Mineralogy,paragenesis and genesis of the braunite deposits of the Mary Valley Manganese Belt,Queensland, Australia

The Mary Valley manganese deposits exhibit mineralogy and textures characteristic of at least four parageneses. The deposits consist mainly of isolated occurrences of braunite, together with a number of lower and higher valency manganese oxides, and manganese silicates, in bedded radiolarian cherts and jaspers of Permian age. The parageneses are: (a) Braunite — quartz (primary), (b) Braunite — hausmannite — spessartine — tephroite — quartz (metamorphic). (c) Hydrated manganese silicates — barite — braunite — hausmannite (hydrothermal veins), (d) Tetravalent manganese oxides (pyrolusite, cryptomelane, manjiroite, nsutite) (supergene). The primary mineralisation is interpreted as the result of the geochemical separation of Mn from Fe in a submarine exhalative system, and the precipitation of Mn as oxide within bedded radiolarian oozes and submarine lavas. During diagenesis this hydrothermal manganese oxide reacted with silica to produce primary braunite. The later geological of evolution of this volcanogenicsedimentary deposit involved metamorphism, hydrothermal veining by remobilised manganese, and supergene enrichment.