The age of Au–Cu–Pb-bearing veins in the poly-orogenic Ubendian Belt (Tanzania): U–Th–total Pb dating of hydrothermally altered monazite

Abstract

The age of gold-copper-lead mineralization in the Katuma Block of the Ubendian Belt remains controversial because of the lack of radiometric ages that correlate with the age of tectonothermal events of this polyorogenic belt. Previous studies reported whole rock and mineral Pb-Pb ages ranging between 1,660 and 720 Ma. In this study, we report U-Th-total Pb ages of monazite from hydrothermally altered metapelites that host the Au-Cu-Pb-bearing veins. Three types of chemically and texturally distinct types of monazite grains or zones of grains were identified: monazite cores, which yielded a metamorphic age of 1,938 +/- 11 Ma (n = 40), corresponding to known ages of a regional metamorphic event, deformation and granitic plutonism in the belt; metamorphic overgrowths that date a subsequent metamorphic event at 1,827 +/- 10 Ma (n = 44) that postdates known eclogite metamorphism (at ca. 1,880 Ma) in the belt; hydrothermally altered poikilitic monazite, formed by dissolution-precipitation processes, representing the third type of monazite, constrain the age of a hydrothermal alteration event at 1,171 +/- 17 Ma (n = 19). This Mesoproterozoic age of the hydrothermal alteration coincides with the first amphibolite grade metamorphism of metasediments in the Wakole Block, which adjoins with a tectonic contact the vein-bearing Katuma Block to the southwest. The obtained distinct monazite ages not only constrain the ages of metamorphic events in the Ubendian Belt, but also provide a link between the metamorphism of the Wakole metasediments and the generation of the hydrothermal fluids responsible for the formation of the gold-copper-lead veins in the Katuma Block.