Iron and Oxygen Isotope Signatures of the Pea Ridge and Pilot Knob Magnetite-Apatite Deposits, Southeast Missouri, USA

Abstract

New O and Fe stable isotope ratios are reported for magnetite samples from high-grade massive magnetite of the Mesoproterozoic Pea Ridge and Pilot Knob magnetite-apatite ore deposits and these results are compared with data for other iron oxide-apatite deposits to shed light on the origin of the southeast Missouri deposits. The δ 18 O values of magnetite from Pea Ridge ( n = 12) and Pilot Knob ( n = 3) range from 1.0 to 7.0 and 3.3 to 6.7‰, respectively. The δ 56 Fe values of magnetite from Pea Ridge ( n = 10) and Pilot Knob ( n = 6) are 0.03 to 0.35 and 0.06 to 0.27‰, respectively. These δ 18 O and the δ 56 Fe values suggest that magnetite crystallized from a silicate melt (typical igneous δ 56 Fe ranges 0.06–0.49‰) and grew in equilibrium with a magmatic-hydrothermal aqueous fluid. We propose that the δ 18 O and δ 56 Fe data for the Pea Ridge and Pilot Knob magnetite-apatite deposits are consistent with the flotation model recently proposed by Knipping et al. (2015a), which invokes flotation of a magmatic magnetite-fluid suspension and offers a plausible explanation for the igneous (i.e., up to ~15.9 wt % TiO 2 in magnetite) and hydrothermal features of the deposits.