LECTURE 5

Paragenesis, Paragenetic Sequences, and Zoning

ZONING

- The spatial distribution patterns of major or trace elements (cryptic zoning or chemical
zoning), mineral species (mineral zoning), mineral assemblages (assemblage zoning), or
textures (textural zoning) in ore deposits.
✔ Cryptic zoning or chemical zoning- invisible to the eye
✔ Textural zoning- can occur from coarse vein fillings internally to finer grain size
externally.
• Zoning in ore deposits is any regular pattern in the distribution of minerals or elements in space;
it may be shown in a single orebody, in a mineral district, or in a large region
• Besides space, time must be considered in the study of zonal phenomena
• Changes in molecular or ionic species and in their activities in an evolving fluid produces changes
in ore and gangue mineralogy along course of deposition.
• Such changes are evident not only in igneous processes but also sedimentary processes and
metamorphism
• Any detection of a zonal pattern, epigenetic or syngenetic, is important to economic geology
because it helps predict changes in the style and grade of mineralization as a deposit is developed
and mined.
• Zoning in ore deposits is conveniently divided based on size and sometimes origin:

✔ Regional Zoning

✔ District Zoning

✔ Ore body Zoning

REGIONAL ZONING

- Zoning on a very large scale and best thought of in terms of metallogeny.

Metallogeny is the study of the genesis and regional-to-global distrivution of
mineral deposits, with emphasis on their relationship in space and time to regional
petrologic and tectonic features of the Earth’s crust.
- Also called metallogenic zoning
- Associated in the areas where orogeny or mountain-building and other regional structural
deformation occurs.
DISTRICT ZONING

- Field observation shows that group of minerals have characteristically been formed in
more or less constant sequence in hydrothermal ore deposits.
- Example of this is the Baguio Mineral District; whereas, group of companies shares the
same type of deposits to mine.
 • Actual vein system vs. theoretical system

✔ There are such irregularities between the two concepts

1. Dumping or the reversal result from the abnormally rapid deposition

2. Overlapping of zones wherein two or more mineralizing centers overlaps:
▢ by the retreat or advance of mineralizing centers during one period of deposition
▢ by repeated periods of mineralization in a single area
▢ by variations in the mixing of juvenile fluids with circulating groundwater
▢ by other influences
• Telescoped deposit

✔ The deposit or district that has overlapping mineral zones

✔ At depth, temperature and pressure gradients are less steep. Under this conditions,
deposition takes place slowly, the separation of minerals is well defined, mineralogy is inclined to
obey the phase rule and be simpler, and zonal boundaries are gradational making telescoping
not possible. Therefore, telescoping is restricted largely to deposits formed under shallow
conditions, where temperature and pressure change rapidly.
OREBODY ZONING

- This level of zoning refers to variations of paragenesis, and hence of mineral species,
and to variations in element abundances, which can certainly include the metal or metal
sought.
- Almost non existent in persistent deposits.

✔ Persistent deposits

▢ a deposit that does not formed any recognizable zoning because ore form lower levels
is apparently identical with ore from the upper level.
▢ formed in the environments of apparently gentle chemical and thermal gradients, and in
most extreme in epithermal deposits and in those that appear to have involved structures that were
open to the surface and to invasion by meteoric waters.
PARAGENESIS

- Came from the Greek word paragenesis which means “born beside”
- It is used to describe any assemblage of ore minerals, with or without gangue, formed at
the same time and normally in equilibrium.
- The chronological order of mineral deposition or the sequence of assemblage is known as
the Paragenetic sequence of a deposit and the variation in the spatial distribution of
paragenesis is known as zoning.

• Assemblage vs. Associated

▢ Assemblage is a collection or gathering of minerals or rock
▢ Associated means having a connection or resemblance with other mineral in certain
temperature and pressure regime
PARAGENETIC SEQUENCE
Chronological Order of mineral deposition
• While one mineral is being deposited under certain conditions at one place or level, other
minerals are forming elsewhere under different conditions. Thus the deposition of one mineral
commonly overlaps the deposition of others in both space and time
• Slight changes in temperature, pressure, or chemistry of the transporting fluids may also
alter the normal course of deposition and cause reversals or interruptions in the process.