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Polyphase vein mineralization in the Fennoscandian Shield at Åkerlandet, Järvsand, and Laisvall along the erosional front of the Caledonian orogen, Sweden

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Abstract

The Åkerlandet, Järvsand, and Laisvall deposits in Sweden are calcite-fluorite-sulfide vein deposits and occurrences located close to the current erosional front of the Caledonian orogen and hosted by crystalline basement rocks in the Fennoscandian Shield. At Laisvall, basement-hosted veinlets occur beneath Ediacaran to Cambrian sandstones that host a strata-bound Pb-Zn deposit. The mineralized fractures at Åkerlandet and Järvsand occur along fault systems oriented N–S to NNW–SSE. Veins or veinlets strike NNW–SSE and NW–SE at Åkerlandet, NNE–SSW at Järvsand, and NNW–SSE and NNE–SSW to NE–SW at Laisvall. At Åkerlandet and Järvsand, fractures acted as conduits for hydrothermal fluids of variable composition and formed during separate tectonic events. At Åkerlandet, the fault zone with NNW–SSE strike shows kinematic indicators consistent with ~NE–SW bulk horizontal extension. At Järvsand, the calcite-fluorite-galena veins formed along R-Riedel shears related to the host N–S to NNW–SSE fault system. The kinematic indicators are consistent with ~NW–SE bulk horizontal extension, similar to the extensional deformation during the later part of the Caledonian orogeny (Silurian to Devonian). At Åkerlandet, adularia-quartz deposition was followed by sphalerite ± galena and finally by precipitation of fluorite and calcite. 40Ar-39Ar thermochronology of a single adularia sample did not yield a well-defined plateau age but the gas released at higher temperatures suggests an early Tonian (980 to 950 Ma) crystallization age, i.e., during the later part of the Sveconorwegian orogeny, although the data do not exclude other less likely interpretations. Previous fluid inclusion microthermometry and geochronological studies and new petrographic and geochemical results suggest that sphalerite ± galena mineralization formed from saline, relatively oxidizing, moderate-temperature, and slightly acidic hydrothermal fluids, either during the Ediacaran or the Middle Ordovician. Metals and H2S were derived from local basement rocks. Based on petrographic evidence, rare earth element composition, and S, C, and O isotope data, fluorite and calcite precipitated under near neutral and relatively reducing conditions. Occurrence of solid bitumen in veins at Åkerlandet and C and O isotope data of calcite at Åkerlandet and in the Laisvall basement veinlets suggest that the precipitation of calcite and fluorite was triggered by interaction of hot and evolved hydrothermal fluids (87Sr/86Sr = 0.718–0.732) with organic matter. Structural, petrographic, and geochemical data at Laisvall suggest that the basement structures hosting calcite-fluorite ± pyrite veinlets were utilized in the Middle Ordovician as the plumbing system for the oxidizing, slightly acidic, metal-bearing brines that caused the economic Pb-Zn mineralization in the overlying sandstones.

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Acknowledgements

This research has been financially supported by Boliden AB (Sweden) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF, Switzerland, FN 146 353). The Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU) also provided financial and logistic support for much of the fieldwork in Sweden. The staff members at SGU in Malå are thanked for their help at the national core archive. The authors are grateful to Boliden AB via Hans Årebäck (former exploration manager) for financial and logistic support for the work carried out in Boliden and to the staff working at the core archive in Boliden for their help in supplying drill cores. Dr. Kalin Kouzmanov (University of Geneva) is acknowledged for constructive discussion on conditions for adularia precipitation. Björn Baresel is acknowledged for his help to perform microprobe analysis of adularia at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Jarkko Laminen (Boliden AB) is thanked for providing a sample from the Åkerlandet deposit. Åke Johansson, an anonymous reviewer, and Associate Editor Karen D. Kelley are thanked for their thorough and detailed reviews that helped us improve the quality of the manuscript and clarify several aspects.

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  1. Nicolas J. Saintilan

    Present address: Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, 1-26 Earth Sciences Building, Edmonton, T6G 2E3, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva, Rue des Maraîchers 13, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland

    Nicolas J. Saintilan, Richard Spikings, Massimo Chiaradia & Lluís Fontboté

  2. Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Division of Geosciences, Luleå University of Technology, 971 87, Luleå, Sweden

    Michael B. Stephens

  3. Formerly Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU), Box 670, 751 28, Uppsala, Sweden

    Michael B. Stephens

  4. Department of Mineralogy, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, Brennhausgasse 14, 09596, Freiberg, Germany

    Jens Schneider

  5. Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Building Geopolis, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Jorge E. Spangenberg

  6. Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Lausanne, Building Geopolis, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Alexey Ulianov

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Saintilan, N.J., Stephens, M.B., Spikings, R. et al. Polyphase vein mineralization in the Fennoscandian Shield at Åkerlandet, Järvsand, and Laisvall along the erosional front of the Caledonian orogen, Sweden. Miner Deposita 52, 823–844 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-016-0698-0

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