Ore geology, mineralogy and geochemistry of a fault-controlled hydrothermal clay-Li deposit hosted by Precambrian metasedimentary rocks in south China

Abstract

The Jinyinshan-Huangdi′nao Li deposit (12,000 t Li₂O @ 0.60%) was recently discovered in southern Hubei Province, South China. This deposit is divided into two ore sections, namely, Jinyinshan (0.24–1.32 wt.% Li₂O) and Huangdi′nao (0.20–0.47 wt.% Li₂O). The dominant Li-bearing phase and mechanism for Li enrichment remain unclear. Herein, a comprehensive study of ore geology, mineralogy and geochemistry is conducted. Field and petrographic investigations revealed that Li mineralization in the deposit was fault-controlled and that the altered metasedimentary rocks and hydrothermal veins with intensive Li mineralization contained high abundances of Li-rich clay minerals. Whole-rock XRD and in situ analyses of SEM-EDS, EMPA and LA-ICP-MS of clay minerals reveal that cookeite (0.99–2.80 wt.% Li₂O) is the dominant Li-bearing phase, with subordinate illite (0.02–0.57 wt.% Li₂O). The widespread replacement of Li-enriched illite by cookeite combined with the compositional continuum suggests that cookeite was likely formed by the hydrothermal replacement of illite at a temperature of 240–270 °C, as constrained by chlorite geothermometry (with average temperatures of 254 ± 2 °C in Jinyinshan and 259 ± 2 °C in Huangdi′nao). Since metasedimentary rocks of the Neoproterozoic Lengjiaxi Group in the deposit with variable Li anomalies host abundant Li-rich illite, Li mineralization was inferred to have occurred via hydrothermal metasomatism of these clay-rich clastic rocks. The hydrothermal fluids may have been driven by a deep magmatic heat source, as evidenced by previously reported U-Pb dating of apatite from the clay-Li ore, similar to the age of the Mufushan granitic batholith in the south, both of which are Early Cretaceous. The deep-sourced hydrothermal fluids caused the mobilization, migration and reprecipitation of Li as Li-rich clays along the fault zones. This mechanism of Li mineralization is different from existing models for clay-Li deposits worldwide, and this deposit can be classified as a new type, namely, fault-controlled hydrothermal metasomatic clay-Li deposit. Similar deposits are highly prospective both regionally and worldwide.

Keywords

Cookeite / Illite / In situ analysis / Clay-Li deposit / Fault-controlled / Hydrothermal metasomatism / South China

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Chunlong Wang: Writing – original draft, Investigation, Formal analysis. Shaoyong Jiang: Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Resources, Project administration, Methodology, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. Hanlie Hong: Resources, Methodology, Data curation. Wei Wang: Investigation, Formal analysis. Songlin Wan: Investigation, Formal analysis. Wensheng Zhang: Resources, Investigation. Jin Yin: Resources, Investigation.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by projects from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 92162323, 42321001), the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2017YFC0602405), and a project from the Hubei Geological Bureau ([2019]09). We are very grateful to Prof. Kui-Dong Zhao, Qing Xiong, Shui-Yuan Yang, Yao-Ming Xu, and Mr. Ji-Shun Yu for their assistance in the XRD, SEM, EMP, and LA-ICP-MS analyses. Dr. Robert J. Bowell, Wei Zhang, Qian Li, Li-Jie Liu and Qing Yang are thanked for their kind support and advice. Special thanks go to Dr. Ji-Qiang Cui and Kang-Yu Zhu for insightful discussion. Dr. Federico Lucci, Victor P. Nechaev, and one anonymous reviewer are thanked for their critical comments and constructive suggestions.

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