Gustavite, PbAgBi3S6-P21/c, with the bismuth and silver minerals at Los Guindos mining group, Pampa de Olaen, Córdoba, Argentina (31°11'S/64°33'W).

Abstract

 Bi-Pb-Ag-Te oxides, sulfides and sulfosalts are relatively uncommon accessory minerals in the scheelite-bearing skarn of the La Falda Metamorphic Complex (Late Precambrian-Cambrian) of the Los Guindos mining group, Pampa de Olaen, Córdoba province, Argentina. Chemical composition measured with SEM-EDS and electron microprobe, physical and textural features with XRD and ore microscopy of bismuthinite, andorite, gustavite, kettnerite, lillianite and tetradymite are described. It is the first report of gustavite, PbAgBi₃S₆-P2₁/c, in Argentina. On the broad scale, scheelite was the major ore mineral of the wolfram mining closed today, but with a summit activity in the Second World War years. The metallogenetic evolution of these calcic skarn starts in the Neoproterozoic with a model of W-Sb-Hg strata-bound deposits related to a contemporaneous submarine volcanism in the Pannotian cycle. Later, the formation of the calcic tungsten skarn is associated with monzogranite plutons and retrograde sulfide assemblages (Zn, Bi, Ag, Pb, Sb, Te, Cu, Sn, Cd, Se), in hydrothermal-metasomatic environments of Paleozoic age, related to the Famatinean and Achalean orogenies in the Gondwanian cycle.