Sulfide Remobilisation from Sulfide Ore at High Temperatures and Differential Stresses: An Experimental Approach

We conducted experiments to simulate sulfide remobilisation from sulfide ore. The starting material was from the Hongtoushan massive sulfide deposit, NE China, and is composed of pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, quartz, and silicate minerals. The ore was immersed in a solution of 20 wt.% NaCl for 260 h, and then was mounted in a Changjiang 500 triaxial rock stress machine. After the experiments were performed for 13 h at temperatures of 362, 464, 556 and 682°C, with corresponding confining and axial pressures, the samples were cooled at room temperatures. Our results from all the runs indicate that sulfides can be remobilised both mechanically and chemically, and that remobilisation is enhanced at higher temperatures. Mechanical remobilisation can only take place over limited distances and results in minor differentiation between various sulfide minerals. Distant external remobilisation to form new orebodies is most likely caused by chemical remobilisation. In contrast to plastically deformed areas, space resulting from cataclastic deformation could provide conduits for fluid transport and space for metal precipitation. Remobilised iron sulfides will precipitate as pyrrhotite at high temperatures, but as pyrite when temperature decreases. Furthermore, chalcopyrite is more easily remobilised than sphalerite under the conditions of the present experiments. Remobilisation accompanying deformation and metamorphism may add epigenetic features to syngenetic deposits.