scholarly journals Silicate-replacive high sulfidation massive sulfide orebodies in a porphyry Cu-Au system: Bor, Serbia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dina Klimentyeva ◽  
Thomas Driesner ◽  
Albrecht von Quadt ◽  
Trajča Tončić ◽  
Christoph Heinrich
Keyword(s):  
Massive Sulfide ◽  
Volume Changes ◽  
Ore Formation ◽  
Bulk Fluid ◽  
High Sulfidation ◽  
Great Economic Importance ◽  
Argillic Alteration ◽  
Geochemical Study ◽  
Host Rocks ◽  
Textural Evidence

AbstractThe Cu-Au deposit of Bor (Serbia) represents a continuum of mineralization styles, from porphyry-style ore occurring in quartz-magnetite-chalcopyrite veins and chalcopyrite disseminations to high-sulfidation epithermal Cu-Au ores in pyrite-chalcopyrite and anhydrite-sulfide veins. Decisive for the great economic importance of Bor is the presence of exceptionally rich high-sulfidation massive sulfide orebodies, composed of pyrite + covellite + chalcocite/digenite and minor anhydrite and enargite. They form irregular bodies measuring 0.5–10 million tons of ore grading up to 7% Cu, hosted by andesites and surrounded by intense argillic alteration. This study focuses on a small but rich underground orebody mined out recently, where limited drillcore is preserved for quantitative geochemical study. This paper documents the vein relationships within the deep porphyry-style orebody of Borska Reka, the transitional porphyry-epithermal veins, and the overlying and laterally surrounding epithermal massive sulfides of the Bor deposit. Geological observations indicate that the formation of massive sulfide orebodies concludes the ore formation. Mass balance calculations, recast into geologically realistic bulk fluid-rock reactions, confirm textural evidence that near-isovolumetric replacement of andesite host rocks is the dominant formation mechanism of massive sulfide orebodies at Bor, whereby all lithophile elements including Si are dissolved and only Ti stays relatively immobile. While net volume changes for individual mineralization styles within the massive sulfide orebody vary from − 16% volume loss to + 127% volume gain, overall volume change for the whole massive sulfide orebody was probably slightly negative. Brecciation is important only as means of creating channelways for reactive fluid that turns the andesite protolith into massive sulfide, whereas net breccia infill occurred only locally.

scholarly journals Ore Formation During Jurassic Subduction of the Tethys Along the Eurasian Margin: Constraints from the Kapan District, Lesser Caucasus, Southern Armenia

2019 ◽  
Vol 114 (7) ◽  
pp. 1251-1284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johannes Mederer ◽  
Robert Moritz ◽  
Massimo Chiaradia ◽  
Richard Spikings ◽  
Jorge E. Spangenberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Jurassic ◽  
Late Jurassic ◽  
Ore Deposits ◽  
Sulfide Deposit ◽  
Short Time Interval ◽  
Ore Formation ◽  
Magmatic Arc ◽  
Argillic Alteration ◽  
Lesser Caucasus ◽  
Host Rocks

