Estudio textural, mineralógico y metales asociados de la veta Julio Verne, depósito de Organullo, Puna salteña

Abstract

Textural, mineralogical and associate metals study from Julio Verne mine, Organullo Deposit, Puna”. The Organullo deposit (Pb-Cu-Zn-Ag-Au) is located in the geological province of the Puna (24o 24’ S), province of Salta. It corresponds to an epithermal system with two important mines: Julio Verne and Torca Mine, currently abandoned with slagheap that contain high amounts of ore. The mineralization occurs as veins (Julio Verne, Diana, Natalia, Belén, Carolina, Marta, Virginia) hosted in Neoproterozoic and Ordovician rocks. The Julio Verne vein, object of this study, has NNO strike, of 200 meters in length and between 0.2 to 0.4 meters thick. It constitutes vetiform structures controlled by fractures hosted in the Puncoviscana Formation. The complex and extensive mineralogy of ore has already been studied and associated with sectors of the vetiforms but notto the mineral textures. In this work, we observe five textures (massive, pseudobanded, veinlets, vuggy and breccia) associated with the mineralization. The presence of pyrite, chalcopyrite, bismutinite, covelline, luzonite-famatinite is optically redefined. The microanalyses of luzonite-famatinite crystals allow the characterization of compositional variations. The metal map made by high resolution scanning electron microscopy shows met- als such as Sb, As, Cu, Bi, Pb and Sn associated with breccias textures. The study of the textures and minerals suggests a complex system, therefore, detailed studies should be car- ried out in the future for to define the type of epithermal system.