Origin of the Kupferschiefer polymetallic mineralization in Poland

Controls on the distribution of rare earth elements in the Kupferschiefer series of SW Poland

“…The met als are distrib uted both ver ti cally and hor i zon tally in the se quence Fe 3+ (Au, Pt, Pd)-Cu(Ag)-Pb-Zn-Fe 2+ in dis tinct suc ces sive zones (Oszczepalski and Rydzewski, 1997). Gold and PGE concen trated mainly within the Rote Fäule, and par tic u larly in the tran si tion zone (e.g., Piestrzyñski et al, 1997;Piestrzyñski and Saw³owicz, 1999;Kucha and Przyby³owicz, 1999;Oszczepalski, 1999;Piestrzyñski and Wodzicki, 2000;Pieczonka et al, 2008). The py rite zone, char ac terized by vast pre dom i nance of py rite over Cu, Pb and Zn sulphides, is re stricted to the ar eas most dis tal from the Rote Fäule, pre vail ing in mar ginal parts of the Zechstein ba sin and in the Wolsztyn-Pogorzela High.…”

“…Sub stan tial flows of met al lif er ous so lu tions pro ceeded within the Rotliegend ba sin to wards palaeohighs, spread ing upward and out ward, as ev i denced by ox i da tive footwall al ter ation in feeder ar eas (Rydzewski, 1978;Rydzewski, 1991, 1997;Oszczepalski, 1999). Fluid flows were triggered by con vec tion, com pac tion, brine recirculation, seis mic pump ing, ep i sodic re lease or a com bi na tion of the pro cesses (Kucha and Pawlikowski, 1986;Jowett et al, 1987;Oszczepalski, 1989Oszczepalski, , 1999Cathles et al, 1993;Wodzicki and Piestrzyñ ski, 1994;Blundell et al, 2003). The tem per a ture of miner al iz ing so lu tions did not ex ceed 150°C (Oszczepalski, 1999;Oszczepalski et al, 2002;Speczik et al, 2003).…”

“…This se ries is de vel oped as black or dark grey organic-rich and metal sul phide-con tain ing fa cies ("re duced zone"), and as red-stained or ganic mat ter-de pleted and iron oxide-bear ing rocks ("ox i dized zone" = "Rote Fäule"). The Rote Fäule is a zone of post-depositional ox i da tive al ter ation ex hib it ing he ma tite min er ali sa tion heavily over print ing sul phide min er als (Rydzewski, 1978;Jowett et al, 1987;Oszcze palski, 1989Oszcze palski, , 1994Oszcze palski, , 1999Oszczepalski and Rydzewski, 1991), and fea tures in dic a tive of ex ten sive de struc tion of or ganic mat ter, trans for mation of clay min er als, and sta ble iso tope vari a tions (Speczik and Püttmann, 1987;Püttmann et al, 1989;Bechtel et al, 1999Bechtel et al, , 2001aBechtel et al, , 2002Kucha and Przyby ³owicz, 1999;Speczik et al, 2003). The met als are dis tinctly zoned not only ver ti cally, but also lat er ally in belts pre dom i nated by copper, lead, zinc and py rite min er ali sa tion, which sur round suc cessively the Rote Fäule ar eas in di cat ing di rec tion of ore flu ids flow (Oszczepalski and Rydzewski, 1997;Oszczepalski et al, 2016).…”

“…The he ma tite zone form ing the in ner part of the ox i dized area is de vel oped as ex ten sively al tered rocks con tain ing sparse rel ics of sulphides and highly -de graded or ganic mat ter. The out er most part of the ox i dized zone, which was named as the tran si tion zone be tween ox i dized and re duced rocks (Oszczepalski and Rydze wski, 1991), is dom i nated by weaker al ter ation and charac ter ized by re place ments of Cu and Fe sulphides by iron ox ides ac com pa nied by sparsely dis sem i nated rem nant cop per sul phides and mi nor glauconites (Oszczepalski, 1994(Oszczepalski, , 1999Oszczepalski et al, 2002).…”

“…Gen eral in crease in the con tent of many trace el e ments (e.g., Se, Re, U and Th) to wards the cop per zone, and the tendency for cer tain el e ments to be de pleted (e.g., Co, Ni, Mo, Re, As, Sc, F and Y) or en riched (e.g., Au, PGE, Hg and Sc) in the ox i dized Rote Fäule zone have been re ported (e.g., Kucha and Przyby³owicz, 1999;Oszczepalski, 1999;Piestrzyñski and Wodzicki, 2000;Oszczepalski et al, 2002;Pieczonka et al, 2008;Pieczonka, 2011). Much less at ten tion has been paid to the re search of rare earth el e ments (REE).…”