Evidence for Ordovician subduction-related magmatism in the Truong Son terrane, SE Laos: Implications for Gondwana evolution and porphyry Cu exploration potential in SE Asia

Abstract

The Truong Son Fold Belt (TSFB) is characterised by Late Carboniferous-Late Triassic metamorphic, volcanic and plutonic rocks, the product of accretion of the Indochina Terrane onto the South China Terrane and a range of composite subduction, collision and extensional events. This study discusses geochronological and geochemical data obtained from a dioritic intrusion and rhyolitic tuff mapped in the Donken area of SE Laos, and previously assigned to the Permian Antoum Granodiorite rock suite within the TSFB. Magmatic zircon U-Pb Q-ICP-MS dating undertaken in this study suggests ages of ca 470±2Ma for the diorite and ca 476±1.5Ma for a proximal rhyolitic tuff.Whole-rock geochemistry of both units suggests a subduction-related island arc environment, with calc-alkaline and tholeiitic affinities for the diorite and tuff respectively. The intrusion also exhibits an adakitic signature (high Sr, low Y and HREE contents) suggesting that Ordovician magmatism also occurred within the Indochina Terrane, associated with an enigmatic, early Gondwana subduction event. This intrusion appears part of a broader, bilateral Early Ordovician magmatism, newly linked to the south-east subduction of the Tamky-Phuoc Son Ocean underneath the Kontum terrane, and a north-west subduction beneath the Truong Son terrane. Significantly, sub-economic hydrothermal Cu mineralisation observed within the dioritic intrusion, hints at the presence of local Ordovician, porphyry-style base metal enrichment.