Geochemical Atlas – Erzgebirge and Vogtland

Nickel (Ni) shows a left skewed log distribution with an absolute maximum of 757 mg/kg and a minimum of 0.7 mg/kg. The arithmetic average is 38 mg/kg, the median 29 mg/kg. Elevated Ni levels are characteristic for Ordovician to Carboniferous sedimentary, metasedimentary, and metavolcanic rocks in the Vogtland area and the northwestern rim of the study area. In comparison, results from granitoid areas show about four times lower concentrations, the remaining rock types ranging inbetween. Maximum grades occur in a 2 km wide elliptical area of Ni > 250 mg/kg in mafic and ultramafic rocks 10 km ENE of Hainichen. An alignment of areas with Ni > 100 mg/kg marks the western edge of the study area between the fluorite deposit of Wiedersberg in the SW and the Neumark U deposit in the NE. It coincides with synclines of Devonian sediments and volcanic rocks. These areas are connected by a continuous zone with Ni levels > 60 mg/kg. Similar concentrations occur discontinuously in Ordovician to Silurian metapelites of the Lößnitz-Zwönitz Syncline, in phyllites along the NE-adjacent Northern Erzgebirge rim and in Cambro-Ordovician metapelites northwest of the Klingenthal-Kraslice Cu deposit. In the eastern Erzgebirge slightly elevated Ni is present in Devonian argillaceous shales and metabasites NW of the Markersbach granite as well as in Ordovician metasediments and Permo-Carboniferous sediments north of the Tharandt Volcanic Complex. Minimum levels with Ni < 2.5 mg/kg are related to the granites of Eibenstock and Kirchberg, to the rock units of the Altenberg-Teplice Caldera and to Neoproterozoic gneisses of the eastern Erzgebirge.