Abstract
• Multiple fluid sources are identified by variation range of Cl isotopes and Cl/Br ratios from. • Vein-type Zn-Pb mineralization is triggered by mixing of evaporated seawater and magmatic hydrothermal fluids . • Quantitative model shows that the mixing volume ratios of both sources are between 1:9 and 4:6. Numerous hydrothermal vein-type Zn–Pb deposits worldwide are characterized by low-temperature metallogeny, no spatial relationship with plutons, and strong water-rock interaction, which result in the difficulty of constraining the fluid origin and the process of ore formation by traditional geochemistry. In this study, we employ chemical and chlorine isotopic composition of bulk fluid inclusions from ore-bearing and ore-barren quartz veins to constrain the possible sources of ore-forming fluids and the process of metal precipitation in the hydrothermal systems of the economic vein-type mineralization in eastern Guizhou Province, SW China. Our new geochemical data are indicative of two end-members in the systems, one identified in the ore-bearing veins with high K/Na, Li/Na, Cl/Br ratios, and δ 37 Cl values representing magmatic hydrothermal fluids, another distinguished in the ore-barren veins with low Cl/Br ratios and δ 37 Cl values representing evaporated seawater. We conclude there is a systematic variation of these geochemical data as the results of the mixing between the former and the latter end-member. In the meantime, the mixing is quantitively assessed to study the mixing volume ratios of both end-members. Based on our data and our own previous study, a genetic fluid mixing model involving the magmatic hydrothermal fluids related to deep magma activity and the evaporated seawater is established for the formation of the vein-type Zn–Pb deposits. This study provides a novel geochemical approach for recognizing hydrothermal mineralizing systems.
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