ALBERT

Notes: Abstract Several carbonate-hosted stratabound zinc-lead ores in the Ponferrada-Caurel area (NW Spain) are hosted by the Lower to Middle Cambrian Vegadeo Formation. Two clearly distinct groups of mineralizations occur in different stratigraphic positions. The stratiform disseminated ore is located in the Lower Member as irregular and millimetre-thick layers of sphalerite and galena replacing earlier pyrite. The lack of hydrothermal alteration and the heavy C., O and S isotopic signatures suggest that this ore is of premetamorphic origin, the sulphur and fluids being derived from the host carbonates. The more likely source of the sulphide is the abiogenic thermal reduction of sulphate derived from sulphate beds intercalated with the carbonates. The second group of mineralizations is located at the top of the Vegadeo Fm, always along its contact with the overlaying shales and sandstones of the Cabos Series. This group is economically more important and include three styles of strata-bound mineralizations. The more common one is the ‘silica ore’, a hydrothermal rock that traces the contact between the carbonate and the detrital rocks along more than 50 km. Locally, a ‘carbonate-rich ore’ is found along the contact between the silica ore and the Vegadeo Fm. Laterally to these rocks, there are large bodies of the ≪breccia ore≫, made up of sulphides and calcite in a matrix of chlorite. The ore assemblage is composed of sphalerite and galena with minor amounts of chalcopyrite and pyrite. Co-Ni-As sulphides, bismuthinite, tetrahedrite and Pb-Bi sulphosalts are also found as trace minerals. The geological relationships and the isotopic signatures suggest that the three ores are synchronous and of late Hercynian age. They are interpreted as linked with a tectonically driven fluid flow along the stratigraphic contact between the carbonate and the detrital rocks. The model of ore genesis involves the circulation of fluids in likely equilibrium with the detrital rocks that react with the Vegadeo Fm leading to the metasomatic replacement of limestones by quartz with synchronous precipitation of sulphides. The genesis of breccias is probably due to the formation of overpressured zones. The hydrothermal alteration results in a systematic depletion in both δ 18O and δ 13C of the carbonates due to the infiltration of fluids, of likely mixed metamorphic and surface origin. Fluid inclusions in the chloritic breccia suggest that the ore formation took place at temperatures higher than 200 °C in relationship with low salinity (up to 1.2% wt. NaCl eq.) water-rich (H2O〉99%) fluids. Sulphur isotopes suggest that most of the sulphur has a common origin with the stratiform ores, but here there is a significant but variable input from the detrital rocks. Lead isotopes of the different ores are within the ‘Cambrian signature’ of the southern Hercynian Belt, with a long crustal history. However, mixing with a minor juvenile component cannot be ruled out. The geographic and stratigraphic proximity and the similar lead signatures between the premetamorphic and the Hercynian mineralizations suggest that the latter was derived from the remobilization, in a ‘lead frozen system’, of the stratiform-disseminated ones. The premetamorphic mineralizations can be interpreted as similar to the widespread Mississippi Valley-type deposits found in the southern Hercynian Belt. The second group of deposits can be defined as synto postmetamorphic stratabound, carbonate-hosted Zn-Pb deposits, broadly similar to MVT but formed in an orogenic setting. Specific features such as the presence of chlorite, the fluid composition (low saline H2O-NaCl fluids) and the temperatures of formation (above at 200 °C) are interpreted as characteristic of this tectonic setting.

Notes: Abstract The Filón Norte orebody (Tharsis, Iberian Pyrite Belt) is one of the largest pyrite-rich massive sulphide deposits of the world. The present structure of the mineralization consists of an internally complex low-angle north-dipping thrust system of Variscan age. There are three major tectonic units separated by thick fault zones, each unit with its own lithologic and hydrothermal features. They are internally organized in a hinterland dipping duplex sequence with high-angle horses of competent rocks (igneous and detritic rocks and massive sulphides) bounded by phyllonites. The mineralization is within the Lower Unit and is composed of several stacked sheets of massive sulphides and shales hosting a stockwork zone with no obvious zonation. The Intermediate Unit is made up of pervasively ankeritized shales and basalts (spilites). Here, hydrothermal breccias are abundant. The Upper Unit is the less hydrothermally altered one and consists of silicified dacites and a diabase sill. The tectonic reconstruction suggests that the sequence is inverted and the altered igneous rocks were originally below the orebody. Carbon, oxygen and sulphur isotopes in the massive sulphides and hydrothermal rocks as well as the mineral assemblage and the paragenetic succession suggest that the sulphide precipitation in the sea floor took place at a low temperature (〈≈150 °C) without indication, at least in the exposed section, of a high-temperature copper-rich event. Sporadic deep subsea-floor boiling is probably responsible for the formation of hydrothermal breccias and the wide extension of the stockwork. Its Co-Au enrichment is interpreted as being related with the superposition of some critical factors, such as the relationship with black shales, the low temperature of formation and the boiling of hydrothermal fluids. The present configuration and thickness of the orebody is due to the tectonic stacking of a thin and extensive blanket (2–4 km2) of massive sulphides with low aspect ratio. They were formed by poorly focused venting of hot modified seawater equilibrated with underlying rocks into the seafloor. Massive sulphide precipitation took place by hydrothermal fluid quenching, bacteriogenic activity and particle settling in an unusual, restricted, euxinic and shallow basin (brine pool?) with a low detritic input but with important hydrothermal activity related to synsedimentary extensional faulting. Resedimentation of sulphides seems to be of major importance and responsible for the observed well-mixed proximal and distal facies. The tectonic deformation is largely heterogeneous and has been mostly channelled along the phyllonitic (tectonized shales) deformation bands. Thus, sedimentary and diagenetic textures are relatively well-preserved outside the deformation bands. In the massive sulphides, superimposed Variscan recrystallization is not very important and only some early textures are replaced by metamorphic/tectonic ones. The stockwork is much more deformed than the massive sulphides. The deformation has a critical effect on the present morphology of the orebody and the distribution of the ore minerals. This deposit is a typical example of the sheet-like, shale-hosted, anoxic, low temperature and Zn-rich massive sulphides developed in a ensialic extensional basin.

