Tungsten resources of Brazil

Brazilian tungsten production, 85 percent of which is exported, comes almost entirely from scheelite-bearing tactites in northeast Brazil, and has reached an annual rate of about 2,000 metric tons (2,200 short tons) of scheelite concentrate with 70 percent WO3. Scheelite ore reserves, located principally in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, are estimated to be as high as 8,300,000 tons (9,100,000 short tons) containing 0.7 percent WO3.

Minor deposits (or those about which only minimal information is available) of wolframite, with which some cassiterite is associated, are located in Sao Paulo, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul. Both the scheelite and the wolframite deposits are considered . to be late Precambrian A (620 to 900 m.y.) or early Cambrian in age.