Genesis of Qujiashan manganese deposit, Shaanxi Province: constraints from geological, geochemical, and carbon and oxygen isotopic evidences

Abstract

The Qujiashan manganese deposit is located in the Longmen-Daba fold belt along the northern margin of the Yangtze Block. The layered ore bodies are distributed within the purple-red calcareous shale. Qujiashan is a high-grade w(MnO)=8.92% to 18.76%) manganese deposit with low-phosphorus w(P₂O5)=0.08% to 0.16%) content. It also has a low total REEs contents (with an average of 101.3×10⁻⁶), and has inconspicuous Ce (0.81 to 1.29) and Eu (1.00 to 1.25) anomalies. lg(Ce/Ce^*) values are from −0.02 to 0.11. The ores have high SiO₂/Al₂O₃ and Al/(Al + Fe + Mn) ratios. In figures of Fe−Mn−[(Ni+Cu+Co)×10] and lgU−lgTh, all samples show that hydrothermal exhalative fluids played an important role during mineralisation. The δ¹³C_PDB and δ¹⁸O_SMOW values of eight ore samples are from −20.7‰ to −8.2‰ (with an average of −12.4%) and from 14.3‰ to 18.7‰ (with an average of 17.0‰), respectively. These carbon and oxygen isotopic features indicate that hydrothermal fluids derived from deep earth are participation in the metallogenic process, which is also supported by high paleo-seawater temperatures varying from 47.08 to 73.98 °C. Therefore, the geological and geochemical evidences show that the Qujiashan deposit formed from submarine exhalative hydrothermal sedimentation.

Keywords

manganese deposit / element geochemistry / carbon and oxygen isotopes / genesis / Qujiashan manganese deposit

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