Occurrence,distribution, and composition of sulfide minerals,Boulder batholith,montana

Sulfide minerals in the Boulder batholith occur 1. as disseminated grains, visible in hand specimens; 2. in aplitic-pegmatitic pods and masses; 3. along joint and shear surfaces; 4. in hydrothermal veins; and 5. as minute masses within pyrite and silicate minerals and along intergranular sites. Hydrothermally altered rocks have an average sulfide content of 0.8 weight per cent, compared to an average of 0.01 per cent for unaltered rocks. Unaltered rock of the batholith may contain as much as 0.7 weight per cent sulfide. Sulfide inclusions in pyrite, the most abundant sulfide of the batholith, are common and represent a captured iss-phase which later changed to chalcopyrite plus pyrrhotite or mackinawite. Inclusions are most abundant, and more complex, in pyrites of hydrothermally altered and ore rocks. Electron-probe analyses show that pyrites of the Boulder batholith have very similar compositions to those found for pyrites from other ore deposits around the world.