• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.49-60
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• 2021

The Geumhwa Au-Ag deposit is located within the Cretaceous Gyeongsang basin. Mineral paragenesis can be divided into two stages (stage I and II) by major tectonic fracturing. Stage II is economically barren. Stage I, at which the precipitation of major ore minerals occurred, is further divided into three substages(early, middle and late) with paragenetic time based on minor fractures and discernible mineral assemblages: early substage, marked by deposition of pyrite with minor wolframite; middle substage, characterized by introduction of electrum and base-metal sulfides with Cu-As and/or Cu-Sb sulfosalts; late substage, marked by hematite and Bi-sulfosalts with secondary minerals. Changes in vein mineralogy reflect decreases in temperature and sulfur fugacity with a concomitant increase in oxygen fugacity. Fluid inclusion data indicate progressive decreases in temperature and salinity within each substage with increasing paragenetic time. During the early portion of stage I, high-temperature (≥410℃), high-salinity fluids (up to ≈44 equiv. wt. % NaCl) formed by condensation during decompression of a magmatic vapor phase. During waning of early substage, high-temperature, high-salinity fluids gave way to progressively cooler, more dilute fluids associated with main Au-Ag mineralization (middle) and finally to ≈180℃ and ≥0.7 equiv. wt. % NaCl fluids associated with hematite and sulfosalts (± secondary) mineralization (late substage). These trends are interpreted to indicate progressive mixing of high- and medium to low-salinity hydrothermal fluids with cooler, more dilute, oxidizing meteoric waters. The Geumhwa Au-Ag deposit may represent a vein-type system transitional between porphyry-type and epithermal-type.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.93-101
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• 1992

Several "Napseok" mines are distribute in the Miryang area where the volcanic rocks are hydrothermally altered. The "Napseok" are pyrophyllite and dickite, with a small amount of silicates such as quartz, illite, tosudite and dumortierite. Other associated minerals are oxides, hydroxides, sulfides, sulfates and phosphates. Pyrophyllite which occurs as 2M polytype exhibits that the basal spacing increases due to dehydroxylation at 750${\circ}C$. Halloysite shows tubular forms. Wavellite is precipitated in fissures during the latest stage of the hydrothermal alteration process. Five mineral zones, that is pyrophyllite-deckite, illite, halloysite, silica, and albite-chlorite zones, are recognized with decreasing alteration degree. Clay minerals were formed by leaching of Si and alkali ions fron the country rocks, considering mineral assemblages, pyrophyllite polytype and thermodynamical data reported in the literature, temperatures of formation of main clay deposits are assumed to be 270 to 350${\circ}C$.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.259-268
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• 1988

Clay deposits in the vicinity of the Gwangpo Bay, southern coast of Korea, occur restrictively in anorthositic masses. Laumontite and meta-halloysite are the predominant clay minerals with iron oxides at the uppermost surface. Chlorite and halloysite occur in deeper zone. Beneath the main clay horizon, but not above, some anorthositic rocks are pervasively altered to quartz, sericite, chlorite, pyrite and montmorillonite along the hydrothermal channels. The hypotheses of hydrothermal and weathering origins of the clay minerals are tested by multi-component equilibrium calculations of the reactions of modified hydrothermal water and rain water with anorthositic rocks at $100^{\circ}C\;and\;25^{\circ}C$, respectively. The calculated mineralogy from the reaction with rain water resembles natural mineral assemblage except for abundance in laumontite. The result implies that the weathering process is the main machanism of the formation of clay deposits in the area.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.171-183
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• 1998

Early Tertiary volcanics, volcanoclastics and granodiorite occur in the Barton Peninsula, King George Island, Antarctica. In the granodioritic stock and volcanic rocks, propylitic alteration characterized by actinolite, epidote, chlorite and calcite is widespread, and disseminations and veinlets of sulfide minerals such as pyrite, chalcopyrite and bornite are ubiquitious. The study on the hydrothermal alteration near granodioritic stock can be summarized as follows; (1) granodiorite intrusion is a small, high level stock associated with calc-alkaline volcanism, and have high copper content, (2) high temperature type of propylitic alteration and common occurrence of copper sulfides in and around granodiorite intrusion, (3) low ${\delta}^{34}S$ values of pyrites by oxidational conditions of sulfide deposition, (4) low ${\delta}^{34}S$ values of quartz and feldspar in the granodiorite, and isotopic non-equilibrium by hydrothermal alteration. It suggest that hyrothermal alteration and mineralization near granodioritc stock should be genetically related to granodiorite intrusion in the Barton Peninsula.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.147-160
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• 1994

