Carbonate-replacement Pb–Zn–Ag ± Au mineralization in the Kamariza area, Lavrion, Greece: Mineralogy and thermochemical conditions of formation

Abstract

Carbonate-replacement Pb–Zn–Ag ± Au deposits in the Kamariza area, Lavrion district, Attica, Greece, are genetically related to the emplacement of Miocene andesitic dikes within a rapidly extending continental back-arc basin, which formed during exhumation of the Attic-Cycladic Crystalline Belt. Replacement veins as well as chimneys and mantos of massive sulfides are the major orebody types with mantos grading into chimneys and veins. Ore minerals are similar among the various types of orebodies in the Kamariza area and consist of sulfides and sulfarsenides (pyrite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, gersdorffite, marcasite), native metals (Au and Bi), Sn-bearing phases (petrukite), sulfosalts and sulfbismuthites of Ag, Bi, Cu, Pb, As, Sb (tetrahedrite-group minerals, bournonite, boulangerite, stephanite, pyrargyrite, semseyite, enargite, bismuthinite, lillianite homologues, Cu-matildite, aikinite, Ag-aikinite, mummeite, emplectite, wittichenite). The elemental association of Bi, Au, and Ag is common. The assemblages gersdorffite-bismuthinite-native gold and native gold-native bismuth are evidence for a contribution of magmatic components to the hydrothermal system. A fluctuation in the sulfidation states of the ore fluid during the evolution of the Kamariza system is evident from the deposition of early arsenopyrite, as well as of enargite-luzonite and both low-Fe and Fe-rich sphalerite in the same samples. Microthermometry of fluid inclusion assemblages show that carbonate replacement mineralization was deposited from a warm to hot (100°C to 400°C), low to moderately saline (1.8 to 17.3 wt% NaCl equiv) fluid. Eutectic temperatures of fluid inclusions as low as −55°C suggest the presence of CaCl2 in addition to NaCl, in the ore fluid. The Kamariza deposit occurs distal to the Plaka granodiorite intrusion and the associated porphyry-Mo mineralization, but is likely to be genetically related to a granitoid buried at depth.