Extensive weathered basalt outcrops can be found in the vicinities of the Formosa da Serra Negra town, southern of Maranhão state, northern Brazil. They exhibit typical clay texture and an enormous potential to be used and explored as bentonite. This work deals with the chemical and mineralogical characterization of this material that has been named as Formosa Bentonite. The main following methods and analytical techniques were used: XRD, XRF, SEM, Mössbauer spectroscopy and CEC in total sample and after grain size separation. Two samples from the main Brazilian "Paraíba bentonites" (Chocolate and Bofe types) were used for comparison purposes. The results show that the Formosa bentonite exhibit some chemical and mineralogical differences in comparison with the two reference samples, although the main and most important feature is the presence of montmorillonite as the major mineral phase.
bentonite; clay; esmectite; montmorillonite
