Picui is one of the most traditional municipality of mineral producing of serido region, state of Paraiba, Brazil, where the mining prospector dates back to the late 19th century. Occupies a significant portion of the of Pegmatític Borborema Province, of immense geological diversity. Supracrustal rocks of the Seridó Group (schists, quartzites and gneisses) were affected by granitic, pegmittic and volcanic magmatic events, imprinting batholiths, plugs dikes, sills and veins. The set was subordinated to compressional tectonic events evidenced by the Picuí-João Câmara, Frei Martinho and Santa Mônica shear zones, imprinting failed and folded fractures. Various metallic and nonmetallic minerals are extracted economically of pegmatite bodies, such is quartz, feldspar, muscovite, beril, tantalite, spodumene (used in the manufacture of batteries for electric cars), in addition to granites for ornamental stone and civil construction and clays for red pottery, completing the mineral production chain. The Mining forms the basis of the economy of the region, especially in periods of major droughts, when agricultural activities become impractical. The artisanal mining (“garimpo”)  is the principal activity on region, causing significant environmental degradation due to lack of planning and specialized professionals.  Development in technology, increasing environmental awareness of the public and private sectors and the implementation of new Laws must inevitably be applied of the mineral sector to adhere to the principles of sustainability of clean development. This work presents the many faces of the small mining of  Picui and offers challenges, questions and opportunities for mining support.

The Núcleo de Estudos de Pegmatitos (N-PEG) is a multidisciplinary study center addressing granitic pegmatites in the most diverse aspects: mineralogy, petrology, geochemistry, internal structure, gemology, geochronology, experimental studies, fluid inclusions, associated mineralizations, small-scale and artesanal mining and mine waste recycling. It was created in 2013, at IFPB, Campina Grande campus, subordinate to the Coordination of Technical Courses in Mining. N-PEG arose from the need to disseminate publications addressing granitic pegmatites (many of them not available on the Internet) and share experiences and research with researchers from different regions, in addition to providing scientific support for students and professionals in the area. It has a digital database (in pdf), currently with 6402 publications (scientific articles, theses, dissertations, event summaries, technical reports, among others), with emphasis on pegmatites from the Borborema Pegmatite Province (BPP), located between the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba. The digital database was assembled from the acquisition of publications available on the Internet and in university libraries and private collections, placed in digital media. The samples from the PPB's educational collection of pegmatite minerals were collected in the field or acquired from local miners. A photographic database was created from field trips, aiming to generate a digital photographic atlas. N-PEG has collaborated with the preparation of theses and dissertations from several institutions. The partnership between researchers from IFPB and other national and international institutions has enabled the publication of scientific articles that have generated several citations on the Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar platforms. A research group was recently created with CNPq (https://dgp.cnpq.br/dgp/espelhogrupo/8331635171367817)and a group on the Whatsapp application (https://chat.whatsapp.com/BdANcqYlHclDLugL5uETpC) aiming at greater interaction between researchers. N-PEG makes national and international publications available to researchers and students, in addition to contributing to the advancement of research related to granitic pegmatites.

The Tertiary volcano of the Macau Formation, related to the last magmatic pulses of the Borborema Province in the states of Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte, manifested itself in the forms of plugs, dikes, veins, piroclasts and fissural flows. In the municipalities of Boa Vista, Sossego, Barra de Santa Rosa and Olivedos, the volcanic protoliths are arranged in the form of fissural flows of amoeboidal architecture, subjected to intense chemical weathering, evolving into calcium bentonite clays of the Campos Novos type, mined in the open pit. Boa Vista is the municipality that has the main bentonite deposits, with the occurrence of fossilized tree trunks; In Sossego, pockets of chalcedony are carved together with the bentonites; In Barra de Santa Rosa, the quantification of the deposits is in the conclusive phase of research. In Olivedos, the main bentonite mining takes place on the Campos de Baixo farm by Mineradora Meira de Melo. The open pit is constantly evolving, currently with a depth of more than 6 meters, where it was possible to establish on the main slope of the mine, a lithostratigraphic column consisting from the top to the base of soil, high Ti basalt, high Ti tuff, red bentonite, cream bentonite and white bentonite. The alteration products were submitted to expandability tests when submerged in water, petrographic analysis and geochemical analysis by X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), with the objective of contributing to the genetic knowledge through the geochemical composition and ionic mobility in the weathering profile. The results indicated that the mobility of the iron and manganese oxides-hydroxides, with impoverishment from the top to the bottom of the profile, were the main responsible for the change in the shade of the bentonites. White bentonite is essentially carbonate, with extremely high Ca values, around 83.76%, of zero expansion, with the presence of calcite. This factor, associated with the very low levels of SiO2, Al2O3 and Fe2O3, make the white bentonites distinguishable from the others, with special characteristics for the manufacturing industry. Trace elements and incompatible elements occur variably along the weathering profile, and are sometimes completely leached into the more evolved bentonites. The results obtained are considered preliminary, since they are part of the set of data related to the Doctoral Thesis being prepared by the first author at the Federal University of Campina Grande.

This paper addresses the role of lithium both in its geological origins and in its therapeutic use in psychiatry, highlighting the implications of its extraction and medical application. Under standard conditions it is the lightest solid element on the periodic table. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly reactive and flammable and is stored in mineral oil. Lithium is widely found in the Earth's crust, but it does not occur as a specific mineral, that is, with a chemical composition and defined crystal structure, allowing its extraction in isolation in mineral deposits. In Brazil, it is always a component that forms the crystal structure of lithiniferous pegmatite minerals, such as spodumene (the only economically exploitable for lithium extraction), petalite, amblygonite, and elbaite, related to endogenous processes. In the exogenous environment, it occurs as a constituent of salt flats in Andean countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia. Its geological exploration is related to specific mining processes, with concentration by electrolysis. Lithium has many applications, from lubricating grease, alloy additions, in particular for Aluminum and Magnesium alloys, to glazes for ceramics, and finally Lithium batteries. In the field of psychiatry, lithium has established itself as an essential drug for the treatment of bipolar disorder, acting as a mood stabilizer by modulating neurotransmitters and neuronal processes. Thus, the present study seeks not only to highlight the geological processes involved in lithium extraction, but also to discuss the therapeutic contributions and clinical challenges associated with its use.