The Lavrion and Serifos mining centers: two worldwide

unique mineralogical and geological monuments and

perspectives for their protection

Voudouris P1, Photiades A2, Tarantola A3, Scheffer C4,

Vanderhaeghe O5, Morin D6, Vlachopoulos N1

1 Department of Geology & Geoenvironment, NKUA, Greece

2 Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration (I.G.M.E.), Acharnae, Greece
3 Université de Lorraine, CNRS, GeoRessources, Faculté des Sciences et Technologies, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France
4 Département de Géologie et de Génie Géologique, Université Laval, Québec, Canada
5 Université de Toulouse, Géosciences Environnement Toulouse, UMR 5563, CNRS, Toulouse, France
6 Université de Toulouse, TRACES, CNRS, UMR 5608, maison de la recherche, Toulouse, France
 The Lavrion Geopark
Unique mineralogical, geological, archaeological and mining characteristics

Worldwide, there is no comparable

area like Lavrion. It includes about
600 minerals, of which 23 were first
found in Lavrion (type-locality
minerals)

Largest accumulation of chemical

elements in an ore deposit on earth
(Rieck B., pers. comm.)

From the evaluation of the data by

Janikian (2009), Theodosiou et al.
(2009), it was confirmed that the
Lavreotiki area fulfills the scientific,
educational, cultural and touristic
criteria necessary for its
characterization as geopark.
Tectonic and magmatic activity played a major role for Gold and
Silver deposits in the Attic-Cycladic area

Melfos & Voudouris (2017)

 Lavrion geological map

Scheffer et al. (2016)

Scheffer et al. (2017, 2019)

Lavrion: a worldwide unique zoned ore system, where at least 5 types of
sulfide mineralization spatially occur in close proximity

Geological sketch map of the Plaka area. 1: porphyry-type mineralized granodiorite, 2: skarn-
style mineralization, 3: Breccia-style mineralization, 4: skarn-free carbonate replacement
mineralization, 5: Filoni 80 vein (Voudouris et al. 2008a, modified after Papanikolaou and
Syskakis, 1991).
Plaka area

Porphyry-type Mo-W ore Breccia-type ore

Carbonate-replacement-type ore
Skarn-type ore
“Filoni” 80, Plaka: Vein-type ore
 Wulfenite
Oxidized ore in Plaka
area includes wulfenite,
cerussite, anglesite,
mimetite, etc

Mimetite

Adami Mine
Plaka area

Photos by B. Ottens
 Kamariza deposit
Distal from Plaka granodiorite but related to granitoid dikes
(Eurites). Pb-Zn-Ag-Cu-Au ore deposition in III contact

Ilario

Kamariza cross-section after Marinos & Petraschek (1956); modified from Voudouris et al. (2008a,
2018)
Kamariza – Metallic minerals

Pyrite, arsenopyrite,
sphalerite, chalcopyrite,
Ag-bearing Galena
 Kamariza deposit
Fe-As-Cu-rich ores
(Pyrite, chalcopyrite)

Photo by B. Ottens

“Tetrahedral” pyrite (Platon pyrite)

Kamariza deposit – Galena-sphalerite-rich ores

Photo by B. Ottens
 Clemence Mine, Kamariza
Gold in Lavrion

Pb-Bi-Ni-Au-Ag ore (up to 1000 g/t Au)

Kamariza Laurion: Gangue minerals in the deposit:
Quartz-fluorite-carbonate

Photo by B. Ottens

Fluorite, Calcite
Quartz
 Oxidation can be
deep, below the 3rd
contact

A major part of the ore in

the Lavrion deposit is oxidized:
carbonates, sulphates, arsenates,
etc, (cerussite, malachite, azurite,
smithsonite, anglesite, jarosite,
chalcanthite, etc)
 Oxidized Cu-rich ore at Christiana/Kamariza - Azurite

Photo by B. Ottens

Ottens & Voudouris (2018)

 Oxidized Cu-Bi-Ni-Au-rich ore at Ilarion/Kamariza
Native Au and Mixite

Ottens & Voudouris (2018)

 Oxidized Zn-Cu-rich ore at Ilarion/Kamariza
Cu-Adamite

Ottens & Voudouris (2018) Photo by B. Ottens

 Oxidized Zn-rich ore at Ilarion/Kamariza
Smithsonite

Smithsonite

(Museum of Mineralogy -
Petrology, NKUA)

Photo by B. Ottens
Oxidized Pb-Zn-Ag-Sb ore:
Native Ag, Acanthite
in cerussite
 Other mining areas: Km3
Brecciated Pb-Zn ore in 1st contact

Ottens & Voudouris (2018)

 Esperanza mine

Type locality of several Cd-Zn-

bearing sulfates
Niedermayrite, Lazaridisite,
Voudourisite, Katerinopoulosite
Lavrion Geopark after
IGME
More than 47 geotopes
of geological, mining
and metallurgical
interest, presented by
7 geopaths

Janikian (2009), Theodosiou et al. (2009)

 A detailed registration and
mapping of mineral and ore
localities both on surface
and underground is
suggested

Conophagos (1980)
The situation at Kamariza:

Restoration of galleries and

their use for scientific and
geotouristic purposes
The Serifos island: unique
mineralogical, petrological
and mining geotopes

Serifos geology

Ducoux et al. (2017)

Agia Marina: Quartz, Andradite

Serifos geology (after Salemink 1985)

 Koutalas:
Barite, Galena

Serifos geology (after

Salemink 1985)
 Megalo Livadi: Calcite,
Quartz

Serifos geology (after Salemink 1985)

Fluorite – Megalo Livadi

Ottens & Voudouris (2018)

 Megalo Livadi: Calcite,
Hedenbergite, Quartz

Serifos geology (after Salemink 1985)

 Koundouro: Ilvaite,
Hedenbergite, Quartz

Serifos geology (after Salemink 1985)

 Neroutsika: Andradite,
Prase, Amethyst

Serifos geology (after Salemink 1985)

Neroutsika: Andradite, Hedenbergite, Prase

Photo by B. Ottens

Photo by B. Ottens
Avessalos: Andradite, Prase,
Amethyst, Pyrite, Calcite

Serifos geology (after Salemink 1985)

 Avessalos, Serifos

Prase-Amethyst scepter
Calcite

Voudouris & Maneta (2017)

 Geo-trail 1
Agia Marina

Anavasi Topographic map

 Geo-trail 2
Neroutsika-
Avessalos

Anavasi Topographic map

 Geo-trail 3
Avessalos-
Koundouro
Anavasi Topographic map
 Geo-trail 4
Koutalas

Anavasi Topographic map

 Proposed Serifos
Geopark
Vlachopoulos & Voudouris
(2019), Vlachopoulos N.,
PhD in progress (NKUA)

Anavasi Topographic map

Mineralogy Museum at
Megalo Livadi
 Other potential Geoparks in the
Cyclades (Naxos, Milos, Syros, etc)

Naxos: Ancient and modern mining activity,

archaeological sites and amazing geology and
mineralogy (Beryl, sapphire, etc)

Ottens & Voudouris (2018)

(Museum of Mineralogy -
Petrology, NKUA)
 Conclusions
The Lavrion and Serifos
districts belong to the Greek
mineralogical and geological
heritage and can be considered
as mineralogical-petrological
treasures, unique throughout
world.
They deserve to become part of
the European Natural
Geoparks, following a policy
which enhances the natural
mineral wealth, so as to protect
and promote it.
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