Silver Mineralization at the Vale Das Gatas Tungsten Mine, Portugal

O. Gaspar, J. F. W. Bowles and T. J. Shepherd
Laboratório da Direcção-Geral de Geologia e Minas, 4465 S. Mamede de Infesta, Portugal
Micro-Analysis Consultants Ltd., Unit 3, Edison Road, St. Ives, Cambridgeshire PE17 4LF, England
British Geological Survey, 64-78 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1X 8NG

Abstract: The Vale das Gatas tungsten mine is situated at the contact between Hercynian granite and Cambrian-Precambrian crystalline schists a few kilometers north of the village of Sabrosa, near Vila Real, in northern Portugal. Wolframite has been the principal product of the mine although several other metals of economic interest are known to occur there. The silver content of the ores was attributed by earlier workers to the presence of tetrahedrite and schapbachite, whilst this work shows matildite, pavonite, acanthite, and argyrodite to be present, together with Ag-bearing galena. The textures and compositions of these phases are described with preliminary results of fluid inclusion studies.

Keywords: silver • tungsten • Portugal • Vale das Gatas • matildite • pavonite • galena

Mineralogical Magazine; June 1987 v. 51; no. 360; p. 305-310; DOI: 10.1180/minmag.1987.051.360.13
© 1987, The Mineralogical Society
Mineralogical Society (www.minersoc.org)