Al2(Si6O18) |
| ⓘ | Albite | 9.FA.35 | Na(AlSi3O8) |
| Unclassified | |||
| ⓘ | 'Monazite Group' | - | REE(PO4) |
| ⓘ | 'Apatite' | - | Ca5(PO4)3(Cl/F/OH) |
| ⓘ | 'White mica' | - | |
List of minerals for each chemical element
| H | Hydrogen | |
|---|---|---|
| H | ⓘ Azurite | Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 |
| H | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
| H | ⓘ Apatite | Ca5(PO4)3(Cl/F/OH) |
| Be | Beryllium | |
| Be | ⓘ Beryl | Be3Al2(Si6O18) |
| Be | ⓘ Beryl var. Emerald | Be3Al2(Si6O18) |
| C | Carbon | |
| C | ⓘ Azurite | Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 |
| C | ⓘ Calcite | CaCO3 |
| C | ⓘ Dolomite | CaMg(CO3)2 |
| C | ⓘ Graphite | C |
| C | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
| C | ⓘ Parisite-(Ce) | CaCe2(CO3)3F2 |
| O | Oxygen | |
| O | ⓘ Albite | Na(AlSi3O8) |
| O | ⓘ Azurite | Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 |
| O | ⓘ Baryte | BaSO4 |
| O | ⓘ Beryl | Be3Al2(Si6O18) |
| O | ⓘ Calcite | CaCO3 |
| O | ⓘ Dolomite | CaMg(CO3)2 |
| O | ⓘ Beryl var. Emerald | Be3Al2(Si6O18) |
| O | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
| O | ⓘ Monazite Group | REE(PO4) |
| O | ⓘ Parisite-(Ce) | CaCe2(CO3)3F2 |
| O | ⓘ Quartz | SiO2 |
| O | ⓘ Apatite | Ca5(PO4)3(Cl/F/OH) |
| F | Fluorine | |
| F | ⓘ Fluorite | CaF2 |
| F | ⓘ Parisite-(Ce) | CaCe2(CO3)3F2 |
| F | ⓘ Apatite | Ca5(PO4)3(Cl/F/OH) |
| Na | Sodium | |
| Na | ⓘ Albite | Na(AlSi3O8) |
| Na | ⓘ Halite | NaCl |
| Mg | Magnesium | |
| Mg | ⓘ Dolomite | CaMg(CO3)2 |
| Al | Aluminium | |
| Al | ⓘ Albite | Na(AlSi3O8) |
| Al | ⓘ Beryl | Be3Al2(Si6O18) |
| Al | ⓘ Beryl var. Emerald | Be3Al2(Si6O18) |
| Si | Silicon | |
| Si | ⓘ Albite | Na(AlSi3O8) |
| Si | ⓘ Beryl | Be3Al2(Si6O18) |
| Si | ⓘ Beryl var. Emerald | Be3Al2(Si6O18) |
| Si | ⓘ Quartz | SiO2 |
| P | Phosphorus | |
| P | ⓘ Monazite Group | REE(PO4) |
| P | ⓘ Apatite | Ca5(PO4)3(Cl/F/OH) |
| S | Sulfur | |
| S | ⓘ Baryte | BaSO4 |
| S | ⓘ Chalcopyrite | CuFeS2 |
| S | ⓘ Pyrite | FeS2 |
| S | ⓘ Sphalerite | ZnS |
| Cl | Chlorine | |
| Cl | ⓘ Halite | NaCl |
| Cl | ⓘ Apatite | Ca5(PO4)3(Cl/F/OH) |
| Ca | Calcium | |
| Ca | ⓘ Calcite | CaCO3 |
| Ca | ⓘ Dolomite | CaMg(CO3)2 |
| Ca | ⓘ Fluorite | CaF2 |
| Ca | ⓘ Parisite-(Ce) | CaCe2(CO3)3F2 |
| Ca | ⓘ Apatite | Ca5(PO4)3(Cl/F/OH) |
| Fe | Iron | |
| Fe | ⓘ Chalcopyrite | CuFeS2 |
| Fe | ⓘ Pyrite | FeS2 |
| Cu | Copper | |
| Cu | ⓘ Azurite | Cu3(CO3)2(OH)2 |
| Cu | ⓘ Chalcopyrite | CuFeS2 |
| Cu | ⓘ Malachite | Cu2(CO3)(OH)2 |
| Zn | Zinc | |
| Zn | ⓘ Sphalerite | ZnS |
| Ba | Barium | |
| Ba | ⓘ Baryte | BaSO4 |
| Ce | Cerium | |
| Ce | ⓘ Parisite-(Ce) | CaCe2(CO3)3F2 |
Other Databases
| Wikipedia: | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzo |
|---|---|
| Wikidata ID: | Q1431785 |
Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality
Colombia
- Boyacá Department
- Vasquez-Yacopí mining districtMining District
North Andes PlateTectonic Plate
South AmericaContinent
- AndesMountain Range
South America Plate
- North Andean OrogenOrogenic Belt
This page contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to
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References
Pignatelli, Isabella; Morlot, Christophe; Salsi, Lise; Giuliani, Gaston; Martayan, Gérard (2022) Colombian Emerald Oddities: Review and Formation Mechanisms. The Journal of Gemmology, 38 (1). 26-43 doi:10.15506/jog.2022.38.1.26
Altenberger, Uwe, Rojas-Agramonte, Yamirka, Yang, Yueheng, Fernández-Lamus, Jimmy, Häger, Tobias, Guenter, Christina, Gonzalez-Pinzón, Alejandra, Charris-Leal, Felipe, Artel, Julia (2022) In Situ U–Th–Pb Dating of Parisite: Implication for the Age of Mineralization of Colombian Emeralds. Minerals, 12 (10) 1232 doi:10.3390/min12101232
Muzo Mine, Muzo Municipality, Western Boyacá Province, Boyacá Department, Colombia