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Petrography, geochemistry and geochronology of the host porphyries and associated alteration at the Tuwu Cu deposit, NW China: a case for increased depositional efficiency by reaction with mafic hostrock?

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Abstract

Tuwu is the largest porphyry copper deposit discovered in the Eastern Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang, China. A newly recognized volcanic complex in the Early Carboniferous Qi’eshan Group at Tuwu consists of basalt, andesite, and diorite porphyry. The plagiogranite porphyry was emplaced into this complex at 332.8±2.5 Ma (U–Pb zircon SIMS determination). Whole-rock element geochemistry shows that the volcanic complex and plagiogranite porphyry formed in the same island arc, although the complex was derived by partial melting of the mantle wedge and the plagiogranite porphyry by partial melting of a subducting slab. The diorite and the plagiogranite porphyries have both been subjected to intense hydrothermal alteration and associated mineralization, but the productive porphyry is the plagiogranite porphyry. Three alteration and mineralization stages, including pre-, syn- and post-ore stages, have been recognized. The pre-ore stage formed a barren propylitic alteration which is widespread in the volcanic complex. The syn-ore stage is divided into three sub-stages: Stage 1 is characterized by potassic alteration with chalcopyrite + bornite + chalcocite; Stage 2 is marked by chlorite–sericite–albite alteration with chalcopyrite ± pyrite ± bornite; Stage 3 is represented by phyllic alteration with chalcopyrite + pyrite ± molybdenite. The post-ore stage produced a barren argillic alteration limited to the diorite porphyry. A specific feature of the Tuwu deposit is that the productive porphyry was emplaced into a very mafic package, and reaction of the resulting fluids with the ferrous iron-rich hostrocks was a likely reason that Tuwu is the largest porphyry in the district.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Editor-in-chief Georges Beaudoin, associate editor GJ Davidson and two reviewers for constructive comments and improvement of the manuscript. One of the reviewers has been invited as one of the authors of this paper for his excellent discussion and suggestion. We thank Dr. Xian-Hua Li at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences helped us with SIMS zircon U–Pb analyses. Thanks are given to the No. 1 Geological Party, Xinjiang Bureau of Geology and Mineral Exploration, for sampling and mapping in field. This paper was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U1303293, 41390441, 41272109, 40972064), Innovative Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KZCX-EW-LY02), and National 305 Project (2011BAB06B01).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Mineral Resources, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 9825, Beijing, 100029, China

    Ping Shen, Hongdi Pan & Jingbin Wang

  2. College of Earth Sciences, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710054, China

    Hongdi Pan

  3. School of Resources and Environment Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009, China

    Taofa Zhou

  4. China Non-ferrous Metals Resource Geological Survey, Beijing, 100012, China

    Jingbin Wang

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Appendix

Appendix

Table 3 Major (wt.%) and trace element (ppm) abundance of the volcanic, subvolcanic and intrusive rocks in the Tuwu area
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Table 4 SIMS U–Pb zircon data for the plagiogranite porphyry from the Tuwu deposit
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Shen, P., Pan, H., Zhou, T. et al. Petrography, geochemistry and geochronology of the host porphyries and associated alteration at the Tuwu Cu deposit, NW China: a case for increased depositional efficiency by reaction with mafic hostrock?. Miner Deposita 49, 709–731 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-014-0517-4

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