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Sulfide partial melting and chalcopyrite disease: An experimental study

  • Boddepalli Govindarao , Kamal Lochan Pruseth EMAIL logo and Biswajit Mishra
Published/Copyright: July 30, 2018
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American Mineralogist
From the journal American Mineralogist Volume 103 Issue 8

Abstract

Speckling of sphalerite with micrometer-sized blebs of chalcopyrite is usually referred to as “chalcopyrite disease.” Fe-rich sphalerites are particularly prone to chalcopyrite disease. Considering the low degree of solid solution between sphalerite and chalcopyrite, exsolution is discarded as a process to explain the development of chalcopyrite disease. Diffusion-controlled replacement of Fe by Cu, and sphalerite-chalcopyrite co-precipitation are invoked as the most probable mechanisms. Although metamorphism is expected to dispel inhomogeneities through recrystallization, chalcopyrite disease interestingly appears unaffected and to be quite common in metamorphosed sulfide ores. We have conducted experiments on different bulk compositions in the system ZnS-PbS-FeS-Cu2S-As2S3 at 600 °C and annealed the run products containing melt at 350 °C to evaluate the role of sulfide partial melting, if any, in the development of chalcopyrite disease. The results indicate that chalcopyrite blebs developed only in those sphalerites that contained Fe and in which S atoms were in excess over Fe + Zn atoms. Also it was observed that the occurrence of Fe-bearing sphalerite and the sulfide partial melt (that invariably was S-deficient and Cu-enriched) in direct contact with each other was necessary for the chalcopyrite blebs to form. We propose nonstoichiometry-driven diffusion of Cu as the mechanism and sulfide partial melting as the principal causative factor behind the development of chalcopyrite disease in sphalerite. Chalcopyrite disease thus may be used as an easily identifiable potential indicator of sulfide partial melting in metamorphosed base metal sulfide deposits.

Keywords: Chalcopyrite disease; chalcopyrite blebs; sulfide partial melting; nonstoichiometry; sphalerite; Planetary Processes as Revealed by Sulfides and Chalcophile Elements

Acknowledgments

B.G. thanks the CSIR, New Delhi, for the financial assistance in the form of a Research Fellowship. The experimental work was performed using the facility supported by the project SR/S4/ES-219/2006 to K.L.P. from the Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Delhi. SEM-BSE imaging and EPMA data were generated by the equipment procured through a DST funding (IR/S4/ESF-08/2005) to the Department of Geology and Geophysics, IIT Kharagpur. Critical reviews by Ron Frost and John Mavrogenes have substantially improved the quality of the paper. The authors thank Raúl Fonseca for the editorial handling.

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Received: 2018-01-23
Accepted: 2018-04-10
Published Online: 2018-07-30
Published in Print: 2018-08-28

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2018-6477
Keywords for this article
Chalcopyrite disease; chalcopyrite blebs; sulfide partial melting; nonstoichiometry; sphalerite; Planetary Processes as Revealed by Sulfides and Chalcophile Elements

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Highlights and Breakthroughs
  2. Electron channeling to achieve the full potential of mineralogy
  3. The inverse problem of unpolarized infrared spectroscopy of geological materials: Estimation from noisy random sampling of a quadratic form
  4. The distribution of lead and thallium in mantle rocks: Insights from the Balmuccia peridotite massif (Italian Alps)
  5. Sulfide partial melting and chalcopyrite disease: An experimental study
  6. Nanoscale partitioning of Ru, Ir, and Pt in base-metal sulfides from the Caridad chromite deposit, Cuba
  7. Stability of Al-bearing superhydrous phase B at the mantle transition zone and the uppermost lower mantle
  8. Origin of the fluorine- and beryllium-rich rhyolites of the Spor Mountain Formation, Western Utah
  9. The mantle source of thermal plumes: Trace and minor elements in olivine and major oxides of primitive liquids (and why the olivine compositions don’t matter)
  10. The effects of ferromagnetism and interstitial hydrogen on the equation of states of hcp and dhcp FeHx: Implications for the Earth’s inner core age
  11. Accurate predictions of microscale oxygen barometry in basaltic glasses using V K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy: A multivariate approach
  12. Electrical cell assembly for reproducible conductivity experiments in the multi-anvil
  13. A vibrational spectroscopic study of kernite to 25 GPa: Implications for the high-pressure stability of borate polyhedra
  14. Discreditation of bobdownsite and the establishment of criteria for the identification of minerals with essential monofluorophosphate (PO3F2–)
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  21. Book Review
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  23. Erratum
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