Notes: Abstract Re-Os isotopes were used to constrain the source of the ore-forming elements of the Tharsis and Rio Tinto mines of the Iberian Pyrite Belt, and the timing of mineralization. The pyrite from both mines has simila]r Os and Re concentrations, ranging between 0.05–0.7 and 0.6–66 ppb, respectively. 187Re/188Os ratios range from about 14 to 5161. Pyrite-rich ore samples from the massive ore of Tharsis and two samples of stockwork ore from Rio Tinto yield an isochron with an age of 346 ± 26 Ma, and an initial 187Os/188Os ratio of about 0.69. Five samples from Tharsis yield an age of 353 ± 44 Ma with an initial 187Os/188Os ratio of about 0.37. A sample of massive sulfide ore from Tharsis and one from Rio Tinto lie well above both isochrons and could represent Re mobilization after mineralization. The pyrite Re-Os ages agree with the paleontological age of 350 Ma of the black shales in which the ores are disseminated. Our data do not permit us to determine whether the Re-Os isochron yields the original age of ore deposition or the age of the Hercynian metamorphism that affected the ores. However, the reasonable Re-Os age reported here indicates that the complex history of the ores that occurred after the severe metamorphic event that affected the Iberian Pyrite Belt massive sulfide deposits did not fundamentally disturb the Re-Os geochronologic system. The highly radiogenic initial Os isotopic ratio agrees with previous Pb isotopic studies. If the initial ratio is recording the initial and not the metamorphic conditions, then the data indicate that the source of the metals was largely crustal. The continental margin sediments that underlie the deposits (phyllite-quartzite group) or the volcanic rocks (volcanogenic-sedimentary complex) in which the ores occur are plausible sources for the ore-forming metals and should constrain the models for the genesis of these deposits.

Notes: Abstract The Eastern Iberian Central System has abundant ore showings hosted by a wide variety of hydrothermal rocks; they include Sn-W, Fe and Zn-(W) calcic and magnesian skarns, shear zone- and episyenite-hosted Cu-Zn-Sn-W orebodies, Cu-W-Sn greisens and W-(Sn), base metal and fluorite-barite veins. Systematic dating and fluid inclusion studies show that they can be grouped into several hydrothermal episodes related with the waning Variscan orogeny. The first event was at about 295 Ma followed by younger pulses associated with Early Alpine rifting and extension and dated near 277, 150 and 100 to 20 Ma, respectively (events II–IV). The δ18O-δD and δ34S studies of hydrothermal rocks have elucidated the hydrological evolution of these systems. The event I fluids are of mixed origin. They are metamorphic fluids (H2O-CO2-CH4-NaCl; δ18O=4.7 to 9.3‰; δD ab.−34‰) related to W-(Sn) veins and modified meteoric waters in the deep magnesian Sn-W skarns (H2O-NaCl, 4.5–6.4 wt% NaCl eq.; δ18O=7.3–7.8‰; δD=−77 to −74‰) and epizonal shallow calcic Zn-(W) and Fe skarns (H2O-NaCl, 〈8 wt% NaCl eq.; δ18O=−0.4 to 3.4‰; δD=−75 to −58‰). They were probably formed by local hydrothermal cells that were spatially and temporally related to the youngest Variscan granites, the metals precipitating by fluid unmixing and fluid-rock reactions. The minor influence of magmatic fluids confirms that the intrusion of these granites was essentially water-undersaturated, as most of the hydrothermal fluids were external to the igneous rocks. The fluids involved in the younger hydrothermal systems (events II–III) are very similar. The waters involved in the formation of episyenites, chlorite-rich greisens, retrograde skarns and phyllic and chlorite-rich alterations in the shear zones show no major chemical or isotopic differences. Interaction of the hydrothermal fluids with the host rocks was the main mechanism of ore formation. The composition (H2O-NaCl fluids with original salinities below 6.2 wt% NaCl eq.) and the δ18O (−4.6 to 6.3‰) and δD (−51 to −40‰) values are consistent with a meteoric origin, with a δ18O-shift caused by the interaction with the, mostly igneous, host rocks. These fluids circulated within regional-scale convective cells and were then channelled along major crustal discontinuities. In these shear zones the more easily altered minerals such as feldspars, actinolite and chlorite had their δ18O signatures overprinted by low temperature younger events while the quartz inherited the original signature. In the shallower portions of the hydrothermal systems, basement-cover fluorite-barite-base metal veins formed by mixing of these deep fluids with downwards percolating brines. These brines are also interpreted as of meteoric origin (δ18O〈 ≈ −4‰; δD=−65 to −36‰) that leached the solutes (salinity 〉14 wt% NaCl eq.) from evaporites hosted in the post-Variscan sequence. The δD values are very similar to most of those recorded by Kelly and Rye in Panasqueira and confirm that the Upper Paleozoic meteoric waters in central Iberia had very negative δD values (≤−52‰) whereas those of Early Mesozoic age ranged between −65 and −36‰.