The Upper Cretaceous Salitre intrusion, subdivided into Salitre I and Salitre II and dated to ~86-82 Ma by Sonoki and Garda (1988), is part of the Alto Paranaíba Igneous Province (APIP, Fig. 1) in Brazil, which is one of the largest ultrapotassic / carbonatitic / kimberlitic provinces in the world. The intrusion is characterized by the presence of lamproites, carbonatites and one lamprophyre (analyzed here), as well as along with a variety of intrusive cumulitic rocks.

Among the Salitre studied samples, this alkaline lamprophyre is characterized by low SiO2 (35.6 wt%), ultrapotassic (K2O/Na2O = 5; K2O = 4.4 wt%) and peralkaline (PI = 1.3). It exhibits variable MgO content (14 wt%) and is enriched in REEs (∑REE=~1,300 ppm) and other trace elements (Nb, Ta, Zr, Hf, Sr, Ba). This lamprophyre is characterized by olivine and phlogopite phenocrysts set in a fine-grained groundmass of clinopyroxene, apatite, phlogopite, magnetite, chromite, and perovskite, with rare titanite and garnet; kalsilite is absent.

Analyzing the trace elements of the main minerals in this lamprophyre helped us learn more about the origin and evolution of these magmas, as well as their possible genetic link with the other Salitre rocks. This analysis also provided important information about their enrichment in rare earth elements (REEs) and high field strength elements (HFSEs).

This publication results from work conducted under the transnational access/national open access action at Mass spectrometry la-icp laboratory (IGG-CNR, Italy) supported by WP3 ILGE - MEET project, PNRR - EU Next Generation Europe program, MUR grant number D53C22001400005.