Source of Ore-Forming Fluid and Material in the Baiyun Gold Deposit, Liaoning Province, NE China: Constraints from H-O-S-Pb Isotopes and in-situ Analyses of Au-Bearing Pyrites

Abstract

The Baiyun deposit is a large gold deposit at the western end of the Liaoji rift zone in Liaoning Province, which has produced both auriferous quartz-vein type and altered-rock type mineralization. The ore bodies are mainly hosted in schist from the Gaixian Formation of the Liaohe Group. A detailed field geological survey showed that the quartz-vein type gold ore bodies are distributed in the near EW-trending and occur in the extensional tectonic space of schist in the Gaixian Formation, and the altered-rock type gold ore bodies are distributed in the near EW-trending structural belt and occur near in the Gaixian Formation of biotite schist, biotite granulite, marble and the upper footwall of dike. To further elucidate the source of ore-forming fluid and material in the Baiyun gold deposit, the H-O isotopes for quartz, S and Pb isotopes, in-situ trace elements for sulfides from quartz-vein and altered-rock type mineralization were studied. The H-O isotopic δD_V-SMOW and δ¹⁸O_H2O values of the auriferous quartz range were from −88.8‰ to −82.2‰ and −1.95‰ to 4.85‰, respectively, suggests that the ore-forming fluids were mainly magmatic water with minor meteoric water. The distribution ranges of in-situ S isotopic compositions of Au-bearing pyrite in the quartz-vein type and altered-rock type ores were −8.38‰–−10.47‰ (with average values of −7.89‰) and 11.38‰–17.52‰ (with average values of 11.55‰), respectively, indicating that the S isotopic compositions of the two ore types were clearly different. The in-situ Pb isotopic ratios changed almost uniformly, which showed that they had the same lead isotopic source. Based on the analysis of S and Pb isotopic compositions, the metallogenic materials in the Baiyun gold deposit were primarily from deep magma, and some wall rock materials may have been mixed in the metallogenic process. Co/Ni diagram shows that most Au-bearing pyrites have magmatic-hydrothermal or sedimentary alteration properties, and Au/As ratios were between 0.001 and 0.828 (the average value was 0.07), indicating that the ore-forming fluid in the Baiyun gold deposit may have been deep magma. Combining the geological, trace element, and isotopic data, as well as data from previous studies, we propose that the Baiyun gold deposit is a magmatic-hydrothermal ore deposit.

Keywords

in-situ trace elements / isotopes / in-situ sulfur and lead isotopes / hydrogen and oxygen isotopes / ore genesis / Baiyun gold deposit

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