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Formula: Ag16Sb2S11
Suphosalt, pearceite-polybasite group,
antimony-bearing mineral
Crystal System: Trigonal
Specific gravity: 6.403 calculated
Hardness: 3
Colour: Dark grey to black
Environments
Volcanic igneous environments
Hydrothermal environments
Localities
There are two co-type localities, the Arykevaam deposit, Anadyrsky District, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, and
Šibeničný vrch, Nová Baňa, Žarnovica District, Banská Bystrica Region, Slovakia.
At the co-type locality Arykevaam deposit, Anadyrsky District, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, the epithermal
gold - silver deposit is located on
the flank of a dome-shaped volcanic structure composed of various Upper Cretaceous (100.5 to 66 million years ago)
volcanics ranging from basalts to subalkaline
rhyolites. The outcrops of subvolcanic bodies are associated
spatially with fields of secondary
quartzites and
mudstones that contain
quartz veins with epithermal
gold - silver mineralisation. The
main vein mineral is quartz.
Adularia, chlorite,
illite, kaolinite and
gypsum are present in minor amounts. The main ore minerals are
pearceite and polybasite,
whereas acanthite,
freibergite series minerals,
proustite, chalcopyrite,
galena, pyrite,
sphalerite and native gold are
less common.
Argentopolybasite is a hydrothermal mineral, which formed from low- to moderate-temperature hydrothermal
solutions
(MM 87.382–395).
At the co-type locality Šibeničný vrch, Nová Baňa, Žarnovica District, Banská Bystrica Region, Slovakia,
epithermal veins with silver - gold
mineralisation are located in a Middle Miocene (15.97 to 11.63 million years ago) stratovolcano, represented
mainly by andesitic rocks. Low- to intermediate- sulphidation
epithermal veins and veinlets are hosted in an extrusive rhyolite
body in the central part of the deposit. In the southeast and southwest parts of the deposit, the host rocks
comprise ignimbrites and
andesites.
The samples containing argentopolybasite were collected from the dumps of old workings. The ore shows
typical low-sulphidation epithermal mineralisation with banded textures composed of
adularia, chalcedony-like
quartz and disseminated precious metal minerals.
Argentopolybasite is associated with acanthite,
pyrargyrite, proustite,
rozhdestvenskayaite-(Zn),
naumannite and gold -
silver alloys
(MM 87.382–395).
At the Kremnica Au-Ag deposit, Kremnica, Žiar nad Hronom District, Banská Bystrica Region, Slovakia, the epithermal
gold - silver deposit is located in
the remnants of a large Miocene (23.03 to 5.333 million years ago)
andesite stratovolcano. The deposit consists of a system of
low-sulphidation epithermal veins with gold -
silver - antimony mineralisation
developed on marginal faults.
The samples with argentopolybasite were collected 10 cm wide hydrothermal
quartz vein, that frequently contained drusy cavities with crystalline
quartz, dolomite,
siderite and abundant aggregates and crystals of
silver sulphosalts such as argentopolybasite,
polybasite, pyrargyrite,
argentotetrahedrite-(Zn) and
rozhdestvenskayaite-(Zn), as well as minor
stephanite and miargyrite,
and subordinate amounts of gold,
naumannite and pyrite
(MM 87.382–395).
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