Abstract
Sphalerite is an abundant mineral in the hydrothermal deposits from the Baia Mare and Oaș areas (northwestern Romania). Sphalerite samples were analyzed with an electron probe microanalyzer and Raman spectroscopy. The obtained results indicated different amounts of Fe in the various deposits from the Baia Mare and Oaș areas. The sphalerites from Baia Sprie, Cavnic, Iba, Turț Penigher, and Breiner have a low Fe wt.% content. High Fe wt.% contents are at Herja and partly at Ghezuri and Nistru (copper stage) where sphalerite is associated with pyrrhotite. The correlation between iron and zinc from sphalerites is strongly negative. The negative correlation shows that iron is the main element that replaces zinc in the sphalerite structure. The manganese content of sphalerites in the Baia Mare and Oaș area is up to 0.84 wt.%. The cadmium content is quite uniform in the Baia Mare and Oaș area with contents ranging from 0.01 to 0.72 wt.%. The Fe content of sphalerites is an important indicator of the physico-chemical conditions of deposit formation because it is a function of temperature, pressure, and sulfur fugacity.
Highlights
Sphalerite is a common mineral in base-metal hydrothermal mineralizations in the metallogenetic district of Baia Mare and Oaş [1,2,3] with very high economic importance.Experimental studies on the importance of sphalerite geothermometers were performed by the authors of [4]
Sphalerite is presented as massive aggregates while cubic or octahedral crystals with sizes of a few centimeters were rarely identified at Herja, Baia Sprie, Cavnic
This study presents a detailed approach of sphalerite from base-metal epithermal mineralizations from the Baia Mare and Oaş areas
Summary
Experimental studies on the importance of sphalerite geothermometers were performed by the authors of [4]. The research in [4] could not be confirmed by [5,6], respectively, because sphalerite in equilibrium with pyrrhotite and pyrite contains increasing amounts of FeS as the temperature drops below 742 ◦ C. The authors of [7,8,9] discussed the possibility of using sphalerite as a geobarometer, not as a geothermometer. Sphalerite is an important mineral host for many minor and trace elements. Studies using laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectroscopy (LA-ICPMS) techniques to investigate the distribution of minor and trace elements in hydrothermal sphalerite were made in [10]. The minor and trace elements have been included in sphalerite by Zn2+
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