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ROSIA MONTANA AND ROSIA POIENI ORE DEPOSITS, METALIFERI MOUNTAINS:

A REVIEW

Conference Paper · June 2006

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Sesiunea Naţională de Comunicări Ştiinţifice "GEO 2006"

ROSIA MONTANA AND ROSIA POIENI ORE DEPOSITS, METALIFERI

MOUNTAINS: A REVIEW

Iatan E. L.1
1
Bucharest University, Faculty Of Geology And Geophysics, Mineralogy Department. Bd. Nicolae Balcescu, 1, 010041,
Bucharest. luisaiatan@yahoo.com

The Rosia Montana and Rosia Poieni deposits are located 8 and 5 km northeast of Abrud in the
northern part of the South Apuseni Mts., in the historical mining district known as "Golden
Quadrilateral".
The Rosia Montana and Rosia Poieni (Fig.1) deposits are situated within a NNW-trending structural
corridor associated with strike-slip faulting due to the host's easterly movement and rotation Tisza
microplate. This structural framework arose due to the collision and northerly migration of the African
continental plate into the European continent during the Miocene.
The Rosia Montana deposit has been mined for over 2000 years and was known as Alburnus Maior by
the Romans. The historical activities have created a network of more than 140 km of underground
workings. This is one of the largest gold deposits in Eastern Europe. The Rosia Montana Au-Ag
deposit's estimated reserves were calculated as 400.4 Mt of ore at 1.3 grams per tonne Au and 6.0
grams per ton Ag (Leary et al., 2004).
The Rosia Poieni deposit has been discovered from local geological, geochemical and geophysical
research programs carried out in the1960s and 1970s and open-pit mining started in 1986. The open
pit's present vertical extension is 300 m (between the altitude of +910 and +1210 m) (Milu et al., 2004).
Rosia Poieni is the largest operating Cu mine in the Apuseni Mountains, with 350 Mt reserves at 0.36
% Cu and 0.29 g/t Au.
Rosia Montana (Fig.1) is a breccia-hosted intermediate-sulfidation epithermal system associated with
intense phreatomagmatic activity related to the Montana Dacite's shallow emplacement. The Montana
Dacite intruded into Miocene volcanoclastic material (Volcanoclastic Sediments) and mainly crops out
at Cetate and Cirnic Hills (Rey & Wallier, 2004).
The Rosia Montana dacites are biotite- and hornblende bearing hypabyssal rocks with sparse quartz
phenocrysts. The dacite intrusions form two major bodies, the Cetate and Cârnic hills. The
hydrothermal alterations are extremely well developed. Potassium silicate (adularia I and adularia II)
and phyllic (illite, montmorillonite) alteration are widespread all over the area. Intense silicification
delineates the high-grade ore bodies (in breccias, stockworks and veins). There are also intermediate
and advanced argillic overprints. Carbonates (calcite, rhodocrosite) and rhodonite occur within the
veins, stockworks and breccias (Tamas, 2002). The mineralization consists of an epithermal
intermediate-sulfidation assemblage (quartz, adularia, carbonates, pyrite, sphalerite, galena,
chalcopyrite, tennantite-tetrahedrite, tellurides and native gold) and occurs in veins and vugs within the
Montana Dacite and the different breccias (Rey & Wallier, 2004).
Sesiunea Naţională de Comunicări Ştiinţifice "GEO 2006"

Fig. 1. Geological map of the

Rosia Montana and Rosia Poieni
area (map supported by Rosia
Montana Gold Corporation,
modified by Rey & Wallier,
2004).

The Rosia Poieni subvolcanic structure (Fig.1) results from the regional calk-alkaline magmatic
activity in the Apuseni Mountains from the Middle to Late Miocene. The hydrothermal alteration and
mineralization are related to the Middle Miocene emplacement of a subvolcanic body, the Fundoaia
microdiorite (Milu et al., 2004).
The Rosia Poieni deposit is a typical porphyry Cu-Au magmatic-hydrothermal system. It preserves the
complete hydrothermal development stages from early porphyry to late epithermal high-sulfidation
veins and related alteration zones (Rey & Wallier, 2004).
Four alteration types have been distinguished: potassic, phyllic, advanced argillic, and propylitic.
These alteration zones vary from a potassic core through an annular phyllic alteration to a well-
developed advanced argillic zone. The propylitic zone occurs as a broad halo around the other
alteration types. Vertically, the alteration products change from advanced argillic, to phyllic, and then
to potassic-altered rocks at depth. Mineralization and hydrothermal alteration are spatially related to the
Fundoaia intrusion. The ore mineralogy: pyrite, chalcopyrite, magnetite, hematite, molybdenite, and
bornite with subordinate tetrahedrite-tennantite, enargite, luzonite-stibioluzonite, and digenite, and
minor pyrrhotite, sphalerite, galena, covellite, and chalcocite (Milu et al., 2004).
The magmatic activity in the Rosia Montana area (Fig.2) took place between 13.61 and 13.15 Ma and
was immediately followed by the hydrothermal mineralization (12.85-12.71 Ma). The timing of
magmatism and related porphyry mineralization at Rosia Poieni ranges within the narrow interval of
9.42-9.16 Ma.
Sesiunea Naţională de Comunicări Ştiinţifice "GEO 2006"

