ORE MINERAL TEXTURES

ORE MINERAL TEXTURES

Primary growth textures

Magmatic textures
Open-space textures
Replacement textures
Cooling-related textures
Exsolution
Inversion
Thermal stress
Deformation-related textures
Twinning
Curvature of crystals
Metamorphic-related recrystallization
 Primary growth textures - Magmatic

Indicative of cooling from a melt

High-temperature minerals show no obstruction of
faces
If rapidly cooled, dendritic textures may be present :
Poikilitic crystals
Cocrystallization = mutual boundaries of different
angles (contrast to metamorphic)
Low-temperature minerals fill interstices
 Chromite: The great dyke, Zimbabwe

Euhedral chromite crystals are fractured, some fractures are along a poorly
defined cleavage (bottom center) and are accompanied by incipient
alteration (higher reflectance areas, center right). Silicate (dark grey) forms
the matrix to the chromite and replaces it (bottom right).
 Chromite, chalcopyrite and rutile. Bushveld, Republic of South Africa

Euhedral, fractured cubic crystals of chromite (medium grey) are intergrown

with silicate (dark grey). A single lath of rutile (light grey, centre) is partially
enclosed in chromite and partly in silicate. Minor amounts of interstitial
chalcopyrite (yellow, left centre) are present. Black areas are polishing pits.
Magnetite, ilmenite, TiO2 minerals and hematite. Guernsey, Channel Islands, Britain

A diorite contains magnetite (light brown-grey, centre right) that has oxidation-
exsolution lamellae of ilmenite (light pink-brown, center) parallel to (111) of the
magnetite. The lamellae have altered to a finegrained intergrowth of TiO2 minerals and
hematite (blue-white to light grey, center left). Amphibole (bottom left) shows cleavage
and biotite (top right) has light brown internal reflections.
 Merensky Reef. Bushveld, Republic of South Africa .

Pentlandite (light brown, center) is intergrown with chalcopyrite (yellow, right),

pyrite (pale yellow-white, centre bottom) and minor amounts of pyrrhotite
(lilacgrey, center right). Silicate gangue (grey) shows internal Reflections. Black
areas are polishing pits. The sulphides are interstitial to the silicates.
 Ilmenite laths in silicate matrix: unrestrained growth

A basalt fragment from the lunar regolith. Abundant subparallel ilmenite laths
(pale brown), many of which are 'feather-like', lie within plagioclase (areas of
lightcolored internal reflection, bottom right) which is intergrown with
euhedral rhombic pyroxene (light grey, few internal reflections, left center).
Small euhedral equant chromite-ulvspinel (pale brown, top left) and rounded
iron-nickel alloy (white, very high reflectance, bottom left) are present in the
plagioclase also. The high magnification and large variation in reflectance
between the opaque phases makes accurate color photography difficult.
 Vug filling of earlier euhedral sphalerite followed by galena

Sphalerite (light grey) occurs as radiating aggregates of different grain sizes.

Very fine-grained sphalerite is poorly polished and shows reddish-brown or
lightcolored internal reflections (top and bottom right). The central bands of
sphalerite have grown into a vug and hence have euhedral crystal
terminations. Galena (white) has infilled most of this central vug. Black
areas are polishing pits.
 Zoning in sphalerite evidenced by weak color variations

Zoning in the sphalerite is just

visible as blue-grey (centre) and
brown-grey (bottom right) areas.
Black areas are polishing pits.

Zoning in sphalerite evidenced by stronger color variations in

transmitted light

This is the same field but in

transmitted light.The intensity of
the colours are due to variations in
the trace element content of the
growth bands, most importantly
the iron content.
Simple and polysynthetic twinning in marcasite

An intergrowth of marcasite crystals shows their extreme

anisotropy, variation in grain size, and twinning along (101) as
coarse single twins (top left) and as polysynthetic twinning
(center left).
 Open-space growth of early native Ag followed by niccolite and thin
maucherite rims

Native silver (white, scratched, center left) forms the cores to botryoidal niccolite
(pink-brown) showing faint reflection pleochroism (light to dark pink-brown, center
right) that is difficult to see. Thin rims of maucherite (grey-blue, center bottom)
surround niccolite. Acanthite (light grey, bottom right) has replaced native silver in the
core of a niccolite dendrite. Dark grey areas are calcite showing faint bireflectance (top
center). Black areas are polishing pits.
 Widmanstatten structure in Fe-Ni meteorites: example of exsolution
(similar to mt-ilm)

kamacite ~7% Ni

taenite 27-65% Ni

Cooling textures Exsolution

Separation of structurally-incompatible phases as T decreases, often in a
characteristic pattern controlled by crystallography Different from
replacement textures because of depletion of exsolved phase at
intersections (spindleshaped lath textures)
Exsolution of chalcopyrite and bornite

Twinning of hematite: bireflectance of hematite makes this

look like two different minerals that are exsolved!
Ilmenite exsolution from magnetite, resulting from
oxidation during cooling

Cooling-related thermal stress in pentlandite caused

cracking:note the difference between pyrrhotite and
pentlandite polish
 Digenite replaced by covellite along fractures and more
extensively replaced by bornite and chalcopyrite

Digenite (blue, top left) shows minor replacement by covellite (deep blue)
along cleavage and small fractures. More extensive replacement is shown by
bornite (brown-pink, center) which contains relict digenite. Minor amounts of
chalcopyrite (yellow, right center) occur on the edge of bornite but are
difficult to see. Two distinct generations of hematite are present. Hematite
laths (light blue, hard, center bottom) occur within digenite and bornite,
whereas most hematite (green-grey) is very fine-grained and replaces bornite
along grain edges (bottom center).Quartz is dark grey.
Galena replaced by anglesite and cerussite: a classic example of
replacement caries texture

Effect of chemical
composition: Often just a
change in oxidation state of
ycation (e.g. pyhm)
Covellite replacing arsenopyrite Note the characteristic shape of the
arsenopyrite
 Deformation-related textures

May be seen in some minerals not normally thought to be

metamorphosed
Twinning:
Growth twins: lamellar, irregular width, uneven distribution
Inversion twins: spindle-shaped, intergrown networks
throughout grain
Deformation twins: uniformly thick lamellae, associated with
bending, cataclasis; twins often cross grain boundaries
Curvature & offset of linear features
Infill and flow of softer sulfides around harder ones
Fracturing and brecciation
Deformation twins in stibnite
Replacement and fracture fill of bornite after pyrite
TERIMA KASIH

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