Multi-Stage Sulfidation at Bavaria's Largest Cu-Zn Deposit (Kupferberg/Germany)

From the 13th century on the city of Kupferberg in northeastern Bavaria was an important regional center of mining and metallurgy. The local deposit quickly developed to Bavaria's most important source of Cu and Zn and stimulated the economy of the whole area. The deposit consists of several stratiform sulfide- rich lenses (mainly pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite) extending over a c. 4 km long NW-SE trending zone. Despite the fact that these lenses cross a major regional fault between the anchimetamorphic "Randschiefer Serie" and the greenschist-facies "Prasinit-Phyllit Serie", the deposit has been traditionally interpreted as a SEDEX deposit. Except from antiquated mining records there is only little information about the deposits per se and even less about its geological environment. Here we report on new trace element analyses of pyrite, U-Pb zircon dating and the application of chlorite geothermometry, all of which document a multistage sulfide mineralization history with synsedimentary sulfide formation followed by synorogenic (Variscan) sulfide mobilization and Cu-ore formation.