List of potential minerals and their compositions:

Semseyite

Stibnite

Boulangerite

Bournonite

Bindhemite

Barytine

Galena

Silver

Sphalerite

Ankerite

Malachite

Azurite
Jebrack et Marcoux, Géologie des ressources minérales, 2008

8.2.3 Filons à antimoine

L'antimoine est utilisé depuis longtemps : dans les pays arabes, il a longtemps servi de
pigment cosmétique, le khôl (d'où alcool en français). C’était un métal en voie d’abandon par
l’industrie, son emploi comme métal d’alliage, notamment avec le plomb, autrefois très
important, s’étant considérablement restreint à quelques secteurs spécifiques comme les
batteries automobiles et les pièces antifriction. Cependant, sous forme de trioxyde Sb 2O3,
l’antimoine s’est ouvert un créneau important comme ignifuge et retardateur de feu pour
textiles et caoutchoucs (jouets, housses de sièges automobiles et aéronautiques…). Depuis de
nombreuses années, la production mondiale d’antimoine est écrasée par la Chine qui a fourni
en 2007 plus de 110 000 des 135 000 tonnes extraites, loin devant la Bolivie (7000 t) et
l’Afrique du Sud (6000 t).
Les filons à antimoine ont représenté un type de gîte important en Europe (Brioude-Massiac
et La Lucette, en France) et au Maroc (Tarmilat) (Périchaud, 1980). Les plus grosses réserves
d'antimoine du monde sont situées en Chine (Xikuangshan, au Hunan), dans un vaste domaine
correspondant à des intrusions mésozoïques, avec des filons minces et des remplacements.
Ces gîtes sont souvent encaissés dans des séries sédimentaires, au voisinage de shales noirs.
L'antimoine peut occuper des grandes zones de cisaillement ductile, parfois minéralisées en or
comme au Zimbabwe. Dans ce district, les filons antimonifères sont composés de petites
structures anastomosées de forme sigmoïde conduisant à des corps réguliers, mais discontinus
et petits, de quelques milliers de tonnes ; les teneurs varient de 5 à 10 % Sb. Les filons sont
souvent situés dans des zones anticlinales fracturées (Jaillard, 1980) (fig. 8.14). Dans les
Andes centrales (Pederson, Bolivie), les gisements à antimoine pourraient passer en
profondeur à des concentrations en or dont la taille dépend de la longueur d’onde des plis
(Sillitoe, 2004).
En domaine cassant, on peut distinguer plusieurs grands types d'associations : à stibine et
sulfo-antimoniures, la plus fréquente, (Europe hercynienne, Murchison en Afrique du Sud), et
à antimoine natif, rare, mais connues au Québec (lac Nicolet) et en Finlande. On observe
souvent une succession de stades ferro-arsénifère, zincifère et plombo-antimonifères (Munoz
et Moëlo, 1982 ; Marcoux et al., 1988) dans une gangue de quartz et barytine. Les filons à
antimoine sont fréquemment entourés d'une auréole de chloritisation.
Le dépôt se produit entre 400 et 280 °C dans des fluides d’assez faible salinité (2-10 % éq.
poids NaCl). L’association à antimoine natif témoigne de conditions particulièrement
réductrices qui pourraient être liées à la production de CH 4 dans les zones de métavolcanites
serpentinisées (Normand et al., 1996). Ces gisements auraient été déposés par des fluides à
CO2 et H2O qui présentent des caractères voisins des fluides à W et Au. L'origine de
l'antimoine reste énigmatique, mais a été soupçonnée dans les socles métamorphiques.
La télédétection fournit des cibles à faible coût. La géochimie a montré son efficacité. À
l'échelle tactique, on peut utiliser la géochimie sol, ou l'électromagnétisme (VLF). Un moyen
rapide de contrôle de la présence de stibine est l'attaque par KOH, qui colore ce minéral en
jaune vif.
Laznicka 2006 - Giant Metallic deposits

