Controls on Platinum-Group Elemental Distributions of Podiform Chromitites: A Case Study of High-Cr and High-Al Chromitites from Chinese Orogenic Belts

Abstract

A study of podiform chromite deposits from the Asiatic Orogenic Belt and the Qilian-Qiangling-Kunlun-Himalaya Tectonic Domain provides new insights into the geochemistry of the PGEs in podiform chromite deposits and the genesis of the deposits themselves. The bulk of deposits, which occur in mantle peridotites of ophiolites, have typical ophiolitic PGE patterns that are depleted in Pt and Pd relative to the average upper mantle and have negatively sloping distributions on mantle-normalized diagrams. Type I (high-Cr) chromitites have higher Os, Ir, Ru, and Rh contents than Type II (high-Al) chromitites, although both have similar Pd and Pt. Most of the Type I and II chromite deposits have lower Pd and Pt contents than the upper mantle peridotites in which they occur. Podiform chromitites are essentially products of melt/rock interaction in the upper mantle; their Cr and PGEs were contributed by not only the invading magmas but also by the upper mantle host; the chromite deposits are, in part, metasomatic replacement bodies. The Type I (high-Cr) chromitite PGE patterns were produced by interaction between S-undersaturated boninitic magmas and depleted harzburgites, whereas the Type II (high-Al) chromitite PGE patterns were formed by interaction between initially S-saturated tholeiitic magmas and depleted harzburgites. The low to very low Pd and Pt contents of both Type I and Type II chromitites require that the mantle assemblage in which the chromite deposits were formed had lost their sulfides, and hence Pd and Pt, prior to formation of the chromite deposits; in addition, no or little Pd and Pt were deposited by the invading magma which either remained S-undersaturated (boninite) or became (MORB) S-undersaturated due to interaction with the S-depleted harzburgitic mantle. It is suggested that the very low Ir, Os, and Ru contents of boninites in general might be due to loss of Ir during the formation of podiform chromitites. It is suggested that podiform chromitites with Type I PGE patterns were formed in an island arc environment, whereas those with Type II PGE patterns were formed in a back-arc setting.