Volume 22, Issue No. 2, 1997

FE-CU-NI-CO SULFIDE MINERALIZATIONS FROM THE PINDOS _AND VERIA OPHIOLITE COMPLEXES, GREECE

E. Sovatzoglou-Skounakis* and M. Economou-Eliopoulos*

*Department of Geology, Section of Economic Geology and Geochemistry, Athens University, Athens, Greece.

Keywords: ophiolites, sulfide, metallogeny, geochemistry. Pindos, Veria, Greece.

ABSTRACT

Sulfide mineralizations in the form of small lenses, veins, disseminations or irregular masses are hosted within gabbros, close to its contact with serpentinized harzburgite at the Perivoli area of the Pindos ophiolite complex, and along a fault, cutting diabases and serpentinites, at the Trilofon area, Veria ophiolite. They mainly consist of pyrrhotite, pyrite, chalco-pyrite. Co-pentlandite and mackinawite in the former, and pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite and in lesser amount of sphalerite and cobaltite in the latter area. In the case of the Trilofon sulfides the values of the Pt/(Pt+Pd), Cu/(+Ni) and Ni/Co ratios are far outside the levels possible for a magmatic system, strongly supporting a hydrothermal process. Regarding the Perivoli sulfide mineralization, although the values of Pt/(Pt+Pd) ratios are inconclusive as to the origin of sulfides, the remarkably high Cu/(Cu+Ni), the low Ni/Co ratios, the high Co content in pentlandites (Co_8.6F_0.6S₈) and the presence of quartz as a main gangue mineral are considered significant evidence for a hydrothermal rather than a magmatic origin.