The Araçuaí orogen extends from the eastern edge of the São Francisco craton to the Atlantic margin, in southeastern Brazil. Orogenic igneous rocks, formed from c. 630 to c. 480 Ma, cover one third of this huge area, building up the Eastern Brazilian Pegmatite Province and the most important dimension stone province of Brazil. G1 supersuite (630-585 Ma) mainly consists of tonalite to granodiorite, with mafic to dioritic facies and enclaves, representing a continental calc-alkaline magmatic arc. G2 supersuite mostly includes S-type granites formed during the syn-collisional stage (585-560 Ma), from relatively shallow two-mica granites and related gem-rich pegmatites to deep garnet-biotite granites that are the site of yellow dimension stone deposits. The typical G3 rocks (545-525 Ma) are non-foliated garnet-cordierite leucogranites, making up autochthonous patches and veins. At the post-collisional stage (530-480 Ma), G4 and G5 supersuites were generated. The S-type G4 supersuite mostly consists of garnet-bearing two-mica leucogranites that are the source of many pegmatites mined for tourmalines and many other gems, lithium (spodumene) ore and industrial feldspar. G5 supersuite, consisting of high-K-Fe calc-alkaline to alkaline granitic and/or charnockitic to dioritic/noritic intrusions, is the source of aquamarine-topaz-rich pegmatites but mainly of a large dimension stone production.

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The Borborema and Benin-Nigeria provinces of NE Brazil and NW Africa, respectively, are key areas in the amalgamation of West Gondwana by continental collision during the Brasiliano/Pan-African orogenies. Both are underlain by complex basement: Nigeria has c. 3.05 Ga Archaean crust but no known Palaeoproterozoic rocks .2.0 Ga; in NE Brazil, 2.6-3.5 Ga Archaean rocks form small cores within Palaeoproterozoic gneiss terrains affected by plutonism at c. 2.17 Ga. Both regions exhibit Late Palaeoproterozoic (c. 1.8 Ga) rift-related magmatism and metasedimentary sequences overlying the basement. The Seridó Group of NE Brazil (,0.65 Ga) is similar to the Igarra Sequence in SW Nigeria. The Ceará Group, which may date back to c. 0.85 Ga, is a passive margin deposit on crust thinned during initiation of an oceanic domain. In both provinces, basement and sedimentary cover were involved in tangential tectonics that resulted in crust-thickening by nappe-stacking associated with closure of this ocean. Frontal collision between c. 0.66 and 0.60 Ga later evolved to an oblique collision, generating northsouth continental strike-slip shear zones at c. 0.59 Ga. In NE Brazil, the main Pan-African suture is probably buried beneath the Parnaíba Basin. The Transbrasiliano Lineament, interpreted as the prolongation of the Kandi-4850 Lineament in Hoggar, may represent a cryptic suture. Opening of the Atlantic Ocean in the Mesozoic led to the break-up of Pangaea (and West Gondwana) and the consequent individualization of the South America and Africa continents, each one containing part of the Brasiliano/Pan-African fold belt. The Borborema Province (Almeida et al. 1981) in northeastern Brazil (Fig. 1) was built during the Brasiliano/Pan-African orogeny, as the result of convergence and final collision of the São LuisWest Africa and São Francisco -Congo cratons, in the context of West Gondwana amalgamation.The present structural framework of the province (Fig. 2) dates from the end of the Brasiliano/ Pan-African orogeny, forming a mosaic of independent domains juxtaposed along large crustal-scale shear zones (Vauchez et al. 1995) in a continental-scale collage (Van Schmus et al. 1998).Since the first attempts to reconstruct West Gondwana, the similarity of geological features between NE Brazil and NW Africa were used to argue for the juxtaposition of the two continents. However, there is still much uncertainty, and correlation between the two domains remains imprecise . The northern part of the Borborema Province, north of the Patos Lineament, and the Benin -Nigeria province are the key for correlation between the continents (Fig. 2). Integration of recent geological and geochronological data allows re-evaluation of the geological framework of the two provinces and provides new insights for the correlation between the two provinces.

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