10.7. (Syn)orogenic Sb & Hg deposits

10.7.1. Antimony deposits
Antimony is worth about $4-6/kg and it is a lowdemand
metal today. But it is geochemically rare,
with a clarke of 0.3 ppm and because of it every
deposit with 30,000 Sb plus is a "geochemical
giant". There are at least 21 of them, plus 3 "supergiants"
with 300 kt Sb plus and this does not
include deposits in Precambrian greenstone belts
(Chapter 9), and additional complex deposits where
Sb is a by-product (like the Coeur d'Alene district
with ~70 kt Sb, mostly in tetrahedrite; Chapter 7).
This contrasts, for example, with nickel worth
between $7 and $10/kg; yet Ni with the clarke of 55
ppm is 183 times more abundant than antimony.
Hence a Ni "giant" starts at 5.5 Mt Ni, which in
financial terms is 3,033 times more than the 30 kt
"Sb-giant". This is about the most striking case of
discrepancy between the geochemical and economic
premises of rating magnitudes of metal
accumulation, and the way out is to reduce the
coverage given to the Sb "giants" and extend the Ni
coverage to include the "large" deposits. This is
exactly what I have done, hence the identifiable
"Sb-giants" are all listed in Table 10.4, but the more
detailed description is kept short.
All economic Sb deposits are hydrothermal,
ranging from epithermal to mesothermal with the
latter predominant. Except for the tetrahedrite and
Cu, Pb, Ag sulfosalts-rich deposits described above,
the bulk of antimony is stored in what the U.S.
Geological Survey (Cox and Singer, eds., 1986)
term "Simple Sb deposits". The simplicity lies in
the fact that most such deposits are just stibnite
without or with few other metals and minerals like
pyrite and arsenopyrite. The "simple-Sb's" grade
into Sb-Au, Sb-As and Sb-W deposits and their
combinations, again not counting the ores with Sbsulfosalts.
In the Au-Sb deposits (gold being the
main cash earner), stibnite substitutes for the usual
arsenopyrite as the major sulfide (as in Hillgrove,
La Lucette, Yellow Pine). The Siberian "giant" gold
deposit Olimpiada holds 40% of Russian Sb
reserves. Most Sb deposits are (syn)orogenic, not
directly related to granitoids (yet often sharing
structures with granitoid porphyries and
lamprophyres), and with a special affinity for major
fault zones filled by high-level fault rocks (that is,
fault breccia, gouge, "fault slate" rather than
mylonite), especially ones rich in carbon. Sb
deposits form separate groupings (belts)
or they occur at the fringe of tungsten provinces (as in
China); alternatively they are part of Pb-Zn-Ag or
Au provinces. The lithology of wallrocks
determines whether the Sb orebodies are either
veins (in silicate rocks) or replacements ("mantos")
in carbonates; in many ore fields
veins/replacements are interchangeable. The silicate
rocks-hosted Sb deposits form a progression from
stibnite stringers and impregnations of fault gouge
and breccia with virtually no gangue, through
stockworks of quartz-stibnite stringers in fault
rocks, to predominantly quartz veins enclosing
massive stibnite.
Xikuangshan (also spelled Hsi-K'uang-Shan or
Si-Kon-Shan) is a "super-giant" ore field in Hunan,
China, which alone holds some 30% of the world's
Sb endowment; this makes China the principal
producer and storage house of antimony. It is also a
candidate for deposit with the world's largest
tonnage accumulation index, of all metals.
Xikuangshan (Tegengren, 1921; Wu Jiada et al.,
1990; Yi Jianbin and Shan Yehua, 1995; over 2 mt
Sb content with grade of abound 3% Sb) is the
example of a predominantly carbonate replacement
