Remobilization of metasomatized mantle lithosphere: a new model for the Jiaodong gold province, eastern China

Abstract

The ~ 120 Ma Jiaodong province in the North China Craton, composed of abundant Mesozoic granites that intrude Precambrian metamorphic basement, is bordered by the Sulu orogenic belt, which formed through the collision between the North China and Yangtze cratons in the Triassic. Insights on the geodynamic setting and source of gold and fluids in the Jiaodong gold province are based on a detailed study of the Sanshandao deposit. The δ13CPDB and δ18O values of hydrothermal calcite from this deposit range from − 4.3 to − 6.5‰ and 11.4 to 15.1‰, respectively, which are compatible with a mantle source. Pre-ore mafic dykes in the deposit show typical arc-like geochemical features, suggesting that the mantle source was metasomatized prior to the basic magmatism. The δ34S values of gold-related pyrite from Sanshandao and other large deposits in the province range from 10.9 to 11.5‰ and are higher than those of the country rocks, but consistent with the signature of orogenic gold deposits sourced from a Neoproterozoic sedimentary reservoir. These high positive δ34S values are interpreted to be inherited from auriferous Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks of the northern Yangtze Craton, which were subducted into the mantle lithosphere beneath the North China Craton during the formation of eclogite in the adjacent Sulu orogenic belt in the Triassic. The syn-ore Lower Cretaceous mafic dykes display oceanic island basalt-like geochemical features, suggesting that asthenosphere upwelling triggered the release of gold and sulfur from an enriched and fertilized mantle lithosphere, contributing to the auriferous fluid which formed the widespread gold mineralization in the Jiaodong province at ca. 120 Ma.