Zircon U--Pb ages of Au-bearing host rocks in Northwest Iran as evidence for gold mineralization in the Carboniferous, not Cenozoic time!

Abstract

A few gold deposits occur in northwest Iran which are hosted by mylonitic granitoids and phyllonite. New U--Pb ages yield ages of 350–311 Ma for the mylonitic granitoid and 354–348 Ma for the phyllonite, which indicate Carboniferous magmatic activity in northwest Iran. The host granitoid and phyllonite have high contents of Zr (212, 246 ppm) and Y (26.8, 38.7 ppm). High 10,000 × Ga/Al ratios (2.1–5.1) and fractionation of the rare earth elements (REEs) pattern with depletion of Eu, Sr, and P may infer an A-type (anorogenic) granite affinity for the host rocks. Correspondingly, these rocks are characterized by high contents of Nb (33.1 to 39.2 ppm), Ta (1.68 to 2.40 ppm), Tb (0.84 to 1.17 ppm), and Th/Yb ratios with some similarity to OIB-like rocks. Whole rock compositions of these host rocks are consistent with both A1 and A2 type granites, which infer magmatic activity in an extensional tectonic regime. Perhaps the extension may have occurred during rifting of Neo-Tethys in northern Gondwana. Upwelling of the hot OIB-like melts during the opening of Neo-Tethys ocean was the main mechanism of this extension. The OIB signatures of the A-type granitoids controlled the gold mineralization during this process. Accordingly, we classify the gold mineralization in NW Iran as intrusion-related gold deposits. These mantle-derived magmas from the asthenosphere may support a source of both sulfur and gold. These elements were concentrated in hydrothermal fluids in the late stages of magma crystallization. Also, hot magma injection increased the geothermal gradient and caused extensive dehydration of the sedimentary rocks inin the roof of the magma chamber. Circulation of these hot fluids with injection into the hot crystallizing magmatic rocks and mixing with late-stage magmatic-hydrothermal fluids and meteoric water (?) seem to all have essential roles for transporting the gold and precipitating it within fractures in the semi-brittle to brittle zone. The gold precipitated as native or nanoparticles in pyrite in the inner part of the shear zone. This research reveals that mineralization occurred in the Late Paleozoic in an extensional tectonic regime and not above the subduction zone or collision zone which had been suggested before.