The Minamishiraoi deposits, one of the kuroko-type barite deposits located in southwestern Hokkaido, oc-cur in volcanic and pyroclastic rocks of Tertiary age, and are composed of barite ore body, silicified zone and argillized zone characterized by kaolin clay. This paper describes the occurrence of barite ores and the compositional variation in tetrahedrite-tennantite series mineral in them.
The barite ores are classified into three types: (1) grayish, sulfide-poor barite ore, which consists of major part of the barite ore body, (2) black, Cu·Pb·Zn·Fe sulfide-rich barite ore, which occurs as massive lens or cobble-size masses in the lower and/or marginal part of the barite ore body, (3) stockwork barite ore, which occurs in the silicified and argillized zones around the major barite ore body.
In the black barite and the stockwork barite ores, tetrahedrite-tennantite occurs widely as a common constituent mineral under microscope, with sphalerite, pyrite, galena, and chalcopyrite. On the other hand, the mineral occurs mainly within veinlets or cracks of barite in the grayish barite ore. Such texture suggests that the formation of the mineral could be later than the mineralization of sulfide minerals mentioned above.
The electron microprobe analysis of tetrahedrite-tennantite indicates that the chemical composition of the mineral varies extensively owning to the site substitutions between Cu-Ag, Fe-Zn-Hg, and As-Sb. It is noteworthy that the variations in chemical composition are closely related to the barite ore types. For example, the mineral from the black barite ore has wide substitutional range in (Fe↔Zn) and (As↔Sb) and nearly inverse relation between Zn and As contents is observed. These compositional variations are common even within a single grain of the mineral from the black barite ore.
The exchange of Fe and Zn between ore-forming solution and tetrahedrite-tennantite in the black barite ore is a function of physico-chemical conditions (e. g. oxygen fugacity and/or temperature). And it maybe infered that the com-positional variations of the mineral in the black barite ore might be caused by the variation of physico-chemical condi-tions owning to the change of sedimentary enviroment, the hydrothermal action related to kaolin alteration and/or the change of ore solution chemistry during barite mineralization.
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