High-temperature brine in chalcopyrite-rich quartz vein 40 km southwest of Sudbury, Ontario

Abstract

The Lac Panache (Nipissing) gabbro intrudes Huronian metasediments ca. 40 km southwest of the Sudbury Igneous Complex. The gabbro contains disseminated sulfides and is in contact with a chalcopyrite-rich quartz vein that crystallized from highly saline fluids (46.8 ± 3 equivalent wt.% NaCl) at a minimum temperature of 420 ± 27 °C. Chloride and carbonate inclusions in opened fluid inclusion cavities in the vein suggest that the brine contained dissolved metals (in addition to NaCl), such as Fe, Cu, Mn, and Co. The weakly altered quartz vein postdated regional metamorphism and was probably contemporaneous with the 1.7 Ga felsic magmatism and attendant albite alteration in the area. Cl-rich scapolite in the gabbro and highly saline fluid inclusions in the quartz vein suggest the existence of circulating hot brine throughout the tectonic evolution of the region. The 2.2 Ga old gabbro contains an abundance of Cl-rich scapolite intergrown with pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite that formed during the early hydrothermal (deuteric) alteration of the gabbro.