An evolving magmatic-hydrothermal system in the formation of the Mesozoic Meishan magnetite-apatite deposit in the Ningwu volcanic basin, eastern China

Abstract

The Meishan iron deposit contains 338 Mt of iron-ore reserves at 39% Fe and represents the largest magnetite–apatite deposit in the Ningwu Basin of eastern China. Controversy has long existed about whether this deposit had a hydrothermal or iron-oxide melt origin. Iron mineralization is genetically related to plutons that are composed of gabbro-diorite, which were emplaced at 130 ± 1 Ma. These rocks have SiO2 contents of 51.72–54.60 wt%, Na2O contents of 3.47–4.04 wt%, K2O contents of 2.02–2.69 wt%, and K2O/Na2O ratios of 0.51–0.73. These rocks are enriched in LILEs and LREEs and depleted in Nb, Ta, and Ti, which indicates that the magma originated through partial melting of an enriched lithospheric mantle source in a subduction environment. A pattern of decreasing initial Sr isotopic ratios and increasing εNd(t) values with time in Early Cretaceous magmatic rocks of the Ningwu Basin may indicate incorporation of increasing proportions of asthenospheric mantle material into the source magma, which is consistent with the processes of lithospheric thinning and asthenospheric upwelling in eastern China related to Mesozoic subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate. Two stages of magnetite are found in the gabbro-diorite: (1) early-crystallized magnetite as euhedral–subhedral crystals in larger clinopyroxene crystals, and (2) later-crystallized magnetite and accompanying ilmenite grains in the voids between plagioclase and clinopyroxene crystals. The formation of magnetite before clinopyroxene, combined with the results of Fe–Ti oxide geothermometry and analysis of magnetite V content, indicates that the oxygen fugacity of the source magma was greater than ΔFMQ +2.2 at an early stage (>640 °C) but decreased to ΔFMQ −2.66 as abundant magnetite crystallized at a later stage (∼489 °C). The early crystallization of magnetite at a high oxygen fugacity does not support a Fenner evolution trend for the primitive magma and diminishes the likelihood of liquid immiscibility, which could have generated an iron-rich melt, and is thus inconsistent with an iron-oxide melt origin for the Meishan iron deposit. The δ34S values of pyrite (6.6–15.1‰) and anhydrite (15.6–16.9‰) in the deposit and the occurrence of evaporites under the volcanic rocks likely indicate that the iron ores and alteration rocks of the Meishan deposit were formed by the circulation of fluids of evaporitic origin driven by heat from the hypabyssal gabbro-diorite intrusives. In the late magmatic stage, oxygen fugacity decreased to a reducing range, triggering the reduction of sulfate to reduced sulfur and leading to local gold and pyrite mineralization.