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Role of evaporitic sulfates in iron skarn mineralization: a fluid inclusion and sulfur isotope study from the Xishimen deposit, Handan-Xingtai district, North China Craton

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Abstract

The Xishimen iron skarn deposit in the Handan-Xingtai district, North China Craton, contains 256 Mt @ 43 % Fe (up to 65 %). The mineralization is dominated by massive magnetite ore along the contact zone between the early Cretaceous Xishimen diorite stock and middle Ordovician dolomite and dolomitic limestones with numerous intercalations of evaporitic beds. Minor lenticular magnetite-dominated bodies also occur in the carbonate rocks proximal to the diorite stock. Hydrothermal alteration is characterized by extensive albitization within the diorite stock and extreme development of magnesian skarn along the contact zone consisting of diopside, forsterite, serpentine, tremolite, phlogopite, and talc. Magmatic quartz and amphibole from the diorite and hydrothermal diopside from the skarns contain abundant primary or pseudosecondary fluid inclusions, most of which have multiple daughter minerals dominated by halite, sylvite, and opaque phases. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and laser Raman spectrometry confirm that pyrrhotite is the predominant opaque phase in most fluid inclusions, in both the magmatic and skarn minerals. These fluid inclusions have total homogenization temperatures of 416–620 °C and calculated salinities of 42.4–74.5 wt% NaCl equiv. The fluid inclusion data thus document a high-temperature, high-salinity, ferrous iron-rich, reducing fluid exsolved from a cooling magma likely represented by the Xishimen diorite stock. Pyrite from the iron ore has δ34S values ranging from 14.0 to 18.6 ‰, which are significantly higher than typical magmatic values (δ34S = 0 ± 5 ‰). The sulfur isotope data thus indicate an external source for the sulfur, most likely from the evaporitic beds in the Ordovician carbonate sequences that have δ34S values of 24 to 29 ‰. We suggest that sulfates from the evaporitic beds have played a critically important role by oxidizing ferrous iron in the magmatic-hydrothermal fluid, leading to precipitation of massive magnetite ore. A synthesis of available data suggests that oxidation of Fe2+-rich, magmatic-hydrothermal fluids by external sulfates could have been a common process in many of the world’s iron skarn deposits and other magnetite-dominated ores, such as iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) and iron oxide-apatite (IOA) systems.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012CB416802) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 41325007, 91414301, 91514303). We thank Jin Xiaoye, Li Yang, Wu Yaoqian, and Bai Ming for their help during the field work and Zhang Suxin and Zhang Yi for assistance in the SEM-EDS analysis. Prof. David Lentz (UNB) read an early version of the manuscript. Andreas Audétat, Michael Haschke, and an anonymous reviewer provided constructive reviews that have led to considerable improvement of presentation of the paper. Our thanks extend to Profs. Bernd Lehmann (Editor-in-Chief) and Shao-Yong Jiang (Associate Editor) for handling the manuscript.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Guang Wen & Jian-Wei Li

  2. Faculty of Earth Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Guang Wen, Shi-Jian Bi & Jian-Wei Li

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Wen, G., Bi, SJ. & Li, JW. Role of evaporitic sulfates in iron skarn mineralization: a fluid inclusion and sulfur isotope study from the Xishimen deposit, Handan-Xingtai district, North China Craton. Miner Deposita 52, 495–514 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-016-0674-8

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