A multistage origin for Kupferschiefer mineralization

Abstract

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Zechstein-Kupferschiefer Mineralization Reconsidered as a Product of Ultra-Deep Hydrothermal, Mud-Brine Volcanism

“…The angular and unfrosted nature of the Weissliegend quartz grains in thin section (seen in Figure 3a of [4]) indicates the sand was not formed in an eolian environment. Silica dikes and sills in the Weissliegend in the United Kingdom North Sea (photographs in Figures 8 and 14 in [5]) and the Netherlands (Figures 9 and 11 in [6]) show textures that are very similar to quartz sand injectites, such as those in the Panoche Hills and Panther Beach, California [7].…”

“…The 'sandstone-hosted ore' can be further interpreted as a matrix-supported, high temperature, sulfide-rich, mud slurry that was extruded as a sulfide-matrix, mud slurry from an underlying vent source and accumulated into a chalcocite-silica-mud mound (Figure 3a of [4]). Furthermore, chalcopyrite-bornite, rhythmic lamanites grade upward into layers of subangular to subrounded, quartz grains with a partial chalcopyrite-, bornite-, and covellite-filled matrix, as shown in Figure 4 in [14] and Figures 2-4 in [15].…”

“…The UDH model agrees with observations by Kucha [23] that are consistent with brine-silicate-flocculate interactions during upward transport from deep brine chambers (Figures 1, 12, and 15 in [23]). The concentrically banded, colloform, spheroidal, ooid-like, chalcopyrite aggregate (shown in Figure 3b in [4]) probably formed as a concentric set of rings accreted around a chalcopyrite microsphere during its upward transport in a heavy metal-rich, brine slurry.…”

“…The sulfide spherules in the copper-rich zone are interpreted as slurry droplets from sulfide suspensate in the overlying heavy brine column. Moreover, the commonly concentric, compositional laminations in the spherules (as shown in Figure 3b of [4]) suggest that the sulfides continued to grow after they were dropped into and carried in the mud-brine slurry. The sulfides are inferred to have formed as a sulphidic mud in a high-energy mud chamber beneath the Kupferschiefer shale horizon and then subsequently were erupted into the water column as high-velocity spherulitic suspensate.…”

The use of selected research methods to describe the pore space of dolomite from copper ore mine, Poland

“…Active mining zones cover an area of about 600 km 2 (Alderton et al 2016). The annual copper production amounts to nearly 570 thousand tones and silver production to 1200 tones.…”