The Schlaining quartz-stibnite deposit, Eastern Alps, Austria: constraints from conventional and infrared microthermometry and isotope and crush-leach analyses of fluid inclusions

Abstract Stibnite was mined until the end of twentieth century in Schlaining ore district, Austria, near easternmost border Eastern Alps where windows Penninic ophiolites and metasediments are exposed below Austroalpine tectonic units. In Early Miocene, structurally controlled small vein metasomatic stibnite-quartz deposits were formed Mesozoic calcareous marbles calcite schists. Fluid inclusion studies identified two fluids involved mineralization: (i) a low-salinity, low-CO 2 metamorphic fluid that precipitated quartz at approximately 240 °C (ii) stibnite-forming had meteoric origin. There is no evidence boiling or mixed during mineralization. The components Sb H S leached by fluid/rock interaction from buried rock mineralization occurred cooling to 300 °C, less than 2000 m depth. Quartz slightly lower temperatures, contemporaneous with stibnite. migration deposition probably related high heat flow exhumation Rechnitz Window response Neogene extension and/or shallow Miocene andesitic magmatism. study emphasizes data obtained analyses gangue minerals alone cannot routinely be used infer origin depositional conditions associated minerals.