Mineralogy of oxidation zone of the Vorovskaya Yama ancient copper mine (South Transurals)

The article considers the geological setting and mineralogy of oxidation zone of the Vorovskaya Yama copper occurrence (South Transurals), which was exploited in 17th–16th centuries BC by miners of the Alakul culture. The ore occurrence is confned to the contact of serpentinites and Devonian basalts; mineralization is associated with small intrusive bodies of syenites and belongs to skarn type. Andradite and clinopyroxene are major minerals of skarns. The oxidation zone contains subordinate (plagioclase, amphibole, epidote, chlorite, quartz, zoisite, muscovite, and malachite), accessory (Cr-rich spinel, magnetite, barite, chalcopyrite, covellite, pyrrhotite, cubanite, and native gold) and supergene (smectites, Fe oxyhydroxides, opal, native copper, and iodargyrite) minerals. The upper horizons of the oxidation zone with weathered skarns and malachite were exploited in the Bronze Age. Copper ore of the Vorovskaya Yama type in the South Urals Bronze Age settlements can be identifed by the presence of garnet, as well as the presence of Zn, Ag and Se in oxidized ore.