Multiple metal sources in polymetallic W-Sn ore deposits revealed by mercury stable isotopes

作     者：Zhendong TIAN Bernd LEHMANN Changzhou DENG Xingchun ZHANG Anbo LUO Yinghua CHEN Runsheng YIN 

作者机构：State Key Laboratory of Ore Deposit GeochemistryInstitute of GeochemistryChinese Academy of SciencesGuiyang 550081China Mineral ResourcesTechnical University of ClausthalClausthal-Zellerfeld 38678Germany Faculty of Land Resource EngineeringKunming University of Science and TechnologyKunming 650093China 

出 版 物：《Science China Earth Sciences》 (中国科学（地球科学英文版）)

年 卷 期：2024年第67卷第11期

页      面：3465-3475页

核心收录：

学科分类：081803[工学-地质工程] 08[工学] 0818[工学-地质资源与地质工程] 

基　　金：supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41873047, 42102277) the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2021M703188) the Guizhou Provincial 2021 Science and Technology Subsidies (Grant No. GZ2021SIG) 

主　　题：Tin-tungsten deposit Mercury isotope Metal source Metal zonation South China 

摘      要：Granite-related W-Sn ore systems are commonly associated with coeval Pb-Zn mineralization. It remains unclear whether these metals are derived from the same sources or not. Mercury(Hg) is a common minor component in such systems. Hg isotopes undergo unique mass-independent fractionation(expressed as Δ^(199)Hg values), which is mainly generated during Hg photochemical reactions on Earth s surface and not affected by magmatic-hydrothermal processes, offering an excellent opportunity to trace metal sources in hydrothermal systems. We observed near-zero Δ^(199)Hg values in wolframite(-0.10‰ to0.08‰, n=11), and in skarn-(-0.17‰ to 0.12‰, n=48) and greisen-type(-0.12‰ to 0.10‰, n=11) bulk tin-tungsten ore from eight major ore deposits in South China. These values are identical to those of coeval highly evolved granites(-0.13‰ to 0.12‰,n=49), supporting that Hg in W-Sn ores were sourced from granite. However, sulfides(e.g., pyrite, chalcopyrite, arsenopyrite,galena, and sphalerite) in these deposits exhibit negative to near-zero Δ^(199)Hg values(-0.42‰ to 0.09‰, n=124), which indicates a contribution of Hg and by inference other metals from both Precambrian basement rocks(Δ^(199)Hg0) and ore-related *** study demonstrates that multiple sources of metals were involved in the formation of the polymetallic W-Sn deposits, and further highlights that extraction of metals from basement rocks may be a critical control on the formation of economically important mineralization of base metal sulfides(e.g., Pb, Zn) in granite-related magmatic-hydrothermal systems.