Chemical Composition of Sphalerite Relating to Mineralization at the Tongyoung mine, Korea

통영광산산(統營鑛山産) 섬아연석(閃亞鉛石)의 화학조성(化學組成)

The Tongyoung deposits are epithermal gold and silver bearing quartz-rhodochrosite vein type deposits of late Cretaceous. They occurs in the andesite and tuff breccia member called Gyeongsang basin. Four mineralizations can be distinguished at the mine based on macrostructures. From earlist stage to lastest stage they are: stage I, base-metal quartz vein; stage II, rhodochrosite vein (IIA) and Pb-Zn vein (IIB); stage III, barren quartz vein; stage IV, calcite-ankeritic rhodochrosite veins. Gold and silver mineralizations occur predominantly in the stage I and IIB. Electrum is closely associated with galena, sphalerite and pyrite, and has chemical compositions of 50.98-64.05 atom % Ag. Sphalerite contains 2.09-5.05 mol % FeS and 0.34-2.01 mol % MnS in the stage I, and 2.01-3.41 mol % FeS and 0.21-2.80 mol % MnS in the stage IIB. The FeS and MnS contents are in general correlated, and shows a characteristic zonal arrangement of electrum. It reveals rhat FeS contents of sphalerite which precipitated before electrum, gradually decreases in a grain during its deposition ranging from about 3.3 to 2 mol %. It may be considered from the above data that an increase of $fs_2$ caused by the oxidation of ore forming fluid is more important that the decrease of temperature.