Fig. 2 Summary diagram for the timing

of magmatism and mineralization in the
northern sector of the South Apuseni
district, including the U-Pb data on
magmatic zircons from this study, as
well as published Ar-Ar dating on
hydrothermal adularia (Manske et al.,
2004; Wallier et al., submitted) and K-
Ar dating on whole rock (Rosu et al.,
2004).

The porphyry copper system at Rosia Poieni is about 3 Ma younger than the neighboring Rosia
Montana epithermal deposit, which shows clearly that despite their proximal location, and the
magmatic character of the mineralizing fluids in both, the Rosia Montana and Rosia Poieni deposits
belong to two separate magmatic-hydrothermal systems (Kouzmanov et al., 2005)
The microthermometric measurements of fluid inclusions in quartz phenocrysts from the Rosia
Montana dacite revealed two different fluid types: high-salinity high-temperature fluids (salinities
between 7.2 and 18.6 wt% NaCl eq. and homogenization temperatures between 389°C and 465°C) and
low-salinity low-temperature fluids (salinities between 0.18 and 2.4 wt% NaCl eq. and temperatures
between 200°C and 291°C). Analyses of fluid inclusions in hydrothermal quartz from the breccia body
of Rosia Montana have revealed salinities of the mineralizing fluids between 0.18 and 4.3 wt% NaCl
eq. and temperatures between 185°C and 276°C (Rey & Wallier, 2004).
For these two deposits were elaborated several ore-forming models, like the model for Rosia Poieni
porphyry copper system, the model for Rosia Montana epithermal deposit (Borcos et al., 1999), and the
ring zoning model (Popescu, 2005).

References
Borcos, M., Vlad, S., Udubasa, G., Gabudeanu, B., (1998). Qualitative and quantitative metallogenetic analysys
of the ore genetic units in Romania. Rom. Journal of Min. Dep., Bucharest.
Kouzmanov, K., Albrecht von Quadt, Peytcheva, I., Harris, C., Heinrich, C. A., Rosu, E., O'Connor, G., (2005).
IGCP Project 486, 14-19 September 2005 Field Workshop, Kiten, Bulgaria, p. 113-117.
Leary, S., O'Connor, G., Minut, A., Tamas, C., Manske, S., Howie, K., (2004). The Rosia Montana ore deposit.
Au-Ag-telluride Deposits of the Golden Quadrilateral, Apuseni Mts., Romania, Alba Iulia, 31 august-7
September. N.J. Cook & C.L. Ciobanu (Eds.). IAGOD Guidebook Series 12, p. 89-98.
Milu, V., Milesi, J. P., Leroy, J.L., (2004). Rosia Poieni cooper deposit, Apuseni Mountains, Romania :
advanced argillic overprint of a porphyry system. Mineralium Deposita, 39, p.173-188.
Popescu, Gh., Neacsu A., (2005) Ring zoning of Neogene gold and copper metallogeny in the Metaliferi Mts.,
Romania. Salt Lake City Annual Meeting (October 16–19, 2005), extended presentation. Geological Society
of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 37, No. 7, p.516.
Rey, R., Wallier, S., (2004). Rosia Poieni and Rosia Montana: Neighboring porphyry Cu-Au and epithermal Au-
Ag deposits
 Sesiunea Naţională de Comunicări Ştiinţifice "GEO 2006"

in the South Apuseni Mountains, Romania. With special focus on fluid inclusions trapped in quartz
phenocrysts and hydrothermal quartz from Rosia Montana. Unpublished diploma thesis, ETH Zurich,
Switzerland, 168 pp.
Tamas, C.G., (2002). Breccia pipe structures related to some hydrothermal ore deposits in Romania.
Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation (abridged), Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Babes-Bolyai University, 33 pp.

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