The Baita Plai mineralisation in geological terms is the most important manifestation of skarnhosted mineralisation in the Apuseni Mountains. The mineralisation hosts a large number of mineral species (about 90), some of which were described for the first time in the world (rezbanyite, szaibelyite or ascharite, and kotoite).
The main economic minerals, notably Cu, Pb, Zn, Au, Ag, Mo, Bi, W, and B, are concentrated in favourable sites due to the interaction of local faults (notably the Blidar contact) and a number of lesser fractures that have localised the mineralised veins, magmatic alteration, and favourable host rock lithologies (limestone and dolomites).
The orebody is hosted within Triassic limestones and dolomites, in faulted contact with underlying Permian shales across the Blidar fault. The skarn alteration is related to a granite intrusion which is interpreted to lie beneath the sediments as at yet an undetermined depth. Dykes of granitic, andesitic and lamprophyre origins cut the sediments at high angles but are reported to be pre-skarn. The host limestones and dolomites have undulating sub-horizontal dips, varying from 0-30 degrees.
A mineralogical study on metallurgical samples sent to Grinding Solutions (UK) was conducted during 2020 in which the main copper bearing minerals were identified as chalcopyrite, bornite and chalcocite, the main lead bearing mineral is galena and the main zinc bearing mineral is sphalerite. The dominan ........