("manto") complex. The deposit is about 200 km
WSW of Changsha, in the Paleozoic platformic
cover over the Yangtze Platform.
The open-folded, but thrusted and faulted, host
sequence consists of bedded, shallow-water
limestone with some dolomite, alternating with
shale and quartz-rich sandstone. Except for few
lonely kersantite dikes, there are no signs of major
intrusive activity. The NNE-trending ore zone,
about 8 km long, intersect a NE-plunging anticline
in Upper Devonian limestone with interbedded
shale that terminates with sandstone-rich units at the
top and bottom. The mineralization has the form of
multiple stratabound "mantos" in several limestone
beds screened by shale.
It extends from the footwall of a major NNEstriking,
NW-dipping normal fault. The ore is
multistage with the early stage of extensive
silicification (jasperoid) accompanied by finegrained
stibnite replacements, followed by the
second stage of coarsely crystalline, dilations
(fractures and vugs)-filling stibnite. Impressive
mineralogical specimens of stibnite adorn many
world's museums. The epigenetic mineralization is
Jurassic or later, contemporaneous with crustal
extension and fault basin formation (activation or
"diwa" regime), with fluid temperatures dropping
from the initial 300oC plus to around 100oC.
Chinese geologists think strongly about the
proximal (local) sources of antimony, extracted
from the trace Sb-enriched rocks traversed by
convecting fluids. Much of the ore in the uppermost
manto is oxidized to a mixture of cervantite,
stibiconite, valentinite and kermesite stored in
karsted limestone regolith. Xikuangshan is merely
the largest ore zone in a larger area with numerous
other Sb deposits (compare locality map in Wu
Jiada et al., 1990).
The Wadley replacement deposit (Sierra de
Catorce, Mexico), described in Chapter 6 in the
andean-margin context, is very similar in form.
Also similar is the "giant" Kadamzhai deposit in
Kyrgyzstan, in the former Soviet Central Asia, that
had been for many years the principal source of
Soviet antimony. Kadamzhai (Nikiforov et al.,
1962; ~300 kt Sb; Fig. 10.33) is in the South
Ferghana fold- and Hg-Sb belt, a Paleozoic
accretionary complex dotted by hundreds of Sb and
Hg deposits and occurrences; the belt is described
below, under mercury. The deposit consists of an up
to 5 km long stratabound ore zone in brecciated and
silicified Lower Carboniferous limestone, confined
under a screen of Lower Devonian shale and
argillite. This is intersected by a series of faults,
considered feeders of the ore fluid. Stibnite is the
principal mineral with rare pyrite, marcasite, realgar
and orpiment directly scattered in jasperoid, or
associated with later stage breccia zones and
fracture veins. The latter have quartz, calcite, barite
and fluorite gangue.
Turhal ore field in north-central Turkey (Gokçe
and Spiro, 1991; minimum 100 kt Sb) is an example
of a composite Sb-ore field in which a variety of ore
styles are represented. The field is predominantly
located in Permian to Jurassic eugeoclinal
succession in the Pontic (northern Turkic) foldbelt,
composed of phyllite (locally carbonaceous) with
354 Chapter 10
greenstone meta-basalt intercalations, topped by
Mesozoic limestone. The earliest of some 37
different orebodies are stratabound stibnite and
pyrite lenses in carbonaceous phyllite and
subeconomic stibnite disseminations in calcareous
quartzite. Most of the remaining orebodies are
cross-cutting fault and fracture veins in phyllite and
greenstone with stibnite in quartz and carbonate
gangue.