Copper-bearing hydrothermal vein mineralization of the Samsan area was deposited in two stages (I and II) of quartz-calcite-sulfide veins which fill fissures in Cretaceous volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Gyeongsang basin. The major ore minerals, chalcopyrite and sphalerite, together with pyrite, galena, hematite, and minor sulfosalts, occur with epidote and chlorite as gangue minerals in stage I quartz veins. Chlorite geothermometry, fluid inclusion and stable isotope data indicate that copper ore was deposited mainly at temperatures between $330^{\circ}C$ and $280^{\circ}C$ from fluids with salinities between 12 and 3 equiv. wt % NaCl. Evidence of fluid boiling indicates a range of pressures from ${\leq}100$ to 200 bars bars. Within ore stage I there was an apparent decrease in ${\delta}^{34}S$ values of $H_{2}S$ with paragenetic time, from 8.0 to 2.3 per mil. This pattern was likely achieved through progressive increases in activity of oxygen accompanying boiling and mixing. In the early part of the first stage, the high temperature, high salinity fluids gave way to progressively cooler and more dilute fluids of the late parts in the first stage and of the second stage. There is a systematic decrease in calculated ${\delta}^{18}O_{water}$ values with decreasing temperature in the Samsan hydrothermal system, from values of -86 per mil for early portion of stage I through -5.9 per mil for late portion of stage I to -6.3 per mil for stage II. The ${\delta}D$ values of fluid inclusion waters also decrease with paragenetic time from -76 per mil to -86 per mil. These trends combined with mineral paragenesis and fluid inclusion data are interpreted to indicate progressive cooler, more oxidizing meteoric water inundation of an early exchanged meteoric hydrothermal system.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.211-220
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• 2002

The Xiaoxinancha Cu-Au deposit in the Jilin province, located in NNE 800 km of Beijing, is hosted by diorite. The ore mineralization of Xiaoxinancha Cu-Au deposit show a stockwork occurrence that is concentrated on the potassic and phyllic alteration zones. The Xiaoxinancha Cu-Au deposit in the south is being mined with its reserves grading 0.8% Cu, 3.64 g/t Au and 16.8 g/t Ag and in the north, grading 0.63% Cu, 3.80 g/t Au and 6.8 glt Ag. The alteration assemblage occurs as a supergene blanket over deposit. Hydrothermal alteration at the Xiaoxinancha Cu-Au deposit is centered about the stock and was extensively related to the emplacement of the stock. Early hydrothermal alteration was dominantly potassic and followed by propylitic alteration. Chalcocite, often associated with hematite, account for the ore-grade copper, while chalcopyrite, bornite, quartz, epidote, chlorite and calcite constitute the typical gangue assemblage. Other minor opaque phases include pyrite, marcasite, native gold, electrum, hessite, hedleyite, volynskite, galenobismutite, covellite and goethite. Fluid inclusion data indicate that the formation of this porphyry copper deposit is thought to be a result of cooling followed by mixing with dilute and cooler meteoric water with time. In stage II vein, early boiling occurred at 497$^{\circ}$C was succeeded by the occurrence of halite-bearing type III fluid inclusion with homogenization temperature as much as 100$^{\circ}$C lower. The salinities of type 1II fluid inclusion in stage II vein are 54.3 to 66.9 wt.% NaCI + KCI equiv. at 383$^{\circ}$ to 495$^{\circ}$C, indicating the formation depth less than 1 km. Type I cupriferous fluids in stage III vein have the homogenization temperatures and salinity of 168$^{\circ}$ to 365$^{\circ}$C and 1.1 to 9.0 wt.% NaCI equiv. These fluid inclusions in stage III veins were trapped in quartz veins containing highly fractured breccia, indicating the predominance of boiling evidence. This corresponds to hydrostatic pressure of 50 to 80 bars. The $\delta$$^{34}S$ value of sulfide minerals increase slightly with paragenetic time and yield calculated $\delta$$^{34}S_{H2S}$ values of 0.8 to 3.7$\textperthousand$. There is no mineralogical evidence that fugacity of oxygen decreased, and it is thought that the oxygen fugacity of the mineralizing fluids have been buffered through reaction with magnetite. We interpreted the range of the calculated $\delta$$^{34}S_{H2S}$ values for sulfides to represent the incorporation of sulfur from two sources into the Xiaoxinancha Cu-Au hydrothermal fluids: (1) an isotopically light source with a $\delta$$^{34}S$ value of I to 2$\textperthousand$, probably a Mesozoic granitoid related to the ore mineralization. We can infer from the fact that diorite as the host rock in the Xiaoxinancha Cu-Au deposit area intruded plagiogranite; (2) an isotopically heavier source with a $\delta$$^{34}S$ value of > 4.0$\textperthousand$, probably the local porphyry.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.505-517
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• 1997

