Stylianos Tombros

Physicochemical controls on bismuth mineralization: An example from Moutoulas, Serifos Island, Cyclades, Greece

Abstract The 11.6 to 9.5 Ma Serifos pluton intruded schists and marbles of the Cycladic Blueschist unit, causing thermal metamorphism, the development of magnetite Ca-exo- and endo-skarns and the formation of low-temperature vein and carbonate-replacement ores. Potentially, the most important ores occur in the Moutoulas prospect where the mineralization in retrograde skarn and quartz veins culminated with the deposition of native bismuth. A combination of fluid inclusion microthermometry and isotope geothermometry suggests that the Moutoulas mineralization formed at a hydrostatic pressure of ~100 bars, from moderate-to-low temperature (~190–250 °C), and low-salinity (1.3–5.6 wt% NaCl equivalent) fluids. The calculated δ34SH2S compositions are consistent with the ore fluids having been derived from the Serifos pluton. Bismuth mineralization is interpreted to have occurred as a result of wall-rock interaction and mixing of a Bi-bearing ore fluid with meteoric waters. Native bismuth and bismuthinite deposited at ~200 °C, near neutral pH (6.5), low fS2 (<–16.5), and low fO2(<–44). Supergene alteration in Serifos led to the oxidation of native bismuth to bismite and bismutite.