Abstract
Sulphur isotopic compositions of sulphides within garnet-rich rocks and high-grade ore from the Broken Hill deposit, New South Wales, Australia, have been determined and show a range of values of −3.3 to +6.7 per mil. Thermochemical considerations, including the spread of values of δ34S, suggest that the deposit was derived from a mixed source of sulphur in which seawater, reduced by inorganic processes, mixed with magmatic sulphur or that sulphate from contemporaneous seawater was reduced biogenically at low temperatures. Thermochemical considerations also suggest that pyrrhotite formed by desulphidation of pyrite so that the original Fe-S-O assemblage was pyrite ± magnetite.
Δ34S measurements show a broad range which is considered to be due to isotopic reequilibration during retrograde metamorphism and analytical and sampling technique. These data should not be used to indicate original temperatures of deposition or metamorphic temperatures associated with the various metamorphic events.
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Spry, P.G. A sulphur isotope study of the Broken Hill deposit, New South Wales, Australia. Mineral. Deposita 22, 109–115 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00204687
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00204687