Lead and zinc mineralization of the Kwangsin mine was formed in quartz and carbonate veins that filled fault-related fractures in the limestone-rich Samtaesan Formation of the Chosun Supergroup and the phyllite-rich Suchangni Formation of unknown age. A K-Ar date of alteration sericite indicates that the Pb-Zn mineralization took place during Late Cretaceous (83.5 Ma), genetically in relation to the cooling of the nearby Muamsa Granite (83~87 Ma). Mineral paragenesis can be divided into three stages (I, II, III): (I) the deposition of barren massive white quartz, (II) the main Pb-Zn mineralization with deposition of white crystalline quartz and/or carbonates (rhodochrosite and dolomite), and (III) the deposition of post-ore barren calcite. Mineralogic and fluid inclusion data indicate that lead-zinc minerals in middle stage II (IIb) were deposited at temperatures between $182^{\circ}$ and $276^{\circ}C$ from fluids with salinities of 2.7 to 5.4 wt. % equiv. NaCl and with log $fs_2$ values of -15.5 to -11.8 atm. The relationship between homogenization temperature and salinity data indicates that lead-zinc deposition was a result of fluid boiling and later meteoric water mixing. Ore mineralization occurred at depths of about 600 to 700 m. Sulfur isotope compositions of sulfide minerals (${\delta}^{34}S_{CDT}=9.0{\sim}14.5$ ‰) indicate a relatively high ${\delta}^{34}S_{{\Sigma}S}$ value of ore fluids (up to 14 ‰), likely indicating an igneous source of sulfur largely mixed with an isotopically heavier sulfur source (possibly sulfates in surrounding sedimentary rocks). There is a remarkable decrease of calculated ${\delta}^{18}O$ value of water in hydrothermal fluids with increasing paragenetic time: stage I, 14.6~10.1 ‰; stage IIa, 5.8~2.2 ‰; stage IIb, 0.8~2.0 ‰; stage IIc, -6.1~-6.8 ‰, This indicates a progressive increase of meteoric water influx in the hydrothermal system at Kwangsin. Measured and calculated hydrogen and oxygen isotope values indicate that the Kwangsin hydrothermal fluids was formed from a circulating (due to intrusion of the Muamsa Granite) meteoric waters which evolved through interaction mainly with the Samtaesan Formation (${\delta}^{18}O=20.1$ to 24.9 ‰) under low water/rock ratios.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.161-174
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• 2013

The geology of the weondong deposit area consists mainly of Cambro-Ordovician and Carboniferous-Triassic formations, and intruded quartz porphyry and dyke. The skarn mineralized zone in the weondong deposit is the most prospective region for the useful W-mineral deposits. To determine the skarn-mineralization age, U-Pb SHRIMP and K-Ar age dating methods were employed. The U-Pb zircon ages of quartz porphyry intrusion (WD-A) and feldspar porphyry dyke (WD-B) are 79.37 Ma and 50.64 Ma. The K-Ar ages of coarse-grained crystalline phlogopite (WD-1), massive phlogopite (WDR-1), phlogopite coexisted with skarn minerals (WD-M), and vein type illite (WD-2) were determined as $49.1{\pm}1.1$ Ma, $49.2{\pm}1.2$ Ma, $49.9{\pm}3.6$ Ma, and $48.3{\pm}1.1$ Ma, respectively. And the ages of the high uranium zircon of hydrothermally altered quartz porphyry (WD-C) range from 59.7 to 38.7 Ma, which dependson zircon's textures affected by hydrothermal fluids. It is regarded as the effect of some hydrothermal events, which may precipitate and overgrow the high-U zircons, and happen the zircon's metamictization and dissolution-reprecipitation reactions. Based on the K-Ar age datings for the skarn minerals and field evidences, we suggest that the timing of W-skarn mineralization in weondong deposit may be about 50 Ma. However, for the accurate timing of skarn mineralization in this area, the additional researches about the sequence of superposition at the skarn minerals and geological relationship between skarn deposits and dyke should be needed in the future.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.487-502
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• 2012

