Antimony Deposit Types & Origins

Most Sb deposits are formed by hydrothermal solutions at low temperatures and

shallow depths, giving rise to filled fissures, joints, and rock pores and to irregular
replacement deposits. Some primary deposits have been enriched in oxidized products
through residual weathering.

China, a main producer with Sb deposits occurring in deformed Silurian sandstone in

veins seams, pockets and lenses, with the richest deposits located beneath anticlinal
structures. The ore grades about 6% and is hand sorted to 60%. Two principal kinds of
Sb deposits are mined: stibnite-quartz veins in clastic host rocks, and stibnite-galena-
arsenopyrite replacement deposits in carbonate rocks, the former being the dominant ore
mined in the country. In the Wushih deposits, stibnite is associated with Au-bearing
quartz grading 0.20-0.25 oz/ton. These were originally mined for the gold content, and
the stibnite was discarded as waste. At depth, the shoots contract sharply and stibnite
gives way to pyrite.

The Hsi-Kuang-Shan district in central Hunan contains the richest and largest structure
in the entire region. Gently folded dolomitic limestone and few beds of shale,
sandstone, and low-grade bituminous coal overlie a quartzitic sandstone that contains
the deposit. The ore bodies are concentrated along the crest of a gentle anticline whose
folding caused jointing and brecciation in the brittle quartzites that were sandwiched
between shales. The most favourable bed for ore is a quartzite along the up thrown side
of a prominent fault. In places, stibnite is oxidized to stibiconite and contains less than
1% of combined As, Pb and Cu.

Worldwide sources include:

Mexico Deposits occurring in veins in limestones intruded by porphyry.

Bolivia Large reserves in the antimony belt, with high grade deposits in
shallow quartz veins in Palaeozoic shales (stibnite-base metals sulphides
association).
Algeria A mineralized belt across Algeria from Morocco to Tunis contains
antimony veins in limestone.

The composite gold-antimony vein deposit at

Kharma (Bolivia)
1. H. G. Dill,
2. T. Weiser,
3. I. R. Bernhardt and
4. C. Riera Kilibarda

+ Author Affiliations

1. Bundesanstalt fuer Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Hanover, Federal

Republic of Germany
Abstract
The Kharma antimony deposit in the Cordillera Oriental, Bolivia, is representative of vein-
type antimony deposits that have stibnite as the only mineral of economic interest and a
low gold content. In this deposit, recovery of gold is difficult because it is not known
exactly where the gold is located within the ore shoots or the manner in which it is present
in the main minerals of the deposit. Vein mineralization of this type is widespread, for
example, in Spain, Germany, France, and Turkey. As with similar antimony deposits in
Europe, this Bolivian Sb mineralization is bound to a fault zone that cuts dark, fine- grained
clastic rocks of early Paleozoic age. Field evidence suggests that the mineralization is
younger than Cretaceous. The country rocks have been subjected to regional dynamic
metamorphism of greenschist facies, during which minute streaks of pyrite and other base
metal sulfides formed parallel to the S planes of the siliceous pelites. Gold and antimony do
not form discrete minerals in this wall-rock mineralization. Our studies of the fault-hosted
mineralization reveal different genetic trends of gold concentration and depletion. During
an early episode of vein formation, gold was added as "invisible gold" (up to 0.2 wt % Au) in
arsenopyrite of substage Ia at temperatures somewhat higher than 400 degrees C, and as
native gold (gold 1) containing little silver (up to 99.9 wt % Au) in substage Ib at
temperatures somewhat higher than 300 degrees C. Arsenopyrite is considered the primary
host for Au. It was converted by shear stress in the fault zone into As-bearing pyrite with a
maximum of 268.8 ppm Au. Neither stibnite nor antimony sulfosalts, both of which are
major stage II minerals in addition to quartz, is host to appreciable gold concentrations
(max 0.8 ppm). Fluid inclusion studies on stage II quartz indicate a temperature of
formation of 130 degrees to 234 degrees C. Stage III is characterized by an influx of Ag-
bearing solutions at temperatures below 360 degrees C, which led to the conversion of
primary gold (gold I) into argentiferous gold (gold II) and reaction of gold and stibnite to
form antimony and aurostibite. Native gold was included by aurostibite during stage III and
by Au-Sb oxides during stage IV. This inclusion of gold was accompanied by the
precipitation of kaolinite, alunite, and schafarzikite (FeSb 2 O 4 ). The temperature of
formation of this late-stage redeposition of the gold can be inferred only from present-day
brines that emerge near the antimony vein at temperatures below 72 degrees C. Stage V
reflects the adjustment of primary Sb mineralization to near-surface conditions by the
formation of stibiconite and goethite...

Comments by Prof. Ricardo Sureda:

Te cuento, en relacin a estos depsitos subvolcnicos epitermales andinos de oro y

antimonita, que son muy frecuentes en el sur de Bolivia (minas Candelaria, Rosa de Oro) en un
cinturn que llega a la Argentina a la altura del ro fronterizo San Juan de Oro. Ac tenemos
pocas minas de esas (Pabelln, Coyahuaima) en Jujuy, y la mas austral asoma en el distrito
Incachule, en Salta. Son vetas de cuarzo con mineraloga simple: estibinita dominante, oro, con
escasas pirita o arsenopirita. Ahlfeld las describi en su clsica monografa sobre lo que llam
la Provincia antimonfera sur-boliviana. Normalmente encajan en rocas paleozoicas
sedimentarias (por lo comn lutitas negras y areniscas ordovcicas). Su relacin con intrusivos
prximos no es evidente y sus temperaturas de emplazamiento son bajas. El viejo especulaba
con plutones mesozoicos en profundidad, pero en Argentina esta probada su relacin con el
magmatismo andino cenozoico. A tu pregunta que tan frecuente es la estibinita en estos tipos
de depsitos, te dir que es esencial. El auge comercial del antimonio puso a Bolivia de
segundo productor mundial, despus de China, en la segunda dcada del siglo pasado. Bolivia
y Mxico fueron los primeros productores mundiales durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
Bolivia export concentrados de estibinita por casi 300.000 t en la primera mitad del siglo
pasado. Abrazos,