Szakáll Sándor - Jánosi Melinda: Minerals of Hungary (Topographia Mineralogica Hungariae 4. Miskolc, 1996)

THE MÁTRA MOUNTAINS Triassic igneous and sedimentary rocks occur on the northeastern side of these mountains near Sirok. As far as their mineral assemblage is concerned igneous rocks such as metabasalt are of greater interest than the sediments. In the quartz-calcite mineral association, filling fractures in these rocks, pumpellyite, epidote and prehnite are the most commonly occurring silicate minerals. Copper is present forming primary and secondary minerals in an association similar to that at the Bükk mountains. Large (up to 17 kg) masses, discovered on Aszalás Hill near Recsk, are the best-known representatives. These were first found by shepherds in seasonal gullies. One of these copper indications, near the Baj stream, was later explored by a shaft. The most important copper deposits are those of Lahóca Hill at Recsk. These deposits, which are in the form of stock-works, have been known since the 18th century, and contain an assemblage of minerals characterised by the association of enargite and luzonite. During the course of mining, the individual stocks were numbered IXII. Typical of their geometry is Stock no.V which had a basal area of 22,920 square meters and was between 30-90 meters high. This geometry dictated that a pillar and chamber type of mining was adopted. At the end of the first world war, after the peace treaty of Trianon, the mine at Recsk was found to contain the usable "byproducts" - silver and gold. For this reason, in the 1930's, a flotation plant was constructed locally for their extraction. This mine at Recsk was regarded as Hungary's only mine for gold and silver, indeed, as far as its mineral assemblage goes, it is unique not only in Hungary but in the entire Carpathian basin. During the first phase of ore formation galena and sphalerite formed, while the second phase was characterised by large amounts of enargite, luzonite, and tennantite. Enargite and luzonite were mostly massive, although small columnar enargite crystals (up to 1 cm) are known to occur in cavities. Small amounts of other interesting sulfides (goldfieldite, famatinite, seligmannite) were also present. Massive and disseminated pyrite occurs frequently and it