Abstract The Kapan mining district in the southernmost Lesser Caucasus is one of the few locations along the central Tethyan metallogenic belt where ore-forming processes were associated with magmatic arc growth during Jurassic Tethys subduction along the Eurasian margin. Three ore deposits of the Kapan district were investigated in this study: Centralni West, Centralni East, and Shahumyan. The ore deposits are hosted by Middle Jurassic andesitic to dacitic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of tholeiitic to transitional affinities below a late Oxfordian unconformity, which is covered by calc-alkaline to transitional Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous volcanic rocks interlayered with sedimentary rocks. The mineralization consists of veins, subsidiary stockwork, and partial matrix replacement of breccia host rocks, with chalcopyrite, pyrite, tennantite-tetrahedrite, sphalerite, and galena as the main ore minerals. Centralni West is a dominantly Cu deposit, and its host rocks are altered to chlorite, carbonate, epidote, and sericite. At Centralni East, Au is associated with Cu, and the Shahumyan deposit is enriched in Pb and Zn as well as precious metals. Both deposits contain high-sulfidation mineral assemblages with enargite and luzonite. Dickite, sericite, and diaspore prevail in altered host rocks in the Centralni East deposit. At the Shahumyan deposit, phyllic to argillic alteration with sericite, quartz, pyrite, and dickite is dominant with polymetallic veins, and advanced argillic alteration with quartz-alunite ± kaolinite and dickite is locally developed. The lead isotope composition of sulfides and alunite (206Pb/204Pb = 18.17–18.32, 207Pb/204Pb = 15.57–15.61, 208Pb/204Pb = 38.17–38.41) indicates a common metal source for the three deposits and suggests that metals were derived from magmatic fluids that were exsolved upon crystallization of Middle Jurassic intrusive rocks or leached from Middle Jurassic country rocks. The δ18O values of hydrothermal quartz (8.3–16.4‰) and the δ34S values of sulfides (2.0–6.5‰) reveal a dominantly magmatic source at all three deposits. Combined oxygen, carbon, and strontium isotope compositions of hydrothermal calcite (δ18O = 7.7–15.4‰, δ13C = −3.4−+0.7‰, 87Sr/86Sr = 0.70537–0.70586) support mixing of magmatic-derived fluids with seawater during the last stages of ore formation at Shahumyan and Centralni West. 40Ar/39Ar dating of hydrothermal muscovite at Centralni West and of magmatic-hydrothermal alunite at Shahumyan yield, respectively, a robust plateau age of 161.78 ± 0.79 Ma and a disturbed plateau age of 156.14 ± 0.79 Ma. Re-Os dating of pyrite from the Centralni East deposit yields an isochron age of 144.7 ± 4.2 Ma and a weighted average age of the model dates of 146.2 ± 3.4 Ma, which are younger than the age of the immediate host rocks. Two different models are offered, depending on the reliability attributed to the disturbed 40Ar/39Ar alunite age and the young Re-Os age. The preferred interpretation is that the Centralni West Cu deposit is a volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit and the Shahumyan and Centralni East deposits are parts of porphyryepithermal systems, with the three deposits being broadly coeval or formed within a short time interval in a nascent magmatic arc setting, before the late Oxfordian. Alternatively, but less likely, the three deposits could represent different mineralization styles successively emplaced during evolution and growth of a magmatic arc during a longer time frame between the Middle and Late Jurassic.

The Onto Cu-Au Discovery, Eastern Sumbawa, Indonesia: A Large, Middle Pleistocene Lithocap-Hosted High-Sulfidation Covellite-Pyrite Porphyry Deposit

2020 ◽  
Vol 115 (7) ◽  
pp. 1385-1412
Author(s):  
David R. Burrows ◽  
Michael Rennison ◽  
David Burt ◽  
Rod Davies
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Shallow Depth ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
High Sulfidation ◽  
Copper Mineralization ◽  
Argillic Alteration ◽  
Zircon Crystallization ◽  
Current Resource ◽  
Advanced Argillic Alteration ◽  
Host Rocks

Abstract In 2013, a diamond drill program tested an extensive advanced argillic alteration lithocap within the Hu’u project on eastern Sumbawa Island, Indonesia. A very large and blind copper-gold deposit (Onto) was discovered, in which copper occurs largely as disseminated covellite with pyrite, and as pyrite-covellite veinlets in a tabular block measuring at least 1.5 × 1 km, with a vertical thickness of ≥1 km. Copper and gold are spatially related with a series of coalesced porphyry stocks that intrude a polymictic diatreme breccia capped by a sequence of intramaar laminated siltstones, volcaniclastic and pyroclastic rocks, and overlain by andesite flows and domes. The porphyry intrusions were emplaced at shallow depth (≤1.3 km), with A-B–type quartz veinlet stockworks developed over a vertical interval of 300 to 400 m between ~100 and 500 m below sea level (bsl), 600 to 1,000 m below the present surface, which is at 400 to 600 m above sea level. In the area drilled at Onto, the diatreme breccia, all porphyry intrusions and, to a lesser extent, the surrounding older andesite sequence have all been overprinted by intense subhorizontal advanced argillic alteration, zoned downward from illite-smectite, quartz-dickite to quartz-alunite and quartz-pyrophyllite ± diaspore alteration. The alteration package includes two particularly well-developed zones of residual quartz with vuggy texture in subhorizontal zones at shallow depth, the upper one is still porous but the lower horizon, ~100 m thick, is largely silicified and is located at or near the top of the quartz-alunite alteration. Mineralization starts below the lowermost silicic horizon with more than 90% of the current resource in quartz-pyrophyllite-alunite and quartz-alunite alteration. Mineralization is dominated by a high-sulfidation assemblage of covellite-pyrite ± native sulfur largely in open-space fillings and replacements, but also as discrete pyrite-covellite and covellite only veins down to at least 1 km. Although the greatest amount of copper occurs as paragenetically late covellite deposited during formation of the advanced argillic alteration, approximately 60% of resource at 0.3% Cu cutoff still occurs within the porphyry stocks, indicating the porphyry stocks are a fundamental control on mineralization. There is considerable remobilization and dispersion of copper and, to a lesser extent, gold into the surrounding pre-mineral breccia and the late intermineral intrusions from the two earliest porphyry phases, resulting in quite consistent copper and gold grades throughout the currently delineated mineral resource. The very high sulfidation state of the mineralization is thought to be a consequence of the metal-bearing ore fluids cooling in the advanced argillic-altered host rocks in the absence of a rock buffer. Early chalcopyrite-bornite ± pyrite mineralization with potassic ± chloritic and sericitic alteration is only preserved on the margins of the system and more rarely at depth in a few holes 600 m bsl (~1,100 m below surface) but makes up only a small proportion (~8%) of the current resource. The Onto system is exceptionally young and formed rapidly in the middle Pleistocene and is not significantly eroded. A U-Pb zircon age for the andesite that caps the volcanosedimentary host rocks provides a maximum age of 0.838 ± 0.039 Ma, with a slightly younger porphyry zircon crystallization age of 0.688 ± 0.053 Ma. Re-Os dating of molybdenite that is associated with both the quartz vein stockwork and high-sulfidation assemblage copper mineralization shows overlap between 0.44 ± 0.02 and 0.35 ± 0.0011 Ma. 40Ar/39Ar ages for alunite within the advanced argillic alteration block ranges from 0.98 ± 0.22 to 0.284 ± 0.080 Ma, and alunite closely associated with covellite spans a period from 0.537 ± 0.064 to 0.038 ± 0.018 Ma.

