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Rare earth element study of exhalites within the Willyama supergroup, Broken Hill Block, Australia

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Abstract

A wide variety of unusual rock types, exhalites, are commonly associated with or host to exhalative mineralisation within the Willyama Supergroup. Chondrite normalised REE patterns of feldspar-, gahnite-, calcite-, magnetite-and garnet-rich lithologies in the vicinity of stratiform Broken Hill-type Pb-Zn-Ag mineralisation are LREE and Eu enriched similar to the REE patterns of pure metalliferous sediments and hydrothermal fluids of the East Pacific Rise and the Red Sea. In contrast, tourmaline-, garnet-, amphibole-, feldspar- and gahnite-rich exhalites in strike extension of Broken Hill-type orebodies possess LREE enrichments and negative Eu anomalies and also HREE enrichments and negative Ce anomalies. These REE patterns are the result of decreasing temperatures of the hydrothermal fluids, changing oxidation-reduction conditions and increasing influence of basic volcanism with increasing distance from the sulphide mineralisation.

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  1. Department of Geology, University of Newcastle, 2308, Newcastle, N.S.W., Australia

    B. G. Lottermoser

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Lottermoser, B.G. Rare earth element study of exhalites within the Willyama supergroup, Broken Hill Block, Australia. Mineral. Deposita 24, 92–99 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00206309

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