Indium-Carrier Minerals in Polymetallic Sulphide Ore Deposits: A Crystal Chemical Insight into an Indium Binding State Supported by X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy Data

Minerals

Maria-Ondina Figueiredo¹  Teresa Pereira da Silva²  Daniel de Oliveira² 

[1] CENIMAT/I3N, Department of Materials Science, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, New University of Lisbon, Campus da Caparica, 2829-516 Caparica, PortugalNational Laboratory for Energy and Geology (LNEG), Unit of Mineral Resources and Geophysics, Apartado 7586, 2610-999 Amadora, Portugal;

关键词: indium;    carrier minerals;    polymetallic sulphide deposits;    Iberian Pyrite Belt;    crystal chemistry;    XANES;   

DOI  :  10.3390/min2040426

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Indium is a typical chalcophile element of the Earth’s crust, with a very low average content that seldom forms specific minerals, occurring mainly as dispersed in polymetallic sulphides. Indium recovery is based primarily on zinc extraction from sphalerite, the prototype of so-called tetrahedral sulphides, wherein metal ions fill half of the available tetrahedral sites within the cubic closest packing of sulphur anions, leaving interstices accessible for further in-filling. Ascertaining the tendency towards the establishment of In-In interactions through an x-ray absorption spectroscopy approach would efficiently contribute to understanding the behavior of indium in the carrier mineral. The successful results of applying such a near-edge absorption (XANES) study at In L₃-edge to samples collected at the Lagoa Salgada polymetallic orebody in the Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB) are described and the crystal chemistry of indium is re-evaluated, disclosing a potential clue for the metal binding state in polymetallic sulphides.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.