CANADIAN AND WORLD MINERAL DEPOSIT DATABASES
Geological Survey of Canada


Deposit number Country Location Names Commodities
806 Italy (Tuscany) 42.49.24 N -- 010.25.16 E Rio Marina Fe
 
Database name: World Fe-oxide+/-Cu-Au-U (IOCG) deposits
Compilers: Sunil S. Gandhi
Release date: 2015-03-04
   
Deposit name(s): Rio Marina
Political location(s): Italy; Province or state: Tuscany; Subprovince or locality: Elba Island; Nearest community: Rome (201 km 302°)
Deposit clan (type): Iron Skarn-type
Deposit (sub) types: stratabound and massive mineralization affected by faulting and fracturing during regional extensional stage; magnetite-rich ore grades upward to specularite-rich ore; limonite-rich capping ; Reference: Duenkel, I.; Kuhlemann, J.; Nohlen, U., 2003: Iron Ore Formation and Neotectonic Evolution in Elba (Tuscany, Italy) during Messinian Plutonism; Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie. Abhandlungen, Volume 230, p. 391 - 407
Deposit status: past producer; Size category: unknown
Geologic province: Alpine Orogen
Geologic subprovince: Apennines
Geologic district: Northern Apennines
Deposit object located: centre-deposit on surface
Commodities: Fe
Mineralization styles: stratiform magnetite layers and lenses; irregular bodies; veins and fracture-fillings; massive magnetite pods in skarn
Geological ages: Late Miocene (mineralization)
Tectonic setting: continental unstated-unqualified; extensional; Formal name: Late Miocene extension and related plutonism (related igneous rocks)
Coincident features: stratification in host sequence (carbonate strata of the host formation, thickened due to isoclinal folding, provide lithological control for mineralization); Coincident feature name: Complex III of Elba Island
brecciation along a stratigraphic horizon (clasts of iron ore in breccia and lack of mineralization channels leading to them indicate pre-brecciation origin of mineralization); Coincident feature name: Complex III of Elba Island
Regional tectonic structure: shallow-dipping extensional slides of Late Miocene age with eastward transport (Capo Calamita, Terra Nera, Rio Marina and Rio Albano deposits transported with detachments) Tectonic structure name: Extensional Allochthons
Host rocks: (1) sedimentary; carbonate (Early Permian calcareous rocks of Verrucano Formation overlying Carboniferous shale (graphitic)); Depositional setting: carbonate platform; Metamorphic grade: greenschist
External host rock forms:cavernous limestone
Host rock protoliths:limestone (Rhaetean cellular limestone unconformably overlies clastic Permian beds of Verrucano Formation); Host rock protolith name: Calcare Cavernoso Formation
Internal host rock structures:fine grained
Individual lithologies:limestone (defomed, faulted, fractured and altered by contact metasomatism at the deposit)
Host rock stratigraphy:Complex III of Elba Island
Related igneous rocks: (1) intrusive; granodiorite-tonalite-diorite suite (deposit genetically related to the intrusion); Initials: Monte Capanne granodioritic pluton; Magma series: calc-alkaline; Depositional setting: continental
Individual lithologies:granodiorite (Late Miocene pluton in the western part of Elba Island, related to the poorly exposed Porto Azzurro quartz monzonite to the east)
Metallogenic signatures: Fe
Alteration signatures: oxidation and supergene enrichment: limonite; What was altered: iron oxides and pyrite
potassic alteration: adularia; What was altered: feldspar/clay
Mineralogy: (alteration): limonite, adularia
(mineralization): magnetite, pyrite, specularite
Radiometric ages: Object dated: Mineralogy(3); Age - Ma: 5.39; +0.5; -0.5; Dating method: (U-Pb)-4He; Concentrate: specularite; Source rock: ore zone; Formal name: specularite-pyrite phase; Event dated: mineralization (late stage); Interpretive comment: age concordant with the K-Ar age on associated adularia of 5.32 ± 0.1 Ma; Reference: Lippolt, H. J.; Wernicke, R. S.; Bähr, R., 1995: Paragenetic Specularite and Adularia (Elba, Italy): Concordant (U+Th)-He and K-Ar Ages; Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volume 132, p. 43 - 51

Object dated: Mineralogy(5); Age - Ma: 5.32; +0.1; -0.1; Dating method: K-Ar; Concentrate: alkali feldspar; Source rock: ore zone; Formal name: adularia; Event dated: mineralization (late stage); Interpretive comment: age concordant with the (U+Th)-4He age on associated adularia of 5.39 ± 0.5 Ma; Reference: Lippolt, H. J.; Wernicke, R. S.; Bähr, R., 1995: Paragenetic Specularite and Adularia (Elba, Italy): Concordant (U+Th)-He and K-Ar Ages; Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volume 132, p. 43 - 51
Deposit shape: zone of lensoid and irregular bodies
Qualified comments: (Applies to: mineralization) One of the old Elba mines exploited since 2500 years ago; Rio Marina has magnetite-pyrite ore with specularite-limonite cap; total ore production in Elba estimated at 50 Mt and resources of some 26 Mt.
References:
Deschamps, Y.; Gagallier, G.; Macaudiere, J.; Marignac, C.; Moine, B.; Saupè, F., 1983
Le Gisement de PyriteHematite de Valle Giove (Rio Marina, Ile dElba, Italie) - 1: Contribution à la Connaissance des Gisement de Toscane
Schwezerische Mineralogische und Petrographische Mitteillungen, Volume 63, p. 301 - 327

Duenkel, I.; Kuhlemann, J.; Nohlen, U., 2003
Iron Ore Formation and Neotectonic Evolution in Elba (Tuscany, Italy) during Messinian Plutonism
Neues Jahrbuch fur Geologie und Palaontologie. Abhandlungen, Volume 230, p. 391 - 407

Zitzmann, A., 1977
The Iron Deposits of Italy
in The Iron Ore Deposits of Europe and Adjacent Areas: Explanatory Notes to the International Map of the Iron Ore Deposits of Europe, 1:2,500,000 (Text and Figures), Edited by Walther, H. W.; Zitzmann, A., International Geological Congress, Commission for the Geological Map of the World, Subcommission for the Metallogenic Map of the World, Bundesanstalt fur Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Postfach 51 01 53, D-3000 Hannover 51, Volume I, 418 p, p. 209 - 218

Zitzmann, A. Editor(s)), 1978
The Iron Ore Deposits of Europe and Adjacent Areas: Explanatory Notes to the International Map of the Iron Ore Deposits of Europe, 1:2,500,000 (Lists and Tables)
International Geological Congress, Commission for the Geological Map of the World, Subcommission for the Metallogenic Map of the World, Bundesanstalt fur Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Postfach 51 01 53, D-3000 Hannover 51, Volume II, 386 p.


Generated 2015-03-04 14:16:18 with GQuery -- 3.7 ADO (3.19..3.22 -- 2008-12-16)
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