Stratabound Barite Deposits: Mineralogy, Isotope Geochemistry and Geochronology

Dear Colleagues,

Globally, a large proportion of mined barite is derived from strata-bound deposits hosted in carbonate, clastic, or volcanic rocks. Some of these deposits are ‘world-class’ in terms of their tonnage. A thorough understanding of how such deposits formed is of great importance in guiding exploration for further resources. Equally important from an academic perspective is the information that strata-bound barite can provide on past environments and diagenetic to hydrothermal processes, both in the Phanerozoic when marine sulfate was abundant and early in Earth’s history when marine sulfate was scarce. What is the mineralogical, isotopic, and/or geochronological evidence that these Archaean and Proterozoic barite deposits formed on the contemporaneous seafloor, and if so, what are the implications for the (local or global) marine environment at that time?

Carbonate-hosted strata-bound barite is often, though not everywhere, associated with epigenetic karst-fill or dissolution-replacement of Mississippi-valley-type (MVT) deposits and with diagenetic transitional to syngenetic Irish-type deposits. Stratabound barite mineralization hosted by Phanerozoic shales and other clastic sediments (clastic-dominant or ‘CD-type’ deposits) has been a topic of considerable discussion during the past thirty years. The ‘sedimentary exhalative’ (sedex) concept, which was popular in the twentieth century, invoking synsedimentary precipitation of barite in the water column or on the seabed, has been largely ousted by concepts involving subsurface diagenetic replacement processes. This Special Issue provides an opportunity for experts in the field to present mineralogical, isotopic, and geochronological evidence in support of their theories on ore formation in MV-, Irish- and CD-type strata bound barite (-Zn-Pb sulfide) deposits.

Dr. Norman Moles
Guest Editor

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• strata bound barite
• sediment-hosted mineralization
• volcanogenic deposit
• sedex deposit
• CD-type deposit
• MVT deposit
• bedded barite deposits
• sediment-hosted barite deposits