DOI: 10.5880/gfz.3.1.2020.002
title: Trace element contents in white mica and tourmaline from the Panasqueira W-Sn-Cu deposit (Portugal)

description: Analyzing the chemical composition of rocks and minerals is an important tool for exploring and understanding mineral resources. Typically, hydrothermal ore deposits are characterized by primary alteration halos. At the world-class Panasqueira W-Sn-Cu deposit, the hydrothermal alteration of the wall rocks produced concentric zones with progressively greater distance from the veins, consisting of a proximal tourmaline-quartz-muscovite zone and a distal muscovite-quartz zone. 
 
Panasqueira is a world-class W-Sn-Cu lode-type deposit located in the Castelo Branco district (Beira Baixa, central Portugal). The ore deposit consists of a swarm of sub-horizontal veins associated with a Late-Variscan S-type granite and enclosed by a metasedimentary unit of Late Ediacaran to Early Cambrian age (e.g., Kelly and Rye, 1979; Romão et al., 2013). 
 
The veins are mainly composed of gangue quartz, muscovite and minor carbonates, apatite, topaz, topaz, fluorite, tourmaline, rutile, ilmenite, arsenopyrite, sphalerite, pyrite, marcasite, stannite, and pyrrhotite. Mineralization of wolframite, chalcopyrite, and cassiterite is predominantly hosted in veins with minor stringers and lenses of sulfide minerals in the wall rocks (e.g., Kelly and Rye, 1979; Polya, 1989; Polya et al., 2000). Although there is a strong variation in the vein mineralogy, typically, the quartz vein-filling is rimmed by a muscovite selvage up to 4-5 cm thick. The hydrothermal alteration produced a 2 to 30 cm thick tourmaline-rich alteration halo in the metasedimentary host rock (Bussink, 1984). 
 
Tourmaline and mica are ubiquitous minerals at Panasqueira W-Sn-Cu and coexist in many other hydrothermal ore deposits worldwide. Both minerals are well-known to host variable amounts of trace elements and to have potential as pathfinder minerals as well as fluid monitors. 
 
We analyzed major, minor and trace element contents of altered and unaltered metasediments from the Panasqueira by XRF and ICP-MS and tourmaline and white mica major, minor and trace element compositions by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) in previously well-characterized samples from different locations/setting in the mine (greisen, vein-selvages, wall-rock alteration zones, fault zone, and late vugs). 
 
The analyzed samples are described by Codeço et al. (2017), Codeço et al. (2019), and Codeço et al. 2020). These studies discuss the chemical (major, minor, and trace elements) and boron-isotopic compositions of tourmaline and white mica, and whole-rock chemistry of altered and unaltered metasediments. Further details on sample description can be found in the folder "2020-002_Codeco-et-al_Samples" and the analytical methods are described in " 2020-002_Codeco-et-al_data-description.pdf". 
 
Detailed information about the samples used, the location, and general geological background of the samples, and the analytical method is provided in the data description "2020-002_Codeco-et-al_data-description.pdf ".
description: The overriding goal of the DFG priority programm 2238 - DOME (https://www.uni-potsdam.de/en/spp2238/) is to find solutions to fundamental questions of element transport and mineralization in heterogeneous chemical systems that are complex, dynamic and highly transient. The topic of ore genesis has been studied for a long time from a combined field/laboratory perspective and also experimentally in simplified systems, but rarely have these techniques been integrated in a coordinated way with the third perspective from numerical process modeling. The originality and innovation potential of this priority program lies in the coordination of empirical field-related studies that define the geological/mineralogical framework of natural ore systems with experimental work and numerical models that provide a quantitative understanding of the processes involved.