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Mineralogical analysis of auriferous ores from the El Diamante mine, Colombia

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Abstract

X-ray diffraction (XRD), Mössbauer spectrometry (MS), secondary ions mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and laser-ablation microprobe–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (LAM–ICP–MS) were used to study mineral samples of Colombian auriferous ores collected from the “El Diamante” mine, located in the municipality of Guachavez-Nariño, in Colombia. The samples were prepared as polished thin sections and polished sections. From XRD data, quartz, sphalerite and pyrite were detected and their respective cell parameters were estimated. From MS analyses, pyrite, arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite were identified; their respective hyperfine parameters and respective texture were deduced. Multiple regions of approximately 200 × 200 μm in each sample were analyzed with SIMS; the occurrence of “invisible gold” associated mainly with pyrite and secondarily with arsenopyrite could thus be assigned. It was also found that pyrite is of the arsenious type. Spots from 30 to 40 μm in diameter were analyzed with LAM–ICP–MS for pyrite, arsenopyrite and sphalerite; Au is “homogeneously” distributed inside the structure of the arsenious pyrite and the arsenopyrite (not as inclusions); the chemical composition indicates similarities of this “invisible gold”, forming a solid solution with arsenious pyrite and arsenopyrite. One hundred nineteen and 62 ppm of ‘invisible gold’ was quantified in 21 spots analyzed on pyrite and in 14 spots on arsenopyrite, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Física, Universidad del Tolima, A. A. 546, Ibagué, Colombia

    Humberto Bustos Rodriguez, Dagoberto Oyola Lozano & Yebrayl A. Rojas Martínez

  2. Departamento de Física, Universidad del Valle, A. A. 25360, Cali, Colombia

    Germán A. Pérez Alcázar

  3. Institute of Materials Science, Darmstadt University of Technology, Darmstadt, Germany

    Stefan Flege & Adam G. Balogh

  4. Cabri Consulting Inc., Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Louis J. Cabri

  5. Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada

    Louis J. Cabri & Michael Tubrett

Authors
  1. Humberto Bustos Rodriguez
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  2. Dagoberto Oyola Lozano
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  3. Yebrayl A. Rojas Martínez
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  4. Germán A. Pérez Alcázar
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  5. Stefan Flege
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  6. Adam G. Balogh
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  7. Louis J. Cabri
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  8. Michael Tubrett
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Correspondence to Humberto Bustos Rodriguez.

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Bustos Rodriguez, H., Oyola Lozano, D., Rojas Martínez, Y.A. et al. Mineralogical analysis of auriferous ores from the El Diamante mine, Colombia. Hyperfine Interact 175, 195–206 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-008-9603-2

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