Origin of Quartz Diorite and Mafic Enclaves in the Delong Gold-Copper Deposit and Evaluation of the Gold-Copper Mineralization Potential

Abstract

The Triassic Paleo-Tethyan magmatic belt in the East Kunlun Orogen (EKO) hosts a small number of porphyry-skarn deposits. The controls of these deposits, especially those in the eastern EKO, are poorly understood. In this contribution, we report new petrological, zircon U-Th-Pb-Hf isotopic, whole-rock elemental with Sr-Nd isotopic, and mineral chemistry data of the Delong quartz diorite and mafic enclaves to constrain their petrogenesis and metal fertility. The quartz diorite and mafic enclaves are emplaced in the Late Triassic (ca. 234 Ma). They are medium-K, metaluminous, enriched in large-ion lithophile elements (e.g., Rb, Ba, Th) and light rare earth elements (e.g., La, Ce, Nd), and relatively depleted in high field strength elements (e.g., Nb, Ta, Ti, P) and heavy rare earth elements (e.g., Gd, Er, Tm, Yb). The quartz diorite show similar (87Sr/86Sr)i (0.712584~0.713172) and more depleted εNd(t) (−6.4~−5.7) and εHf(t) (−2.3~+2.6) to those of mafic enclaves ((87Sr/86Sr)i = 0.712463~0.713093; εNd(t) = −6.4~−6.0; εHf(t) = −9.4~−4.8). Geochemical compositions of zircon, amphibole, and biotite yield high water content (5.3 wt.%~6.9 wt.% and 6.1 wt.%~7.3 wt.% based on amphibole, respectively) and high redox state for both the quartz diorite and mafic enclaves. These data, together with petrography, indicate the Delong intrusion was formed by mingling of magmas from enriched mantle and lower continental crust with juvenile materials. The oxidized and water-rich features of these magmas denote they have potential for porphyry Cu (±Au ± Mo) deposits, as do some Triassic magmatic rocks in the eastern EKO that show similar geochemical and petrographic characteristics with the Delong intrusion.