Stefano Naitza

The geological and metallogenic map of the Baccu Locci mine area (Sardinia, Italy)

Abstract Please click here to download the map associated with this article. The study area is in the nappe zone of the Sardinian Variscides in the southeast part of the Island of Sardinia (Italy), and extends between 39°33′14″/9°30′14″ (NW corner) and 39°30′09″/9°35′36″ (SE corner). The area shows a section of the Variscan orogen in Sardinia with three tectonic units that were stacked and folded during the Middle Carboniferous Variscan tectonics. The presented 1:10,000 scale geological map, the cross sections and the 3D models illustrate the complicated tectonic setting of the area, resulting from the polyphasic Variscan collisional evolution as well as from later extensional stages. The geometry resulting from progressive deformation is strongly noncylindrical; it is not balanceable because the polypahsic deformation with different tectonic transport directions and the loss in volume in the different formations occurred under greenschist facies metamorphism. The use of 3D modelling of geological surfaces greatly improved both the map and cross-sections. The Variscan basement of the study area hosts one of the most important mining zones of SE Sardinia (Baccu Locci mine area), which was active until 1961 for the extraction of AsPy, PbS and ZnS. Recent studies also found a noteworthy occurrence of Au. The Baccu Locci mine is assumed to be the eastern part of a mineralized corridor linked with the Variscan shear zone. A metallogenic map of the Baccu Locci mine area at 1:7,500 scale is included in this paper. The primary map associated with this paper actually represents a 4D model (spatial and time dimensions) of ore bodies hosted in a crystalline basement and highlights the overprinting of different paragenetic sequences of mineralizations and their relationships with pre-existing structures.

Structural and metallogenic map of late Variscan Arbus Pluton (SW Sardinia, Italy)

ABSTRACT This paper presents the geological, structural and metallogenic map of the Arbus Pluton, a late Variscan composite intrusion belonging to the Corsica-Sardinia Batholith. The pluton is surrounded and crosscut by a wide variety of vein ore deposits. The Arbus Pluton was emplaced at shallow crustal levels at the end of the Variscan Orogeny, along an E–W trending shear zone located in the low-grade external nappe pile of the Sardinian basement. The architecture of the pluton is roughly concentric with a core of cordierite-bearing leucogranites and an outer shell composed of pyroxene-bearing and hornblende granodiorites. New U/Pb dating on zircons of granodiorite yields an emplacement age of 303.7 ± 1.1 which improves previous Rb/Sr and Ar/Ar dating. The map has been compiled on the basis of new geological/structural surveys and petrographical studies coupled with in situ gamma ray spectrometry. All the data-sets have been processed using a geographical information system.