LA-ICP-MS U-Pb geochronology, trace elemental and Lu-Hf isotopic geochemistry of hydrothermal zircons in the Xiadian gold deposit, eastern North China Craton: Implications for the timing of gold mineralization and the origin of ore-forming fluids

Abstract

The eastern North China Craton is characteristic of Mesozoic cratonic destruction and largescale gold mineralization. Previous geochronological studies by 40Ar–39Ar dating on alteration minerals such as sericite and K-feldspar and Rb–Sr and 40Ar–39Ar dating on quartz and pyrite suggested that the gold mineralization occurred in Early Cretaceous. We have identified hydrothermal zircons from the orebody and alterated rocks in the Xiadian gold deposit, Jiaodong Peninsula. These zircons contain two phase (vapor-liquid) fluid inclusions or enclose hydrothermal alteration minerals such as sericite. They show homogeneous low CL-response image and have high U with low Th/U, and also show enriched and flatter normalized LREE pattern with high La and low (Sm/La)N and Ce/Ce* relative to magmatic zircons. Their petrographical, textural and compositional features strongly suggest that they mainly crystallized from the hydrothermal fluids during the pyrite–sericite–quartz alteration that was closely related to the gold mineralization. Direct LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating on such hydrothermal zircons indicates that the gold mineralization in the Xiadian deposit mainly occurred during the Paleocene and underwent a prolonged metallogenic process (68.7–56.7 Ma), most likely commenced at the end of Cretaceous and lasted at the end of Paleocene. In-situ Hf isotopic compositions of the hydrothermal and inherited zircons suggest that the ore-forming fluids might have been derived from an enriched lithospheric mantle, followed by interacting with Archean metamorphic basement during ascent. Such a gold mineralization event might have been associated with the early Cenozoic uppermost lithospheric thinning in eastern North China Craton. It has important implications for further understanding the geneses and the geodynamics of gold deposits in the whole eastern North China Craton.