scholarly journals 3D Geological Model of the Touro Cu Deposit, A World-Class Mafic-Siliciclastic VMS Deposit in the NW of the Iberian Peninsula

Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 85
Author(s):  
Mónica Arias ◽  
Pablo Nuñez ◽  
Daniel Arias ◽  
Pablo Gumiel ◽  
Cesar Castañón ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
3D Model ◽  
Massive Sulfide ◽  
Geological Model ◽  
Drill Core ◽  
World Class ◽  
Hinge Zone ◽  
Arc Setting ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Back Arc ◽  
Host Rocks

The Touro volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit is located in the NW of the Iberian Variscan massif in the Galicia-Trás-os-Montes Zone, an amalgamation of several allochthonous terrains. The Órdenes complex is the most extensive of the allochthone complexes, and amphibolites and paragneisses host the deposit, characterized as being massive or semimassive (stringers) sulfides, mostly made up of pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite. The total resources are 103 Mt, containing 0.41% copper. A 3D model of the different orebodies and host rocks was generated using data from 1090 drill core logs. The model revealed that the structure of the area is a N–S-trending antiform. The orebodies crop out in the limbs and in the hinge zone. The mineralized structures are mostly tabular, up to 100 m in thickness and subhorizontal. Based on the petrography, geochemistry and the 3D model, the Touro deposit is classified as a VMS of the mafic-siliciclastic type formed in an Ordovician back-arc setting, which was buried and metamorphosed in Middle Devonian.

Paragenesis of veins of the Duck Pond tin prospect, Meguma Group, East Kemptville, Nova Scotia

1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 2032-2043 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian V. Pitre ◽  
Jean M. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Manganese Oxides ◽  
Open Pit ◽  
Granitic Magma ◽  
Sulphide Minerals ◽  
Main Indicator ◽  
Argillic Alteration ◽  
Mineral Assemblages ◽  
Indicator Mineral ◽  
Host Rocks

The Duck Pond tin prospect is a vein- and strata-bound cassiterite prospect that is located 2 km west of the East Kemptville open-pit tin mine in southwestern Nova Scotia. The host rocks of the Duck Pond prospect are interbedded metawacke and meta-argillite that belong to the transition unit of the Meguma Group. These rocks contain quartz, sericite, chlorite, hematite, rutile, manganese oxides, feldspar, and porphyroblastic garnet, but not detrital cassiterite. The prospect is structurally controlled and contains several cross-cutting vein sets that have alkalic, chloritic, or argillic alteration assemblages. Muscovite is the main indicator mineral for alkalic alteration and occurs in veins that contain anorthoclase or quartz. Cassiterite is associated with chloritic alteration and occurs as subhedral to euhedral grains, acicular needles, and colloform layers in veins in meta-argillite and as strata-bound disseminations in metawacke. Most cassiterite precipitated under externally buffered conditions with respect to oxygen. Fe, Cu, Zn, and As sulphide minerals and quartz were deposited during argillic alteration. Late-stage processes such as recrystallization, sulphidation, and oxidation also occurred. Chalcopyrite is replaced by bornite and covellite; pyrite is replaced by marcasite.Unlike the F-rich East Kemptville deposit, fluorine-rich and tin-sulphide minerals are not present in the Duck Pond prospect. Trace tourmaline, absent at East Kemptville, is found at Duck Pond. However, the source of tin-mineralizing fluids at Duck Pond and East Kemptville was likely the granitic magma of the Davis Lake complex, which also hosts the East Kemptville deposit. From the mineral assemblages and textural relationships, it appears that as the temperature dropped from 425–405 °C to less than 200 °C at Duck Pond, the pH dropped from 5.2 to no lower than 3. Log [Formula: see text] dropped from at least −19 to −43. Log [Formula: see text] rose from < −15 to > −10. Cassiterite precipitated at the higher ends of the temperature and pH ranges and the lower end of the log [Formula: see text] range.

