×

Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences

An International Peer-Reviewed Open Access Journal

Indexed in Scopus SCIE (Web of Science) Crossref GeoRef

« Back

ARTICLE IN » Volume 7, 2012 - Number 1

FLUID EVOLUTION AND ORE GENESIS OF THE QIANHE GOLD DEPOSITE, WESTERN HENAN PROVINCE, CENTRAL CHINA



Meijuan YAO1, Junfeng SHEN1 & Huapeng NIU2
1State Key Laboratory of geological processes and mineral resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China. yaomeijuan1016@126.com
2China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China

Reading time: | words
Download PDF document Downloads: 6514

Abstract

The Qianhe structure-controlled orogenic-mesothermal gold deposit is located in the Late Archean to Early Proterozoic metamorphosed volcanic and sedimentary rocks in the south margin of North China craton (NCC). Three stages of hydrothermal ore-forming processes are recognized, Early (E), Middle (M) and Late (L), characterized by coarse pyrite-quartz veins, fine pyrite-polymetallic sulfide veins and quartz-carbonate veins, respectively. Gold typically occurs as fracture-fillings associated with chalcopyrite and galena in M-stage. Fluid inclusions (FI) were examined in quartz from E-, M- and L-stage samples. FI petrography and microthermometric results suggest that three types of fluid inclusions are present at the deposit. TmCO2 and ThCO2 in M-stage quartz range from -59.7 to -57.2°C and from 15.4 to 22.1°C, which are lower than those in E-stage quartz of ranging from -57.1 to -56.6°C and from 16.3 to 25.7°C. CO2-rich inclusions have similar TmCO2 and ThCO2 to those for CO2-H2O inclusions. CO2-H2O inclusions show salinities of 5.51 to 10.04 wt.% NaCl equivalent and Th of 242 to 336°C in E-stage quartz, and show salinities of 3.52 to 8.66 wt.% NaCl equivalent and Th of 213 to 240°C in M-stage quartz. Aqueous inclusions have a decreasing trend of salinities and Th from E-stage through M-stage to L-stage. Homogenization pressures of FI are estimated ranging from 367 to 872×105 Pa. The M-stage fluid has the lowest contents of ions (e.g., SO42-, Cl-, K+) and (K+Na)/(Mg+Ca) but highest CO2/H2O ratios. The change in ore-forming fluids from K2SO4 type to NaCl type indicates the superposition of two hydrothermal mineralizing events. Together with the alkaline and reducing conditions, as indicated by decreased pH and increased Eh values, is most conducive to the deposition of polymetallic sulfides and native Au and electrum. Unlike in E-stage, FI in M- and L-stage quartz shows evidence of fluid immiscibility. The fact that most of gold is associated with M-stage quartz and sulfide but not with that of E-stage suggests that gold deposition occurs at the M-stage of fluid immiscibility. The sudden phase separation led to the deposition of large amounts of gold at the Qianhe deposit.
Keywords:
  • Fluid
  • inclusion
  • Orogenic-type
  • Au
  • deposit
  • Ore
  • genesis
  • Xiaoqinling
  • Qainhe

Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of CJEES and/or the editor(s). CJEES and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

© 2012 by the author(s). Licensee CJEES, Carpathian Association of Environment and Earth Sciences. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

How to cite

Meijuan YAO, Junfeng SHEN & Huapeng NIU (2012). FLUID EVOLUTION AND ORE GENESIS OF THE QIANHE GOLD DEPOSITE, WESTERN HENAN PROVINCE, CENTRAL CHINA

Google Scholar
Loading...

Checking for open citations...