The Niederschlag fluorite-(barite) deposit, Erzgebirge/Germany—a fluid inclusion and trace element study

Gutzmer, Jens
Wohlgemuth-Ueberwasser, Cora C.
Kraemer, Dennis
Burisch, Mathias

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-020-01035-y
Persistent URL: http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gldocs-11858/10755
Gutzmer, Jens; Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Helmholtz Institut Freiberg für Ressourcentechnologie, Freiberg, Germany
Wohlgemuth-Ueberwasser, Cora C.; German Research Centre for Geosciences, GFZ, Potsdam, Germany
Kraemer, Dennis; Department of Physics and Earth Sciences, Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Burisch, Mathias; Institut für Mineralogie, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg, Germany
Abstract
The Niederschlag fluorite-barite vein deposit in the Western Erzgebirge, Germany, has been actively mined since 2013. We present the results of a first comprehensive study of the mineralogy, petrography, fluid inclusions, and trace element geochemistry of fluorite related to the Niederschlag deposit. Two different stages of fluorite mineralization are recognized. Stage I fluorite is older, fine-grained, associated with quartz, and forms complex breccia and replacement textures. Conversely, the younger Stage II fluorite is accompanied by barite and often occurs as banded and coarse crystalline open-space infill. Fluid inclusion and REY systematics are distinctly different for these two fluorite stages. Fluid inclusions in fluorite I reveal the presence of a low to medium saline (7–20% eq. w (NaCl+CaCl2)) fluid with homogenization temperatures of 140–180 °C, whereas fluorite II inclusions yield distinctly lower (80–120 °C) homogenization temperatures with at least two high salinity fluids involved (18–27% eq. w (NaCl+CaCl2)). In the absence of geochronological data, the genesis of the earlier generation of fluorite-quartz mineralization remains enigmatic but is tentatively related to Permian magmatism in the Erzgebirge. The younger fluorite-barite mineralization, on the other hand, has similarities to many fluorite-barite-Pb-Zn-Cu vein deposits in Europe that are widely accepted to be related to the Mesozoic opening of the northern Atlantic Ocean.
Subjects
FluoriteMicrothermometry
Fluid inclusions
Rare earth elements
Geochemistry
Metallogenesis
Industrial minerals