Geochemical and isotopic constraints on the genesis of the Jueluotage native copper mineralized basalt, Eastern Tianshan, Northwest China

Abstract

The Jueluotage native copper mineralized basalt is located in the Jueluotage Volcanic-sedimentary Belt, Eastern Tianshan, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region. The basalt, amygdaloidal basalt and tuff, which host native copper mineralization, were erupted in the lower strata of the Late Carboniferous Matoutan Formation. Whole-rock geochemistry shows that the basaltic occurrences at Shilipo, Heilongfeng, Changchengshan and Dongjianfeng have fractionated chondrite-normalized REE distributions and distinctly negative primitive mantle-normalized Nb, Ta and Ti anomalies. The whole-rock strontium, neodymium and lead isotopic data indicate low εSr(t) (−7.9 to +23.6), high εNd(t) (+2.5 to +7.1), with restricted 206Pb/204Pb (18.152–18.491), 207Pb/204Pb (15.521–15.562) and 208Pb/204Pb (37.978–38.251) ranges. On the basis of these data, we report that the Cu-bearing basalt is associated with high-iron tholeiitic basalts that were sourced from depleted continental lithosphere mantle garnet-bearing peridotite. The primary magma of the Cu-bearing basalt was: (1) relatively low in silica and magnesium; and (2) underwent only slight olivine and clinopyroxene crystal fractionation during the magmatic evolution process. In the Jueluotage belt, the Shilipo basalt lavas display significant geochemical similarities to numerous mafic intrusions that are present throughout the Jueluotage belt. Those mafic lavas and intrusions probably represent successive pulses of mafic magmatism, which lasted between ca. 310 and 270Ma.A crucial empirical observation is that the Jueluotage volcanic-sedimentary belt is a well-known metallogenic province that contains a wide range of copper, nickel, gold, and iron mineral deposits. These mineral systems were formed at different times and are associated with radically different ore-forming processes. However, they are all within the Jueluotage belt, which is interpreted to be a suture zone between the Junggar and Tarim plates, northwestern China. We propose that the Jueluotage volcanic-sedimentary belt reflects the occurrence of a major lithospheric discontinuity that favored the emplacement of different magma types and the circulation of hydrothermal fluids over a long span of time, thus controlling the spatial clustering of a range of mineral systems.