This paper is focused on mineral compositions, microstructures and distributional characters of remained grains in the fault rocks collected from a fault developed in Yongdang-ri, Yangbuk-myeon, Gyeongju City, Korea, using X-ray diffraction (XRD), optical microscope, laser grain size analysis and fractal dimension analysis methods. The exposed fault core zone is about 1.5 meter thick. On the average, the breccia zone is 1.2 meter and the gouge zone is 20cm thick, respectively. XRD results show that the breccia zone consists predominantly of rock-forming minerals including quartz and feldspar, but the gouge zone consists of abundant clay minerals such as chlorite, illite and kaolinite. Mineral vein, pyrite and altered minerals commonly observed in the fault rock support evidence of fault activity associated with hydrothermal alteration. Fractal dimensions based on box counting, image analysis and laser particle analysis suggest that mineral grains in the fault rock underwent fracturing process as well as abrasion that gave rise to diminution of grains during the fault activity. Fractal dimensions(D-values) calculated by three methods gradually increase from the breccia zone to the gouge zone which has commonly high D-values. There are no noticeable changes in D-values in the gouge zone with trend being constant. It means that the bulk-crushing process of mineral grains in the breccia zone was predominant, whereas abrasion of mineral grains in the gouge zone took place by continuous fault activity. It means that the bulk-crushing process of mineral grains in the breccia zone was predominant, whereas abrasion of mineral grains in the gouge zone took place by continuous fault activity. Mineral compositions in the fault zone and peculiar trends in grain distribution indicate that multiple fault activity had a considerable influence on the evolution of fault zones, together with hydrothermal alteration. Meanwhile, fractal dimension values(D) in the fault rock should be used with caution because there is possibility that different values are unexpectedly obtained depending on the measurement methods available even in the same sample.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.321-328
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• 2003

The epithermal gold and base metal deposit of the Tanggeung district of West Java consists of four major veins(Celak, Cigodobras, Cilangkap and Pasirbedil) with NS to N10$^{\circ}$∼20$^{\circ}$E and N75$^{\circ}$W strikes. The veins occur within fractures cutting the crystal and lithic tuff of Jampang Formation(Oligo-Miocene) in and around the Mt. Subang of the western Java, Indonesia. The ore mineralization is characterized by the occurrence of pyrite, sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, and small amounts of bornite and Fe-oxides. Hydrothermal alteration, associated with the mineralization, was dominantly silicified and enveloped by the phyllitic(sericitic), argillic and propylitic alteration containing the disseminated pyrite. Gangue minerals consist of interstratified smectite-illite, chlorite, sericite, and minor kaolinite. The presence of vapor-rich fluid inclusions in quartz veins suggests that boiling occurred locally throughout ore deposition. Fluid inclusion studies suggest that the ore fluid evolved from initial high temperatures(〓34$0^{\circ}C$) to later lower temperatures(〓19$0^{\circ}C$). Salinities range from 0.0 to 8.3 wt percent NaCl equiv. The relatively high increase in salinity(up to 8.3 wt percent NaCl equiv) might be explained by a local boiling and by a participation of magmatic fluids, supported by the sulfur isotope results. Evidence of fluid boiling suggests that the pressure decreased from 200 bars to 120 bars. This corresponds to the depths of approximately 750 to 1,200 m in a hydrothermal system that changed from lithostatic to hydrostatic conditions. Using homogenization temperatures and paragenetic constraints, the calculated $\delta$$^{34}$ S values of $H_2S$ in ore fluid are -0.2 to 1.8 permil close to the 0 permil isotopic value of magmatic sulfur.