A high temperature and high pressure experimental study on re-bearing capability of sulfide

Abstract

High temperature (1 270–1 550 ºC) and high pressure (1.0 GPa) experimental studies on Re-bearing capabilities of pyrite, galena and sphalerite from typical Pb-Zn ore deposits were performed on a six-anvil apparatus. We observed microstructures of the quenched sulfides using scanning electron microscope (SEM) and analyzed compositions of the run products using both energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS) and electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA). The results show that pyrite melt can dissolve much more metallic Re than galena and sphalerite melts, forming scattered acicular ReS₂ in the quenched matrix of pyrrhotite (Fe_1-xS). The quenched matrixes of Fe_1-xS, PbS and ZnS generally contain less than 1.0 wt.% of Re and their Re-bearing capabilities seem to range as Fe_1-xS>PbS>ZnS. However, Re partition coefficients between them are difficult to estimate, because Re distribution is inhomogeneous in the quenched sulfide matrixes.

Keywords

pyrite / galena / sphalerite / high P-T experiment / Re-bearing capability

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