Age and pyrite Pb-isotopic composition of the giant Sukhoi Log sediment-hosted gold deposit, Russia

Abstract

Sukhoi Log is one of the largest gold deposits in Russia (1100 t Au at 2.45 g/t). Like many other sediment-hosted gold deposits throughout the world, Sukhoi Log preserves textural, structural and geochemical evidence for multiple generations of Au enrichment and pyrite growth. The deposit is located in the Lena gold province of Siberia, on the edge of the Siberian Craton and occurs in the core of a recumbent anticline in a Neoproterozoic black shale and quartz-rich siltstone–sandstone turbidite succession. Temporal constraints on pyrite paragenesis at the deposit have been determined using laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS) measurements of U, Th and Pb isotopes in pyrite, monazite and zircon. LA-ICPMS age determinations on detrital zircons indicate the host rocks were deposited after 600 ± 10 Ma and derived from a mixture of Palaeoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic sources. The U, Th and Pb isotopic systematics indicate the cores of large monazite crystals, which predate obvious tectonic fabric development in the host rocks, began growing at 573 ± 12 Ma. The rims of the same monazite crystals formed at 516 ± 10 Ma, during peak metamorphism and deformation. Small monazite crystals also grew in the sedimentary rocks during the Devonian (374 ± 20 Ma) and the Carboniferous or Early Permian (288 ± 22 Ma), possibly in response to fluid movements triggered by synchronous granite intrusion in the area. Multi-collector and quadrupole LA-ICPMS Pb isotopic determination on pyrite, combined with overprinting criteria, show that the earliest (stratiform) Pb and Au-bearing pyrite formed prior to metamorphism—possibly during sedimentation or early diagenesis (575–600 Ma). Small Au-rich pyrite nodules preserved as cores to folded bedding-parallel pyrite–quartz veins probably grew during late diagenesis or early metamorphism. Large pyrite euhedra, which overgrow the strong axial planar cleavage in the host rocks, have more radiogenic Pb-isotopic compositions and formed either late during or after deformation. Framboidal pyrite that is overgrown by both the late diagenetic–early metamorphic and syn- to post-metamorphic pyrite has the most radiogenic Pb-isotopic composition suggesting exchange with radiogenic Pb in the matrix may have continued until late in the history of the deposit. The dating and Pb isotopes support a multistage origin for the gold deposit with Au first introduced during or prior to growth of the earliest stratiform pyrite and progressively re-concentrated (with or without addition of further gold) during later metamorphic events.