This special issue honors the distinguished economic geologist, Professor Yuchuan Chen on the occasion of his 80th birthday (2014)

Abstract

The Dabie orogen is among the most famous continent–continent collisional orogenic belts in the world, and is characterized by intensive post-collisional extension, magmatism and Mo mineralization. However, the genetic links between the mineralization and the geodynamic evolution of the orogen remain unresolved. In this paper, the Yaochong Mo deposit and its associated granitic stocks were investigated to elucidate this issue. Our new zircon U–Pb ages yielded an Early Cretaceous age (133.3 ± 1.3 Ma) for the Yaochong granite, and our molybdenite Re–Os dating gave a similar age (135 ± 1 Ma) for the Mo deposit. The Yaochong stock is characterized by high silica and alkali but low Mg, Fe and Ca. It is enriched in light rare earth elements (LREEs) and large ion lithophile elements (LILEs: Rb, K, Th and U), but strongly depleted in heavy REEs, and high field strength elements (HFSEs: Nb, Ta, Ti and Y). The Yaochong granite has initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios of 0.7087–0.7096, and Pb isotopic ratios of (206Pb/204Pb)i = 16.599–16.704, (207Pb/204Pb)i = 15.170–15.618 and (208Pb/204Pb)i = 36.376–38.248. The granite has εNd(t) of −18.0 to −16.3 and εHf(t) values of −26.5 to −20.0. All these data indicate that the Yaochong granite is a high-K calc-alkaline fractionated I-type granite, and may have originated from partial melting of the thickened Yangtze continental crust. The Mo ores also show low radiogenic Pb isotopes similar to the Yaochong stock. Medium Re content in molybdenite (21.8–74.8 ppm) also suggests that the ore-forming materials were derived from the thickened lower crust with possibly minor mixing with the mantle. Similar to the Eastern Dabie orogen, the thickened crust beneath the Western Dabie orogen may also have experienced tectonic collapse, which may have exerted fundamental geodynamic controls on the two-stage Mo mineralization in the region.