Sphalerite geobarometry of deformed sulphide ores from the C. S. A. Mine, Cobar, Australia

Abstract

The C. S. A. Mine is located near Cobar, central New South Wales. The copper-zinc-lead ores occur in Early Devonian rocks of the Cobar Super-Group. Lower greenschist (“slate-grade”) metamorphism has developed elongate lenticular ore systems parallel to the extension (down-dip) lineation in cleavage. FeS contents of sphalerites coexisting with pyrite and pyrrhotite outside and inside pressure shadows indicate much higher pressures (7.7 to 9.0 kbar) than those inferred from stratigraphic reasoning and the low metamorphic grade. The homogeneous distribution of Fe in sphalerites suggests equilibration with pyrite-pyrrhotite; and concentrations of Co and Ni in iron sulphides, and Mn, Cd and Cu in sphalerite are too low to have influenced phase relations in the FeS-ZnS pseudobinary system. The anomalously high pressures are therefore ascribed to reequilibration of sphalerite compositions with a monoclinic pyrrhotite-pyrite buffer. The FeS contents of the reequilibrated sphalerites apparently reflect the differing mean stress domains that exist outside and inside pressure shadows. This suggests that reequilibration occurred under the same stress distribution as produced the original pressure shadows, and implies FeS dissolution during the decay of the cleavage-producing structuro-metamorphic event. The commonly observed scatter of sphalerite compositions in low grade assemblages appears to record micro-scale mean stress domains, and thereby testifies to the pressure sensitivity of the mole percent FeS contents.