40Ar/39Ar fast neutron activation ages of quartz from the Jinman vein copper deposit in western Yunnan and their significance

Abstract

Quartz samples collected from the Jinman vein copper deposit in the Lanping Basin of western Yunnan were determined by40Ar/39Ar fast neutron activation techniques, and the spectra are characterized as being saddle-shaped. The samples yielded a plateau age of 58.05 ± 0.54 Ma, a minimum appearance age of 56.76 ±0.81 Ma and an isochron age of 54.30 ± 0.15 Ma, the three ages being close to each other, indicating that the ages of the quartz samples so far determined are true and reliable. The plateau age represents the time of formation of Cu-bearing quartz veins, which is corresponding to Early Himalayan. This age is also consistent with the time at which a tectonically thermal event (60 Ma) took place within the Lanping Basin, Yunnan Province. In consideration of the fact that copper ore and other ore types in the vast area of western Yunnan are concentrated mainly in the Early Himalayan strata, the authors believe that there must have existed some indispensable key factors leading to metallogenesis on a large scale during the Early Himalayan period in western Yunnan and also constraining in union the formation of ore deposits there.