scholarly journals The Discovery of the Romero VMS Deposit and Its Bearing on the Metallogenic Evolution of Hispaniola during the Cretaceous

Minerals ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 507 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisard Torró ◽  
Joaquín Proenza ◽  
Julio Espaillat ◽  
Albert Belén-Manzeta ◽  
María Román-Alday ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Open Space ◽  
Massive Sulfide ◽  
Axial Position ◽  
Greater Antilles ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequence ◽  
Copper Mineralization ◽  
Seawater Sulfate ◽  
Extensional Tectonic ◽  
Volcaniclastic Rocks ◽  
Host Rocks

The recently discovered Romero deposit, located in the Tres Palmas district, Cordillera Central of the Dominican Republic, has probable reserves of 840,000 oz gold, 980,000 oz silver and 136 Mlb copper. Mineralization is hosted by intermediate volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of the lower stratigraphic sequence of the Cretaceous Tireo formation. The andesitic host rocks yield a U-Pb zircon concordia age of 116 ± 10 Ma. Au–Ag–Cu(–Zn) mineralization is divided into: (1) an upper domain with stacked massive sulfide lenses and sulfide dissemination within a 20-m-thick level of massive anhydrite-gypsum nodules, and (2) a lower domain with a high-grade stockwork mineralization in the form of cm-scale veins with open space fillings of fibrous silica and chalcopyrite, sphalerite, pyrite (+electrum ± Au–Ag tellurides). The δ34S values of sulfides from the upper (−7.6 and +0.9‰) and lower (−2.4 and +5.6‰) domains are consistent with a heterogeneous sourcing of S, probably combining inorganically and organically induced reduction of Albian-Aptian seawater sulfate. Despite this, a magmatic source for sulfur cannot be discarded. The δ34S (+19.2 and +20.0‰) and δ18O (+12.5 and +14.2‰) values of anhydrite-gypsum nodules are also consistent with a seawater sulfate source and suggest crystallization in equilibrium with aqueous sulfides at temperatures higher than 250 °C. These data point to a classification of Romero as a volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit formed in an axial position of the Greater Antilles paleo-arc in connection with island arc tholeiitic magmatism during a steady-state subduction regime. Circulation of hydrothermal fluids could have been promoted by a local extensional tectonic regime expressed in the Tres Palmas district as a graben structure.

scholarly journals U-Th-He Geochronology of Pyrite from the Uzelga VMS Deposit (South Urals)—New Perspectives for Direct Dating of the Ore-Forming Processes

Minerals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 629
Author(s):  
Olga Yakubovich ◽  
Mary Podolskaya ◽  
Ilya Vikentyev ◽  
Elena Fokina ◽  
Alexander Kotov
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Massive Sulfide ◽  
Ore Deposits ◽  
South Urals ◽  
Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide ◽  
Ore Formation ◽  
Relative Simplicity ◽  
Facies Metamorphism ◽  
Thermal Extraction ◽  
Pyrite Sample

We report on the application of the U-Th-He method for the direct dating of pyrite and provide an original methodological approach for measurement of U, Th and He in single grains without loss of parent nuclides during thermal extraction of He. The U-Th-He age of ten samples of high-crystalline stoichiometric pyrite from unoxidized massive ores of the Uzelga volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit, South Urals, is 382 ± 12 Ma (2σ) (U concentrations ~1–5 ppm; 4He ~10−4 cm3 STP g−1). This age is consistent with independent (biostratigraphic) estimations of the age of ore formation (ca, 389–380 Ma) and is remarkably older than the probable age of the regional prehnite-pumpellyite facies metamorphism (~340–345 Ma). Our results indicate that the U-Th-He dating of ~1 mg weight pyrite sample is possible and open new perspectives for the dating of ore deposits. The relative simplicity of U-Th-He dating in comparison with other geochronological methods makes this approach interesting for further application.

