Mežica (Miess), Slovenia

Helena Mine, Črna, Mežica, Slovenia

Photo: AC

Latitude: 46°30'43"N
Longitude: 14°51'25"E

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Original name: Mežica, Slovenija

Mežica belongs to the Mississippi-Valley-Type (MVT) lead-zinc ore deposits. It is located on the eastern edge of the Karavanke mountains (NE Slovenia), and is believed to be genetically related to other two Karawankian lead-zinc deposits Bleiberg and Raibl. The ore bodies were metasomatically emplaced into Triassic carbonate rocks by an injection of solvothermal ore solutions into preexisting, possibly karstified, system of subvertical cross-alpine faults. The majority of the ore bodies is discordant along the major fault lines, with minor interstratified ore bodies along the more soluble layers of the host rock. The main ore minerals are galena and sphalerite, while other sulphides occur in small quantities. Through the open system of faults meteoric waters reached and oxidized the sulphide ores down to extreme depths of probably more than 2 km. During oxidation most the interesting mineral associations were formed. The most abundant mineral in the oxidation zone is definitely wulfenite, which has been even mined as a molybdenum ore. Other common oxidation minerals include anglesite, cerussite, hemimorphite, smithsonite and descloizite. At present, only 30 different minerals are known from the Mežica mine, but there are many more that are waiting to be discovered.
Centuries of mining history have left a unique mark on life in the upper Meža valley. Over 350 ore bodies were mined over the 64 km² wide mountainous area east of the Peca Mountain. During the 350-years long history of mining, over 1000 km of tunnels, used for ore tracking and transportation, were excavated together with several hundred kilometres of stopes and other mine workings on the existing ore bodies. Nowadays, a large number of surface pits and more than 300 mine adits are still visible in the upper sections of the Meža-valley ore deposit. The highest mine workings are located just under the Peca peak at the elevation of 2060 m, while the ore has been followed all the way down to a depth of 240 m above sea level. Mežica is one of the world's richest wulfenite deposits and most of the major mineralogical collections or museums have at least one specimen from this classic Slovenian locality.

Mineral List

Mineral list contains entries from the region specified including sub-localities

57 entries listed. 31 valid minerals.

Localities in this Region

Slovenia

Mežica (Miess)

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References

Related to Mežica Mines there are several hundreds of published professional and scientific references. Here, only those are listed that contain valuable information on the mineralogy of this locality. Further references are cited therein.

- Aleksander Rečnik (2010): Minerals of the lead and zinc ore deposit Mežica. Bode Vlg. & Jožef Stefan Institute. Ljubljana, 112 pp.
- Ildikó Cora, Mátyás Czugler, István Dódony, Aleksander Rečnik (2011): On the symmetry of wulfenite PbMoO₄ from Mežica (Slovenia). Acta Crystallographica C67, i33-i35.
- Aleksander Rečnik, Igor Dolinar, Uroš Herlec, Ivo Štrucl, Suzana Fajmut Štrucl (2009): Weltfundstellen: Die Blei- und Zinkerz-Lagerstätte Mežica in Slowenien. Mineralien Welt 20(6), 40-83 (in German).
- Miha Jeršek, Valdimir Zebec, Breda Mirtič, Vladimir Bermanec, Tadej Dolenec, Franc Krivograd (2004): The morphology of calcite crystals in the Mežica Mines. Scopolia 53, 1-29.
- Mirjan Žorž, Aleksander Rečnik, Breda Mirtič, Franc Krivograd (1998): Morphology of wulfenite crystals from Mežica Mines. Rudarsko metalurški zbornik 45, 315-344 (in English).
- Ilia Vesselinov (1996): The significance of wulfenite morphology as shown on crystals from Mežica, Slovenia. Bulgarian Academy of Sciences 31, 29-39.
- Peter Bancroft, Mirjan Žorž, Franc Krivograd, Gregor Kobler (1991): The Mežica Mine, Slovenia, Yugoslavia. Mineralogical Record 22, 97-104.
- Ivo Štrucl (1984): Geological and geochemical characteristics of ore and host rock of lead-zinc ores of the Mežica ore deposit. Geologija 27, 215-327 (In Slovene, extended abstract in English).
- Grafenauer, S. (1960): Rare natural lead oxides from Mezica (Mies), Yugoslavia. Neues Jahrbuch fuer Mineralogie, Abhandlungen 94, 1187-1190.
- Cornelius S. Hurlbut (1955): Wulfenite symmetry as shown on crystals from Yugoslavia. American Mineralogist 40, 857-860.
- Alojz Zorc (1955): Mining and geological features of the Mežica ore-deposit. Geologija 3, 24-80. (In Slovene, abstract in English).

External Links

http://webbooks.ijs.si a full on-line access to the book:
Minerals of the lead and zinc ore deposit Mežica written by A. Rečnik (2010).

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Copyright © Jolyon Ralph and Ida Chau 1993-2012. Site Map. Locality, mineral & photograph data are the copyright of the individuals who submitted them. Further information contact the Site hosted & developed by Jolyon Ralph. Mindat.org is an online information resource dedicated to providing free mineralogical information to all. Mindat relies on the contributions of hundreds of members and supporters. Mindat does not offer minerals for sale. If you would like to add information to improve the quality of our database, then click here to register.
Current server date and time: 17th Jan 2012 20:21:34