Abstract
The Ni–Cu–PGE sulfide deposits in the Yangliuping area, SW China, are hosted in mafic–ultramafic sills. The four mineralized sills are located in the Yangliuping tectonic dome and intrude Devonian carbonaceous marble, graphitic schist. The sills are 200–300 m thick and 1,000–2,000 m in strike length and now consist chiefly of serpentinite, talc schist, tremolite schist, and meta-gabbro. Disseminated Ni–Cu sulfide mineralisation occurs in the serpentinite in the lower parts of the sills. Massive sulfide mineralisation is located in the base of the sills and in the footwall along fractures beneath the mineralized serpentinite. Although the sulfide ores have been modified by hydrothermal activity, there are relict cumulate textures in the disseminated sulfides indicating a magmatic origin for the ores. The Yangliuping Intrusions and the Dashibao Formation have similar primitive-mantle normalized trace element and platinum group element (PGE) patterns, indicating that they are derived from a common parental magma type. The positive correlation between Cu concentrations and Cu/Zr ratios of the Dashibao Formation basalts indicates that the chalcophile elements were removed before eruption. We propose that fractional crystallization of the Yangliuping magma accompanied by the introduction of S and CO2 from the wall rocks caused the magma to become S-saturated leading to the segregation of magmatic sulfides that became enriched in Ni–Cu–(PGE). The sills acted as conduits for the overlying Dashibao Formation basalts with the sulfide liquid, along with early crystallizing olivine and pyroxene, segregating from the magma as it passed through the conduits prior to eruption.
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Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the Research Grant Council of the Hong Kong SAR, China (P7301/99P and P7101/01P to MFZ) and grants from China (NSFC no. 40072037 and NKBRSF project G1999043205). We gratefully acknowledge the kind help of Mr. Luo Fu-Xun, Mr. Zhu Ting-Guo, Mr. Chen Jia-Zhong, and other members of the 402 Geological Team of Sichuan Province, China, during our field investigation. We are very grateful to Dr. R.J. Goldfarb and Dr. O. Thalhammer for detailed and insightful comments on an earlier draft. Prof. R.R. Keays, Dr. C. Li, Dr. P.C. Lightfoot, and Prof. P.T. Robinson have considerably improved the current version of this manuscript.
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Song, XY., Zhou, MF., Cao, ZM. et al. Ni–Cu–(PGE) magmatic sulfide deposits in the Yangliuping area, Permian Emeishan igneous province, SW China. Miner Deposita 38, 831–843 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-003-0362-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-003-0362-3