Contrasting platinum-group mineral assemblages of the Kondyor massif (Russia): Implications for the sources of HSE in zoned-type ultramafic massifs

Abstract

This study presents the first highly siderophile element (HSE: Re, Os, Ir, Ru, Rh, Pt, Pd, Au) abundance and Re–Os isotopic data for primary Pt–Fe minerals and Os-rich alloys from the Kondyor zoned-type ultramafic massif located in the southeastern part of the Siberian Craton, Russia. The Kondyor massif is composed of three zones: (A) the oldest dunite core with associated chromitites, with an age of emplacement of ~250 Ma, (B) a younger rim represented by metadunite, wehrlite, clinopyroxenite, and melanocratic gabbro that has transitional contacts with the dunite core, and (C) the youngest apatite-phlogopite-magnetite-rich clinopyroxenite stockwork exposed in the southwestern part of the massif. It has intrusive contacts with the dunite core and formed at ~125 Ma. Chromitites from zone (A) and clinopyroxenites from zone (C) analyzed in this study are characterized by distinct platinum-group mineral (PGM) assemblages dominated by Pt–Fe alloys in the former and cooperite with sperrylite and Pt–Fe alloys in the latter, with subordinate amounts of Os–Ir alloys present in both assemblages. The Re–Os isotope results identify a narrow range of initial 187Os/188Os values for Os–Ir alloys from the zone A chromitites (0.1249–0.1254) and the chromitites themselves (0.12466 ± 0.00005). Such chondritic initial 187Os/188Os values (γ187Os(T =250 Ma) ranging between −0.5 and + 0.1) indicate that the HSE budget of the chromitites and PGM from zone (A) was largely controlled by that of the mantle domain that evolved with long-term near-chondritic Re/Os, a notion that is also supported by the recent data of Luguet et al. (2019). In contrast, Os alloys from the zone C clinopyroxenites have initial 187Os/188Os values ranging between 0.1302 and 0.1308 (initial γ187Os(T =125 Ma) = +3.2 to +3.7), indicative of a suprachondritic time-integrated Re/Os in the source of these rocks. The mineralogical and isotope-geochemical data point to a high-temperature origin of the studied PGM and at least two distinct sources of HSE in the ultramafic rocks of the Kondyor massif.