Loci of Orebodies, the Bupyeong Silver Deposits

부평은광상(富平銀鑛床)의 광체배태장소(鑛體胚胎場所)

The geology of the Bupyeong mine area is consisted of Precambrian Gyeonggi gneiss complex and Mesozoic igneous rocks; i.e., pyroclastic rocks, intrusive breccia, granite and felsic porphyries which were formed during a Jurassic to early Cretaceous resurgent caldera evolution. Granites are not observed on the surface and in the underground of the mine. Bupyeong silver deposits occur as stockworks of base metal sulfides- minor silver minerals-quartz - carbonate veinlets, hosted by pyroclastic rocks and intrusive breccia at the southwestern margin of the caldera. Silver occurs mainly as native silver, and other silver minerals, minor in quantity, are argentite, tetrahedrite-freibergite, pyrargyrite, polybasite, canfieldite and dyscrasite. The average grade of silver ore is about 180g/t Ag. Discrimination of silver ore from the country rocks depends largely on the chemical analyses of rock samples taken every two meters from tunnels, diamond-drilling cores and mining stopes, because silver minerals are hardly observed in the ore by crude eye, and silver orebodies do not properly coincide with the concentrated zone of base metal sulfides which were precipitated at the earlier stage than the stage of precipitation of native silver. General characteristics of the loci of the silver orebodies are as follows; (1) The host rocks of orebodies are pyroclastic rocks and intrusive breccia. (2) Many of the orebodies are distributed around Gyeonggi gneiss complex. Especially where the paleotopography of gneiss complex shows a gradual slope, the basal stratigraphic horizon of the pyroclastic rocks unconformably overlying the gneiss complex offered a favorable loci of high grade ore. (3) $N5^{\circ}W$ to $N15^{\circ}$ E-striking faults played an important role in the localization of the orebodies. (4) Conduits of intrusive breccia within the gneiss complex, through which the intrusive breccia intruded into the upper pyroclastic rocks, exist beneath most of the main orebodies. This suggests that the conduits of intrusive breccia served as channelways for the migration of ore fluids.