Origin of the Woxi orogenic Au-Sb-W deposit in the west Jiangnan Orogen of South China: Constraints from apatite and wolframite U-Pb dating and pyrite in-situ S-Pb isotopic signatures

Abstract

The majority of gold mineralization in the Jiangnan Orogenic Belt (JOB) of South China share similarities with the orogenic type, but the nature of mineralization remains controversial, especially in terms of intracrustal versus subcrustal origin of ore fluids and metals and their relationships with the subduction of the Paleo-Pacific plate. This paper reports results of in situ analyses of minerals closely related to gold mineralization, including U-Pb ages of apatite and wolframite, and S-Pb isotopes of pyrite, from the Woxi Au-Sb-W deposit in the western Jiangnan Orogen, and use them to address the above problems.The Woxi deposit, which consists of several auriferous quartz lodes hosted by ductile–brittle shear zones in the Neoproterozoic slate. The hydrothermal mineralization and alteration processes are divided into four stages. Early-ore stage (S1) is characterized by disseminated, euhedral, porous, coarse auriferous pyrite (Py1) with minor amounts of arsenopyrite, siderite, and rutile in the bleached slate. Main-ore stage (S2) is characterized by subhedral to euhedral, auriferous pyrite (Py2) with compositional zoning, with small amounts of wolframite and apatite in quartz veinlets. Late-ore stage (S3) is represented by scheelite and stibnite with minor amounts of native gold and anhedral, dendritic auriferous pyrite (Py3) in quartz veinlets. Post-ore stage (S4) features a quartz-calcite-barite-chlorite mineral assemblage that occurs as veinlets or in pressure shadows of Py1.Apatite and wolframite associated with Py2 yield a consistent U-Pb age of ca. 141 Ma, which is corresponded to a time when the Paleo-Pacific plate started to roll back, and a Basin-and-Range style tectonic regime began to developing in South China. The different stages of pyrite have variable S isotopes, with the δ34SCDT values (mainly between −6‰ and +1 ‰) largely overlapping with those of the metasomatized mantle (−5‰ ∼ + 5 ‰), and Pb isotope ratios between crustal and mantle values. Taking these results together, we proposed that the Woxi deposit and many other gold deposits in the JOB formed from subcrustal processes involving the metasomatized upper mantle above the subduction zone. Given the extended distance from JOB to the Paleo-Pacific plate boundary, the metasomatized mantle underneath the JOB is likely initially formed during the plate subduction leading to the formation of the JOB during the Neoproterozoic, which is further fertilized by upwelling asthenosphere due to rollback of the Paleo-Pacific plate in the Mesozoic.