Arsenic
Arsenic ore resources are related to occurrences of arsenic minerals like loellingite (FeAs2) and arsenopyrite (FeAsS), hosted in vein hydrothermal or metasomatic intrusive metal ore types.
In Poland, the arsenic minerals have been reported from the major deposit situated at Złoty Stok and from numerous ore-bearing veins at Czarnów and Miedzianka near Kamienna Góra and other sites in the Sudety Mts. Arsenic ores were exploited at Złoty Stok in the period of XVI to XX century AD. The anticipated economic resources documented in this deposit amounted to 714.4 thousand tonnes, yielding 25.5 thousand tonnes of metallic As. After the Second World War, Złoty Stok deposit was exploited in the years 1954-1960 to be abandoned thereafter because of a very limited demand and high toxicity of arsenic. The amount remaining after all previous extraction is estimated at 536,500 tonnes of As ores yielding 19,600 tonnes of arsenic and 1,500 kg of gold. The other abandoned arsenic deposit is Czarnów in the Sudety Mts. Anticipated economic resources were estimated at about 20,500 tonnes of arsenopyrite ore with mean content of arsenic equal about 10.15%. Sulphide ores are accompanied by gold to a few grams per tonne.
Prepared by: Stanisław Z. Mikulski