1 Re-discovery of a mining district – the Rudabánya (Hungary) base metal mineralization János Földessy 1 , Norbert Németh 1 , Anita Gerges 2 , László Kupi 1 , Szabolcs Tóth 2 1 Institute of Mineralogy and Geology, University of Miskolc, 3519 Miskolc, Hungary, foldfj@uni- miskolc.hu 2 Rotaqua KFT 7673 Kővágószőlős, Hungary ABSTRACT The silver and copper mines of Rudabánya (Hungary) are known from medieval times. Iron ore mines operated from the 19th century until 1985, based on limonitic and siderite iron ore, including several open pits and underground workings. The mines after the suspension of operation still had identified lead, copper ore resources. Since the abandonment a short lived exploration aimed to assess the gold potential producing low gold values but promiseful enrichments of base metals and silver. A joint HGS-USGS research project has ranked Rudabánya of having high potential for carbonate hosted gold ore enrichment in Hungary. Recently started explorations led to reevaluation of the old archive records (more than 2400 drillholes), and have allowed considering alternative mineralization models. Instead of looking the base metals as possible iron-ore by-products, the data were evaluated to find stand-alone base-metal enrichment zones. The lead ores were chosen first as prime target due to their high silver grades. In the pits both folded stratabound and epigenetic vein-type Pb-mineralization were recognized in the footwall zone and penetrating faults of the siderite ore-bodies. The visually barren dolomites were found holding high zinc values, and the limonite ores hold highly anomalous base metal and silver values. The results of the first drillholes have supported the model drawn from the surface mapping, and opened the door for substantial follow-up in base metal explorations. Additional Keywords: non-sulphide zinc, silver mineralization __________________________________ Paper was presented at the 2009, Securing the Future and 8thICARD, June 22-26, 2009, Skellefteå, Sweden.