The Chalukou deposit in the North Great Xing’an Range of China: A protracted porphyry Mo ore-forming system in a long-lived magmatic evolution cycle

Abstract

The Chalukou deposit is located in the North Great Xing’an Range of the Xing’an-Mongolia Orogen bordering and to the northeast of the North China Craton. The deposit is a high-F-type porphyry Mo deposit hosted by the Chalukou composite igneous body containing small intrusive bodies genetically related to Mo mineralization. The composite igneous body includes pre-mineralization dolerite, monzogranite and syenogranite, syn-mineralization rhyolitic porphyry, granitic porphyry and fine-grained monzogranite, and post-mineralization rhyolitic porphyry, quartz porphyry, dioritic porphyry and andesitic porphyry. Detailed laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) U-Pb zircon dating of the igneous components of the composite igneous body was carried out to determine the temporal framework for magmatism in the Chalukou region. The new LA-ICP-MS U-Pb ages constraint documented here, together with the published ages, indicate that there was a protracted porphyry Mo ore-forming event of approximately 7 million years between ca. 152 when the ore related rhyolitic porphyry was emplaced and ca.145Ma when molybdenite ceased being deposited. The dating reveals that the mineralization is a part of relatively long-lived magmatic cycle involving the emplacement of small doleritic stocks at ca. 165Ma that progressively evolved into extensive granitic intrusions at ca. 164Ma, and then diminished with the emplacement of mineralization-related porphyries to ca. 152Ma. The emplacement of barren Early Cretaceous magmatism, represented by volcanic units in the ca. 136Ma Guanghua Formation and porphyries, followed the mineralized magmatism.The syn-mineralization porphyry units associated with Mo contain zircons assaying ∼15 times higher in U and Th than the pre-mineralization magmatic phases. This indicates that there was a significant enrichment of Mo, U and Th in the magma, and directly associated with ore fluid exsolution. The return to their normal levels in the three elements in the post-mineralization magmatic phases indicates that they were exhausted from the magma chamber in the later phases. A genetic model is proposed for the enormous introduction of ore metals and enrichment at the Chalukou deposit. The protracted and multiphase igneous activity during the long-lived magmatism reflects a multistage enrichment of metal, and may play a crucial role in the formation of a volatile-enriched, fertile and large-volume magma chamber beneath the Chalukou deposit. Such a chamber is envisaged to be required for the formation of porphyry Mo deposits in general.