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

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

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-020-01035-y
Persistent URL: http://resolver.sub.uni-goettingen.de/purl?gldocs-11858/10755
Haschke, Sebastian; Gutzmer, Jens; Wohlgemuth-Ueberwasser, Cora C.; Kraemer, Dennis; Burisch, Mathias, 2021: The Niederschlag fluorite-(barite) deposit, Erzgebirge/Germany—a fluid inclusion and trace element study. In: Mineralium Deposita, 56, 6, 1071-1086, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-020-01035-y. 
 
Haschke, Sebastian; Institut für Mineralogie, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, Freiberg, Germany
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.