Preliminary examination of vein type ore mineralization from Cindakko, Maros Regency, South Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

There is a sulfide mineralization vein type in the Cindakko area, Maros Regency, South Sulawesi. The results of mineralogical studies on the Cindakko prospects for sulfide ore mineralization are explained in this paper. Petrographic, mineragraphic, and XRD methods analyzed the mineralization and alteration samples from the research area. The results showed that the host rock mineralization is basalt, a member of the Baturappe-Cindakko Volcano from the Late Miocene age. The identified hydrothermal alteration mineral associations include quartz, chlorite, epidote, biotite, actinolite, and pyrite, generally formed in propyllitic alteration zones mainly characterized by chlorite. The analysis provides the occurrence of mineralization types: crustiform-banding quartz veins, vuggy quartz, and disseminated, contain hypogenic pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, bornite, and tennantite ores, and supergene ore minerals in the form of covellite. Ore textures recognized under a microscope are intergrowth, replacement, open-space filling, and exsolution. Based on the interpretation of temperature stability of hydrothermal alteration minerals, it is concluded that it was formed at approximately 200 to 320°C with the hydrothermal fluid pH almost neutral. The fundamental characteristics of hydrothermal alteration, ore mineral assemblage and texture, mineralization type, temperature range form, and hydrothermal fluid pH indicate that the mineralization in the Cindakko Prospect is an epithermal type.