• Title/Summary/Keyword: chalcopyrite disease

Search Result 1, Processing Time 0.015 seconds

Chalcopyrite Disease in Sphalerite: A Case of the Soowang Ore Deposits in Muju, Republic of Korea (무주 수왕광산에서 산출되는 섬아연석의 황동석 병변에 관한 연구)

  • Youn, Seok-Tai
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
    • /
    • v.29 no.7
    • /
    • pp.551-558
    • /
    • 2008
  • The Soowang deposits occur in the quartz veins that were filled fissures in the middle Cretaceous porphyritic granite and/or the Precambrian Sobaegsan gneiss complex. Paragenetic studies suggest that the vein filling can be divided into four identifiable stages. Sphalerites were deposited by the cooling fluids at stages I, II, and III. The results of microscopic observation and EPMA analysis suggest that the chalcopyrite dots and disease in sphalerite are replacement products by later hydrothermal solution at the early stage III. The inferred processes of chalcopyrite disease are as follows: (1) Fe enrichment to the margins and along the cracks of the Fe-poor sphalerite by Fe-rich solution, (2) Formation of chalcopyrite dots in the Fe-enriched sphalerite formed at the stage II, and Fe reduction of sphalerite near the chalcopyrite dots by Cu-bearing solution, (3) Formation of "chalcopyrite disease" penetrating the compositional zoning of sphalerite at the early stage III.