The Magmatic-Hydrothermal Ore-Forming Processes of the Tonggou Cu-Zn Deposit, NW China: Constraints from Magnetite Chemistry and Fluid Inclusions

Abstract

The Tonggou deposit is a porphyry Cu and vein-type Cu-Zn mineralization system located in the Bogda Orogenic Belt, north of Eastern Tianshan. Systematic fluid inclusion analyses were performed on granular quartz from the magnetite–quartz stage and pyrite–chalcopyrite–quartz stage from the porphyry Cu mineralization. During the early stage of porphyry Cu mineralization, the ore-forming fluids were at high temperatures (450–501 °C) and high salinity (51.2–55.2 wt.% NaCl equiv.) H2O-NaCl hydrothermal fluids with fluid boiling. These fluids evolved to high temperature (412–450 °C) and intermediate to low salinity (8.3–14.2 wt.% NaCl equiv.) H2O-NaCl hydrothermal fluids during the pyrite–chalcopyrite–quartz stage. In addition, magnetite from the Tonggou deposit was studied as a marker for the ore-forming process evolution of porphyry and vein-type mineralization. Sampled magnetite can be divided into MagI (allotriomorphic magnetite from altered granodiorite), MagII (magnetite from altered granodiorite found in veinlets or as granular aggregates), MagIII (from the magnetite–quartz stage of porphyry mineralization), and MagIV (from the polymetallic sulfide–epidote–quartz stage of vein-type mineralization). Magnetite LA-ICP-MS data indicate a hydrothermal origin. The contents of Ti, Si, Al, and Ta are controlled by temperature, and these elements gradually decrease from MagI to MagIV. Moreover, fO2 has considerable influence on the substitution of Sn, V, and Mn in magnetite, and the contents of these elements generally decrease from MagI to MagIII—increasing only in MagIV. Indeed, high fO2 in the polymetallic sulfide–epidote–quartz stage (MagIV) of vein-type mineralization is shown by the presence of a replacement texture in ilmenite grains within hydrothermal magnetite. On the other hand, magnetite samples from the Tonggou deposit have relatively low Ti + V contents compared to other porphyry Cu deposits—plotting in the skarn field of the (Ti + V) vs. (Ca + Al + Mn) diagram—and shows negative correlations in the (Ti + V) vs. Sn diagram. These data indicate that the porphyry Cu mineralization at Tonggou formed at relatively lower fO2 conditions than the Tonggou vein-type mineralization and other typical porphyry Cu deposits. Finally, porphyry and vein-type mineralization at Tonggou are both sourced from the porphyry system, as a result of ore-forming fluid transfer to a different location.