scholarly journals Introduction to the special issue on the Flatreef PGE-Ni-Cu deposit, northern limb of the Bushveld Igneous Complex

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang D. Maier ◽  
Marina Yudovskaya ◽  
Pedro Jugo
Keyword(s):  
Ore Deposits ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Ore Formation ◽  
Igneous Complex ◽  
Northern Limb ◽  
Pge Mineralization ◽  
World Class ◽  
Bushveld Igneous Complex ◽  
Mine Development ◽  
Host Rocks

AbstractMore than 30 years ago, Cox and Singer (1986) suggested that magmatic platinum-group element (PGE)-Ni-Cu deposits are amongst the best understood of ore deposits, yet the origin of PGE mineralization in the Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC) remains controversial after a century of study. In the northern limb of the BIC, the unravelling of ore formation proved particularly difficult due to relatively poor outcrop, which is typically affected by contamination of the intruding magmas with the host rocks and expressed in the form of abundant xenoliths, footwall rafts and disturbance of magmatic stratigraphy. In this thematic issue, we present contributions on the Flatreef, a recently discovered world-class PGE-Ni-Cu deposit constituting a downdip extension of the mineralized unit of the Platreef of the northern limb. Two deep shafts are currently being sunk, making the Flatreef one of the most significant new mine development on the Bushveld in several decades.

Paleomagnetism and the Origin of Mississippi Valley-Type Ore Deposits

1974 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. W. Beales ◽  
J. C. Carracedo ◽  
D. W. Strangway
Keyword(s):  
Natural Remanent Magnetization ◽  
Ore Deposits ◽  
The Other ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Ore Formation ◽  
Lower Ordovician ◽  
Southeast Missouri ◽  
Host Rocks ◽  
Mississippi Valley Type ◽  
Valley Type

Paleomagnetism can provide useful information about the stratigraphic relationships between the host rocks and the ore of some ore deposits.Four North American mines with stratabound ore deposits of Mississippi Valley type were sampled and the direction and intensity of the natural remanent magnetization (NRM) were measured. Two of the sites sampled (Newfoundland Zinc Co. property near Daniel's Harbour in western Newfoundland and the St. Joe Minerals Co., #8 Mine in southeast Missouri) had a weak, but measurable NRM in both host and ore rocks. This magnetization proved to be highly stable upon alternating field (AF) demagnetization. The other two mines (Magmont Mine, southeast Missouri, and Pine Point Mine, Northwest Territories, Canada) had intensities of magnetization too low to be measured after demagnetization.The pole positions computed for the ores and their corresponding hosts are identical within the statistical uncertainty, strongly suggesting that the ore and the host are, geologically speaking, of roughly the same age. This study gives two reliable pole positions, one for late lower Ordovician dolostone and sphalerite ore from Newfoundland of 26 °N, 126 °E, and the other for the upper Cambrian, based on the Bonneterre dolostone and galena ore from southeast Missouri of 35 °S, 170 °W.Within the present limitations of the method the results agree with published opinions concerning the age of the ore, i.e. that host rock and ore formation were relatively close in time. Therefore, when significant time differences occur between epigenetic ores and their host rocks, the method may be expected to define this. The method will become progressively more valuable as the apparent polar wandering curves for various continental areas become better defined.

The oldest seafloor massive sulfide deposits at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge: 230Th/U chronology and composition

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladislav Kuznetsov ◽  
Eriks Tabuns ◽  
Kathrine Kuksa ◽  
Georgy Cherkashov ◽  
Fedor Maksimov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Massive Sulfide ◽  
Hydrothermal Activity ◽  
Ocean Floor ◽  
Hydrothermal Field ◽  
Sulfide Deposits ◽  
Massive Sulfides ◽  
Geochemical Properties ◽  
Geochemical Study ◽  
Mid Atlantic Ridge ◽  
Seafloor Massive Sulfide

Abstract A geochronological and geochemical study on 10 samples of seafloor massive sulfides (SMS) from the inactive Peterburgskoye hydrothermal field at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) was carried out. The 230Th/U ages of the SMS are the oldest for the Quaternary hydrothermal ores ever found at the ocean floor. According to them the hydrothermal activity at Peterburgskoye field started at least 170 ka and continued down to 63 ka. The oldest hydrothermal ores from this field consist mainly of pyrite and chalcopyrite and have geochemical properties typical for SMS associated with basalts.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document