Abstract
Wolframite-quartz vein-type tungsten deposits constitute the world’s major tungsten resources and are integral to tungsten production. A major share of this mineralization product is found in Southeast China, with other significant resources in the Central Andean belt, the East Australian belt, the Karagwe-Ankole belt and the European Variscan belt. In the past few decades, extensive studies on wolframite-quartz vein-type tungsten deposits have been conducted, but many key questions concerning their ore-forming fluid and metallogenic mechanism remain unclear. Additionally, a summary work on the global distribution and fluid characteristics of these wolframite-quartz vein-type tungsten deposits is still lacking. In this contribution, recent progress regarding several major issues related to the fluid processes involved in the forming of these veins are overviewed, and challenges in terms of future research are proposed. These issues include the nature of ore-forming fluids, their sources, and their transportation and wolframite deposition mechanisms. In particular, the affinity between veins and the exposed granitic intrusion from the Zhangtiantang-Xihuashan ore district, where an as-yet undiscovered deep intrusion, rather than the exposed granitic intrusion, was probably responsible for the formation of the wolframite-quartz veins, is reevaluated. This study also reviews the existing fluid and melt inclusion data from several tungsten deposits to address whether the mineralization potential of the magmatic-hydrothermal systems was directly correlated with the metal contents in the granitic melts and the exsolving fluids.
Highlights
Wolframite-quartz vein-type tungsten deposits, generally related to granitic intrusions, are the source of much of the tungsten used by humans [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
Previous studies on H and O isotopes and fluid inclusions show that the ore-forming fluid in the main mineralization stage of wolframite-quartz vein-type deposits has a magmatic origin [4,6,11,23,80,85], and diverse degrees of meteoric water mixing in the late stage were reported [6,33,35,152]
Since some granite types are exposed to the surface and host wolframite-quartz veins, such as those of the Xihuashan, Dangping and the Zhangtiantang areas, whereas other tungsten deposits are mainly hosted in the metasediments, this may suggest that the currently known granite types are not the direct parental granites for W mineralization even though their ages are indistinguishable
Summary
Wolframite-quartz vein-type tungsten deposits, generally related to granitic intrusions, are the source of much of the tungsten used by humans [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. The study of ore-forming fluid properties is very important to understand the material source and formation process of the deposits, and to determine the deployment of geological exploration and prospecting work. A series of important discoveries has been achieved in relation to the hydrothermal processes forming these deposits, there are still different views on the sources of ore-forming materials, the properties of ore-forming fluids and the wolframite deposition mechanism, which hinder the establishment of the metallogenic model. The genetic link between veins and related granite is discussed for the Zhangtiantang-Xihuashan ore district based on their geological relationships and fluid properties to evaluate whether the exposed granitic intrusions were the direct parental rock for wolframite-quartz vein formation. This paper summarizes some recent single melt and fluid inclusion compositional data from W (-Sn) and other typical magmatichydrothermal systems, on the basis of which the compositions of ore-forming and ore barren melts/fluids are discussed comparatively
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