Modeling experimental study on weathering-leaching of Emeishan basalt and its relation with metallogenesis

Abstract

The Emeishan basalt has a high Cu background value (170×10−6 on average), and thus provides a ore-forming material source for copper ores. The collected samples were exposed in basalt lavas of the third segment of the Emeishan basalt eruptive cycle. By using a set of automatically cycling glass apparatuses, weathering-leaching experiments by three kinds of rainwater on the collected samples were carried out in the open system (at normal temperature and normal pressure). The analysis results showed that the most intensive export of Cu occurred under acidic rainwater-induced weathering-leaching conditions, almost 2–3 orders of magnitude the export of Cu by modern air rainwater, and 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than the export of Cu by CO2 rainwater. In addition, the total amount of Zn, Cu, U, Ni and Sr exported by acidic rainwater are greater than 1%. All this indicates that copper in the Emeishan basalt provided the copper source for Cu mineralization at the contact between the basalt and the Maokou Formation limestone at the bottom.