Figure 10.33. Kadamzhai Sb deposit, Kyrgyzstan, crosssection

from LITHOTHEQUE No. 2206 modified from
Nikiforov et al. (1962). M1. Oxidized (valentinite,
senarmontite) and primary stibnite in jasperoid and
breccia; M2. Stibnite and calcite replace limestone. 1.
Allochthon: S shale to litharenite; 2. D1 argillite; 3. Cb1
massive limestone; F. Faults

Hillgrove Sb, Au, W ore field in New South Wales

is an example of stibnite-dominated veins with
significant gold- and some scheelite- byproduct
(Ashley and Craw, 2004; P+Rc ~80 kt Sb, 33 t Au,
2,100 t W). There are about 204 individual veins,
mineralized fault breccias and stockworks in a field
that measures 8 x 5 km, explored over a vertical
span of 1000 m. The orebodies are hosted by
Carboniferous turbidites, thermally metamorphosed
to biotite hornfels, and by Permocarboniferous
diorite, granodiorite and S-type monzogranite.
Steeply north-east dipping multistage veins fill
brittle faults and fractures and sometimes branch
into adjacent stockworks up to 20 m wide. The
early stages have quartz, scheelite, arsenopyrite,
pyrite with gold and minor Pb, Zn sulfides. This is
overprinted by quartz, stibnite with gold,
arsenopyrite and rare aurostibnite. Gold is both free
and refractory in arsenopyrite, concentrated in
haloes adjacent to some veins. The alteration is
sericite, ankerite, quartz; the 250o to 100oC fluids
deposited the ores between 255 and 247 Ma,
contemporaneously with infrequent lamprophyre
dikes.
As "Sb-giants" need only 30 kt Sb to qualify, there are
at least 40 deposits of this magnitude around the world
and probably more in China, for which tonnage data are
not available. Also not readily available are data on Sb
content in complex Pb, Zn, Ag, Cu, Au and other
deposits. Table 10.4. below is thus not complete (also
missing is the Archean Murchison Range-Sb in South
Africa).

Table 10.4. "Giant" Phanerozoic and late Precambrian

hydrothermal antimony deposits of the world
Deposit/district Type kt Sb
North American Cordillera
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho complex veins 70
Yellow Pine, Idaho complex Sb-Au-W in
shear zone
79
McLaughlin, California hot spring Sb-Au *40
Sierra de Catorce,
Mexico
simple Sb bedded
carbonate replacement
90
The Andes
Bolivian Sb belt
--Potosi area
(Chilcobija mine)
--Tupiza area
simple stibnite fault
veins
*300
70
230
Variscan orogen, Europe
La Lucette, France quartz Sb-Au veins 42
Brioude-Massiac, FR simple Sb fault veins 40
Krásná Hora-Milešov,
Czech Republic
quartz Sb-Au veins 50
Appalachian orogen, Canada
Lake George, NB simple Sb veins 55
Beaver Brook, NFdl simple Sb veins 42
Tethyan (Alps-Himalayas) orogen
Stadt Schlaining, Aust simple Sb veins *100
Krupanj-Zaja􀃾a, Serbia Sb karsted carbonate
replacements, veins
70
Turhal, Turkey +100
Central Asia (Altaides, Tian Shan, Tadjikistan)
Kadamzhai,
Kyrgyzstan
Sb carbonate
reoplacements
300
Nichkesu, Kyrgyzstan complex Sb-Au-Pb-
Cu veins
*100
Savoyardy, Kyrgyzstan
& Xinjiang
Ditto, Sb-Au veins *70
Chatkal Range, Kazakh
stan & Uzbekistan
Ditto *100
Jijikrut, Tajikistan Ditto + simple Sb 183
Chulboi, Tajikistan Ditto 463
Yenisei Ridge
Olimpiada, Russia simple quartz-Sb vein
marginal to Au-Sb-As
shear zone
*300
Verkhoyansk-Chukotka orogens in Russia
Sentachau, Sacha simple Sb veins 70
Qinling orogen, N-C China
Yawan, Gansu simple Sb veins *50
Intracratonic Orogens 355
Table 10.4 (continued)
SE China (Hunan, Guizhou, Guangxi)
Xikuangshan, Hunan replacement mantos
in carbonates > veins
2000
Gaoguashan, Hunan complex Sb-W veins *70
complex Sb-Au-W
bedded replac, veins
*100
0
Qinglong, SW Guizhou simple Sb bedded &
steep veins
*70
Banpo, Guizhou simple Sb bedded &
steep veins
*70
Dachang, Guangxi complex zoned Sn,Pb,
Zn,Sb ore field
*150
Burma, Malaya, Borneo
Bawdwin, Shan State complex Pb,Zn,Sb,
Cu,Co,Ni replacem.
218
Bau, Sarawak complex Au-Sb veins 91
Tasman orogen, E Australia
Hillgrove, NSW complex Sb > Au,W
quartz veins
80
Costerfield, Victoria simple Sb (Au) veins 40
* asterisk indicates tonnage estimate