  Aims. We investigate whether X-ray observations map heavy elements in the
Intra-Cluster Medium (ICM) well and whether the X-ray observations yield good
estimates for the metal mass, with respect to predictions on transport mech-
anisms of heavy elements from galaxies into the ICM. We further test the
accuracy of simulated metallicity maps. Methods. We extract synthetic X-ray
spectra from N-body/hydrodynamic simulations including metal enrichment pro-
cesses, which we then analyse with the same methods as are applied to
observations. By changing the metal distribution in the simulated galaxy
clusters, we investigate the dependence of the overall metallicity as a
function of the metal distribution. In addition we investigate the difference
of X-ray weighted metal maps produced by simulations and metal maps extracted
from artifcial X-ray spectra, which we calculate with SPEX2.0 and analyse with
XSPEC12.0. Results. The overall metallicity depends strongly on the
distribution of metals within the galaxy cluster. The more inhomogeneously the
metals are distributed within the cluster, the less accurate is the metallicity
as a measure for the true metal mass. The true metal mass is generally
underestimated by X-ray observations. The difference between the X-ray weighted
metal maps and the metal maps from synthetic X-ray spectra is on average less
than 7% in the temperature regime above T > 3E7 K, i.e. X-ray weighted metal
maps can be well used for comparison with observed metal maps. Extracting the
metal mass in the central parts (r < 500 kpc) of galaxy clusters with X-ray
observations results in metal mass underestimates up to a factor of three.
