Bismuth selenides from St. Andreasberg, Germany: an oxidised five-element style of mineralisation and its relation to post-Variscan vein-type deposits of central Europe

Abstract

Carbonate veinlets at Roter Bar, a former underground mine in the polymetallic St. Andreasberg vein district of the Harz Mountains, Germany, host selenide minerals that are characterised as Bi–Ag-bearing clausthalite (PbSe), tiemannite (HgSe), guanajuatite (Bi2Se3) and a number of selenides of Bi, Zn, Cu, Ag and Pd. An unnamed Bi–Pb–Ag selenide species with some Hg and Cu, ideally Bi4Pb3Ag2Se10, is reported here. Specular hematite is disseminated within the clausthalite, at the marginal zones of which other selenide minerals are located. The occurrence of bohdanowiczite (AgBiSe2) and umangite (Cu3Se2) constrains the formation temperature to ≤120 °C, and the selenide–hematite assemblage (plus barite in the carbonate gangue) identifies highly oxidised conditions. Selenide assemblages of Pb, Bi, Ag, with and without Co and Ni, occur in many parts of the Variscan basement of central Europe (Harz, Erzgebirge, Schwarzwald and Bohemian Massif) and represent a high-oxidation variety of five-element (Ag–As–Bi–Co–Ni) veins.