A modified genetic model for the Huangshandong magmatic sulfide deposit in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt, Xinjiang, western China

Abstract

The Huangshandong Ni–Cu deposit is the largest magmatic sulfide deposit discovered to date in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt in northern Xinjiang, western China. The host intrusion is a 274-Ma composite mafic–ultramafic intrusion consisting of four separate intrusive units: a large layered gabbroic sequence (phase I), a sheet-like ultramafic body (phase II), a dyke-like gabbronorite body (phase III), and an irregular ultramafic unit (phase IV). Important sulfide mineralization is present in the last three intrusive units, predominantly as disseminated and net-textured sulfides (pyrrhotite, pentlandite, and chalcopyrite). The Huangshandong mafic–ultramafic intrusive rocks are characterized by arc-like geochemical signatures such as low Ca content in olivine and negative Nb–Ta anomalies in whole rocks. This, together with a post-subduction setting for the East Tianshan in the Permian, suggests that the source mantle was modified previously by slab-derived fluids in the Carboniferous. The mantle-derived magma was ponded in a staging chamber in the lower part of the newly formed arc crust. The first batch of magma to arrive at Huangshandong was most fractionated and depleted in Ni, crystallizing Fe-rich and Ni-depleted olivine (Fo67, <300 ppm Ni). The second batch of magma was more primitive, crystallizing more primitive olivine (Fo81–84). The third batch of magma was also highly fractionated and depleted in Ni, crystallizing Fe-rich and Ni-depleted olivine (Fo72, ~600 ppm Ni). The final batch of magma became more primitive again, crystallizing the most primitive olivine (Fo81–86). The occurrence of rounded sulfide inclusions in olivine primocrysts in the Huangshandong ultramafic rocks indicates that immiscible sulfide liquid droplets were present during olivine crystallization. The Ni tenors of disseminated sulfide ores in the gabbronorite dyke vary mainly between 5 and 8 wt%, which are too high to have been produced by the parental magma of the dyke. The Ni, Cu, and platinum-group elements (PGE) tenors of disseminated sulfide ores in the dyke (phase III) and the ultramafic sheet (phase II) are remarkably similar. These observations, together with the sequence of magma emplacement, suggest that the sulfide liquids entrapped in the magma of the dyke formed at depth by a previous pulse of more primitive magma. The estimated parental magma for the most primitive lherzolites in the Huangshandong intrusion contains 10 wt% MgO. Modeling shows that sulfide saturation in the parental magma of the Huangshandong lherzolites could have resulted from fractional crystallization. Significant PGE depletions relative to Ni and Cu in the disseminated sulfide ores of the Huangshandong deposit may be due to sulfide retention in the source mantle.