Factors governing marble lightness in peripheral alteration haloes around carbonate-hosted Zn-Pb-Ag-(Cu-Au) deposits, Garpenberg, Sweden

Sammanfattning: A Master thesis about the Garpenberg deposit located in Bergslagen, a lithotectonic domain, with a mining history that might date back as far as 350 BC. Marble- and skarn-hosted sulfide deposits are found in the area, which creates the opportunity to mine both limestone and sulfidic ore in a single mine. Garpenberg is such a location hence this thesis, which aims to quantify the factors governing spectrophotometric lightness in marble at the Dammjön ore body. The work is mainly based on five drill cores which were logged and sampled. A total of twenty-seven samples were characterized using lithogeochemical analysis and thin-section analysis. The amount of Acid Insoluble Residue (AIR), magnetic minerals and the spectrophotometric lightness were determined for the same samples. The calcite marble was divided into seven different varieties; 1) calcite marble breccia, 2) light, 3) grey, 4) green, 5) banded salmon pink, 6) ophicalcite and 7) spotted calcite marble. The dolomite marble is white to grey in color and skarn minerals are common and varies between 5-20 vol.%. Grey and light calcite marble are the varieties with the highest spectrophotometric lightness, and it could be shown that the lightness increases with a decreasing amount of titanium, aluminum and zirconium which are chemical proxies for mineralogical impurities of originally volcaniclastic origin. High-quality calcite marble is a potentially economic by-product at the Garpenberg mine, the lightest samples are nearly as light as the light standard used during analysis (92.45 out of 100%). The lightest marble is also the chemically most pure which means that the calcium oxide (CaO) and total-carbon content are high. Key geological factors detrimental to lightness and purity are the primary composition, which is determined by the admixture of volcaniclastic material in the limestone precursor. Hydrothermal alteration with the addition of silicates, sulfides and oxides forms a halo around the massive sulfide lenses. Dolomite marble, which is more proximal to ore, is richer in manganese and sulfides, and not as light as the calcite marble at Dammsjön.