Phosphate rock in Colombia - a preliminary report, with a section on the phosphate occurrence at Turmeque

Abstract

Exploration for phosphate rock in Colombia was successfully carried out in 3 1/2 months by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Inventorio Minero of the Servicio Geologico Nacional, under the auspices of the U.S. Agency for International Development. A modern theory of exploration based on model studies of phosphorite deposits is that phosphate is deposited in the miogeosyncline adjacent to the foreland or craton, where parts of the ocean are deep, where deposition of clastic material is at a minimum, and where upwelling currents deposit a suite of rocks characterized by chert, black shale, carbonate rock, and phosphorite. Although phosphate is found in rocks of all geologic periods, economic deposits are known only in certain of: the periods--one of these being the Late Cretaceous. As previous work had demonstrated that phosphate is present in Colombia only in rocks of Cretaceous age, and is most abundant in rocks of Late Cretaceous age--the La Luna Formations and Guadalupe--in the Cordillera Oriental, work was accordingly confined to the Cordillera Oriental and to rocks of Late Cretaceous age. Particular emphasis was paid to facies changes in the miogeosyncline; the field investigation pointed to the area in Norte de Santander where the best phosphorite was found. Phosphate deposits were found in both the geosynclinal and the platform facies in Upper Cretaceous rocks spread through a large area of the Cordillera Oriental, from Huila in the south to Norte de Santander in the north, a distance of more than 600 kilometers.