IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v5y2014i1d10.1038_ncomms5600.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Formation of recent Pb-Ag-Au mineralization by potential sub-surface microbial activity

Author

Listed:
  • Fernando Tornos

    (Centro de Astrobiología. Ctra Ajalvir km. 4.5, Torrejon de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain)

  • Francisco Velasco

    (Dpto. Mineralogía y Petrología, Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU)

  • César Menor-Salván

    (Centro de Astrobiología. Ctra Ajalvir km. 4.5, Torrejon de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain)

  • Antonio Delgado

    (Laboratorio de Biogeoquímica de Isótopos Estables, Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra IACT (CSIC-UGR). Avda. de las Palmeras, 4, 18100 Armilla, Granada, Spain)

  • John F. Slack

    (U.S. Geological Survey, National Center, MS 954)

  • Juan Manuel Escobar

    (Cobre Las Cruces S.A., Gerena, 41860 Seville, Spain)

Abstract

Las Cruces is a base-metal deposit in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, one of the world’s best-known ore provinces. Here we report the occurrence of major Pb-Ag-Au mineralization resulting from recent sub-surface replacement of supergene oxyhydroxides by carbonate and sulphide minerals. This is probably the largest documented occurrence of recent microbial activity producing an ore assemblage previously unknown in supergene mineralizing environments. The presence of microbial features in the sulphides suggests that these may be the first-described natural bacteriomorphs of galena. The low δ13C values of the carbonate minerals indicate formation by deep anaerobic microbial processes. Sulphur isotope values of sulphides are interpreted here as reflecting microbial reduction in a system impoverished in sulphate. We suggest that biogenic activity has produced around 3.1 × 109 moles of reduced sulphur and 1010 moles of CO2, promoting the formation of ca. 1.19 Mt of carbonates, 114,000 t of galena, 638 t of silver sulphides and 6.5 t of gold.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernando Tornos & Francisco Velasco & César Menor-Salván & Antonio Delgado & John F. Slack & Juan Manuel Escobar, 2014. "Formation of recent Pb-Ag-Au mineralization by potential sub-surface microbial activity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms5600
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5600
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5600
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms5600?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms5600. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.