Influence of fluid-rock interaction on gold mineralization in the Dongwan deposit, East Qinling, China: Constraints from systematic sulfur isotope and trace element geochemistry
Yuan‐Ming Sheng, Li Tang, Shouting Zhang, M. Santosh, Xin‐Kai Hu
Abstract
The Dongwan gold deposit is located in the Xiong'ershan area, East Qinling, China, with gold ore bodies hosted in NE-trending hydrothermal alteration zone and quartz + sulfides veins in structures. Here we present systematic field investigation, petrographic observations, in-situ trace elements and sulfur isotope of pyrite, and sulfur isotope of galena and barite to elucidate the genesis and effect of fluid-rock interaction during hydrothermal evolution of the Dongwan gold deposit. Four types of pyrite are recognized based on their occurrences in different hydrothermal veins, structures and paragenetic sequences, as follows: i) Py1 in the stage I quartz-pyrite vein is composed of coarse-grained cubic pyrite (Py1-1) and medium-grained cubic pyrite (Py1-2); ii) Py2 is characterized by fine-grained disseminated pyrite in stage II vein; iii) Py3 is represented by pyrite that occurs together with galena, sphalerite and chalcopyrite in stage III vein. The early stage Py1-1 and Py1-2 are characterized by high Co/Ni ratios and low contents of As, Au and Ag. The main ore-forming stages represented by Py2 and Py3 show lower Co/Ni ratios and higher concentrations of As, Sb, Au, Ag, Pb and Cu. The Ni contents of all pyrite types are < 10 ppm, indicating that the ore-forming fluid was derived from felsic rocks. The δ34S values of the different pyrite generations range between −16.0‰ and −7.4‰, which are attributed to the fractionation between barite and sulfide minerals. The sulfur isotopic composition of the hydrothermal fluid calculated from co-genetic barite and pyrite is 1.2‰, suggesting that the ore-forming materials were possible derived from mantle source, and were correlated with the Late Mesozoic granitic magmatism. The main mechanisms of gold precipitation are fluid-rock interaction and decrease of temperature, which promote the Fe2+ rich Xiong’er Group wall rocks to reduce the hydrothermal fluid and disequilibrate the gold-sulfur complex causing the precipitation of gold. The overall trace elements and sulfur isotopic signatures suggest that the pyrite is of magmatic-hydrothermal origin, and that the ore-forming materials of the Dongwan gold deposit are probably related to post-magmatic fluids derived from the Early Cretaceous granitoid magmatism in the region.