Balmat
St. Lawrence County, New York (Adirondack Lowlands), United States
SEDEXZn-Pb
- Type
- Stratiform marble- and evaporite-hosted Zn, metamorphosed and remobilised
Zinc district (over 45 Mt of past production, mined from 1903 to 2005 then reopened in 2018) formed at about 1250 to 1225 Ma by exhalation on the floor of a back-arc basin, in unit 6 of the Upper Marble, then metamorphosed at upper amphibolite facies (about 640 °C, 6.5 kbar) during the Shawinigan Orogeny. Orebodies were moved over hundreds of metres to more than 2 km; sphalerite becomes lighter with remobilisation distance, light zinc going into sulfide melts. Mine coordinates.
δ66Zn in ‰ (per mil) Values of the same system
Standard : JMC 3-0749L
| Value | Range | n | Mineral or matrix | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.19 ± 0.08 ‰ | 0.06 / 0.31 ‰ | 6 | Upper Gleason orebody sphalerite Mean and standard deviation recalculated from 6 samples, Table 1. "Parent" orebody that stayed in unit 6: no trend along plunge. | Matt et al. (2020), Zn-isotopic evidence for fluid-assisted ore remobilization at the Bal… |
| 0.16 ± 0.08 ‰ | 0.02 / 0.25 ‰ | 9 | Lower Gleason orebody sphalerite Mean and standard deviation recalculated from 9 samples, Table 1. "Daughter" orebody that stayed in unit 6: no clear trend. | Matt et al. (2020), Zn-isotopic evidence for fluid-assisted ore remobilization at the Bal… |
| 0.12 ± 0.08 ‰ | −0.02 / 0.23 ‰ | 8 | Loomis orebody sphalerite Mean and standard deviation recalculated from 8 samples, Table 1. Remobilised orebody: from 0.23 to -0.02 ‰ down plunge. | Matt et al. (2020), Zn-isotopic evidence for fluid-assisted ore remobilization at the Bal… |
| 0.33 ± 0.15 ‰ | 0.13 / 0.56 ‰ | 9 | Mahler orebody sphalerite Mean and standard deviation recalculated from 9 samples, Table 1. Shear-zone orebody: heaviest value (0.56 ‰) at the up-plunge end. | Matt et al. (2020), Zn-isotopic evidence for fluid-assisted ore remobilization at the Bal… |
| 0.27 ± 0.06 ‰ | 0.19 / 0.34 ‰ | 5 | Upper Fowler orebody sphalerite Mean and standard deviation recalculated from 5 samples, Table 1. Shear-zone orebody, lightening down plunge. | Matt et al. (2020), Zn-isotopic evidence for fluid-assisted ore remobilization at the Bal… |
| 0.07 ± 0.05 ‰ | −0.02 / 0.13 ‰ | 10 | Mud Pond orebody sphalerite Mean and standard deviation recalculated from 10 samples, Table 1. The lightest of the six orebodies. | Matt et al. (2020), Zn-isotopic evidence for fluid-assisted ore remobilization at the Bal… |
Deposits of the same type
- Sullivan Canada
- Aguilar Argentina
- Seix France
- Les Abères (Rivernère valley) France
- Aulus-les-Bains district France
- Rammelsberg Germany
- Monte Naro Italy
- Red Dog United States
Cite this page
IsoFind Atlas (2026). Balmat, isotope signatures. https://www.isofind.tech/isotopes/en/deposits/balmat/ (accessed 2026-10-13).
@misc{isofind2026balmatisotopesignatures,
title = {Balmat, isotope signatures},
author = {{IsoFind Atlas}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.isofind.tech/isotopes/en/deposits/balmat/},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-13}
}Updated : 2026-10-13