Carbonate-hosted talc deposits in the contact aureole of an igneous intrusion (Hwanggangri mineralized zone, South Korea): geochemistry, phase relationships, and stable isotope studies

Abstract

Many talc deposits occur in the Hwanggangri Mineralized Zone (HMZ) in dolomitic marbles of the Cambro-Ordovician Samtaesan Formation within 1 km of the contact with the Cretaceous Muamsa Granite. Talc commonly forms fine-grained, fibrous aggregates, or pseudomorphs after tremolite; abundant tremolite is included as impurities in the talc ore. Talc generally was derived from tremolite in calc-silicate rock within the dolomitic marble. Calc-silicate rock, consisting mainly of tremolite and diopside, was generated from silicic metasomatism during the prograde stage, which promoted decarbonation reactions until dolomite was exhausted locally. Hydrothermal alteration of calc-silicate rock to talc is marked by the addition of Mg and Si, and the leaching of Ca; Cr, Co, and Ni were relatively immobile during the retrograde stage. Contact metamorphism related to the granite intrusion generated the successive appearance of tremolite, diopside, and forsterite, or wollastonite-bearing assemblages in the marble, depending on the bulk rock composition. The X CO 2 content of the metamorphic fluids rose initially above X CO 2 =0.6, and decreased steadily toward a water-rich composition with increasing temperature above 600 °C in the calcitic marble, while buffered reaction of the dolomitic marble occurred at higher X CO 2 conditions above 600 °C. Talc mineralization developed under metastable conditions with infiltration of large amounts of igneous fluids along a fault-shattered zone during the retrograde stage and is characterized by the loss of Ca 2+ with the addition of Mg 2+. Oxygen and carbon isotopic variations of carbonate and calc-silicate minerals are in agreement with theoretical relationships determined for decarbonation products of contact metamorphism. Talc formation temperatures obtained from oxygen isotope fractionation, T– X CO 2 relationships, and activity diagrams range from 380 to 400 °C.