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Explanation for many of the unusual features of the massive sulfide deposits of the Iberian pyrite belt

¹ Centre for Ore Deposit Research, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-79, Hobart, Tasmania 7005, Australia
² Instituto Tecnologico Geominero de España, Azafranal 48-50, 37001 Salamanca, Spain
³ Rua Marechal Saldanha, 935-2° Direito, 4150-659 Porto, Portugal

Newly published fluid-inclusion data from quartz in stockwork veins beneath seven massive sulfide lenses in the Iberian pyrite belt suggest that the lenses were formed from fluids that on reaching the sea reversed buoyancy and ponded in basins. Sulfides quenched in the resulting brine pool would have settled to form a sulfide mud. This process provides a relatively efficient trapping mechanism for metal in the fluids and effectively excludes ambient seawater, accounting for the deposits tending to have the characteristics of large size, sheet-like form, absence of relict chimney structures, and a mineral content characterized by pyrite-arsenopyrite, and absence or scarcity of barite, marcasite, and Fe oxides. If total S was less than total metals in the stockwork fluids, some or all of the more soluble Zn and Pb could have been swept from the basin at the overflow, accounting for the variable but generally low Zn and Pb contents of the ores. The lack of sedimentary source for the high salinities implicates magmatic intrusions, possibly similar to those related to Sn-W mineralization.

Key Words: Iberia • massive sulfide deposits • brine pools

This article has been cited by other articles:

				F. Tornos, M. Solomon, C. Conde, and B. F. Spiro Formation of the Tharsis Massive Sulfide Deposit, Iberian Pyrite Belt: Geological, Lithogeochemical, and Stable Isotope Evidence for Deposition in a Brine Pool Economic Geology, January 1, 2008; 103(1): 185 - 214. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				C. M. C. Inverno, M. Solomon, M. D. Barton, and J. Foden The Cu Stockwork and Massive Sulfide Ore of the Feitais Volcanic-Hosted Massive Sulfide Deposit, Aljustrel, Iberian Pyrite Belt, Portugal: A Mineralogical, Fluid Inclusion, and Isotopic Investigation Economic Geology, January 1, 2008; 103(1): 241 - 267. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. E. Ioannou, E. T. C. Spooner, and C. T. Barrie Fluid Temperature and Salinity Characteristics of the Matagami Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide District, Quebec Economic Geology, June 1, 2007; 102(4): 691 - 715. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Solomon and C. Quesada Zn-Pb-Cu massive sulfide deposits: Brine-pool types occur in collisional orogens, black smoker types occur in backarc and/or arc basins Geology, December 1, 2003; 31(12): 1029 - 1032. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]