Minerals of the Idria Ore Deposit

Abstract

Idria is considered a monomineralic ore deposit, since most of the ore bodies contained only cinnabar, whereas native mercury occurs only sporadically. Trace elements are found in low quantities. In addition to cinnabar, other primary minerals, such as marcasite, pyrite, sphalerite, dolomite, quartz, metacinnabar, calcite, fluorite, baryte, celestine, kaolinite and paligorskite are found, whereas among the secondary minerals vitriols like epsomite, melanterite, halotrichite, siderotil, szomolnokite, and also gypsum,limonite and vivianite are present. Specific to Idria deposit are two organic minerals pyrobitumen Cand idrialine. The interest in mineralogy had its peak in the nineteenth century. In Idria, siderotil (SCHRAUF 1891) and idrialine (JANDA 1892) were determined as new minerals, while mineral paragenesis was studied by several renowned mineralogists (VILLEFOSSE 1819; ZEPHAROWICH 1893; VOSS 1895). This was followed by a sharp decline in mineralogical studies in the twentieth century and only in the very recent period we see a new outburst of popular scientific articles and monographs (BANCROFT et al. 1991; VIRDIH et al. 1995; VIDRIH and MIKUŽ 1995; HERLEC et al. 2006; REČNIK et al. 2010 and 2011).