Major types and Metallogenic model of Early Cretaceous Pb-Zn and associated metal deposits in the southern Great Xing’an Range, NE China

Abstract

The southern Great Xing’an Range (SGXR) is one of the most important non-ferrous metal ore concentrating areas in China, and a large number of Pb-Zn and associated metal deposits have been found and mined in this area. The Early Cretaceous deposits of SGXR can be divided into three principal types according to their geological characteristics: skarn type deposits, porphyry type deposits and hydrothermal vein type deposits. In this contribution, we list some important Early Cretaceous deposits in the SGXR and summarize their geological characteristics. Research of stable isotope and fluid inclusion reveal that the sources and properties of ore-forming fluids varied between different types of mineral deposits, while the sources of ore-forming materials of different deposits are similar(characterized by deep-seated magmatic activities). We therefore conclude that the Early Cretaceous porphyry, skarn and hydrothermal vein type deposits in SGXR belong to a unified metallogenic series and developed a synthetical model for these deposits.

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Major types and Metallogenic model of Early Cretaceous Pb-Zn and
associated metal deposits in the southern Great Xing’an Range, NE
China
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GBEM2019
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 310 (2019) 052050
IOP Publishing
doi:10.1088/1755-1315/310/5/052050
1
Major types and Metallogenic model of Early Cretaceous Pb-
Zn and associated metal deposits in the southern Great
Xing’an Range, NE China
Chengyang Wang 1,*, Zhenjun Sun 1, Xiangdong Bai1, Guanghu Liu 1,Xinyang
Liang 2, and Jie Li u,
1Institute of Disaster Prevention, Sanhe 065201, China
2School of Earth Science, China University of Geoscience, Wuhan 430074, China
*Corresponding author: 598648597@qq.com
Abstract. The southern Great Xing’an Range (SGXR) is one of the most important non-
ferrous metal ore concentrating areas in China, and a large number of Pb-Zn and associated
metal deposits have been found and mined in this area. The Early Cretaceous deposits of
SGXR can be divided into three principal types according to their geological characteristics:
skarn type deposits, porphyry type deposits and hydrothermal vein type deposits. In this
contribution, we list some important Early Cretaceous deposits in the SGXR and summarize
their geological characteristics. Research of stable isotope and fluid inclusion reveal that the
sources and properties of ore-forming fluids varied between different types of mineral deposits,
while the sources of ore-forming materials of different deposits are similar(characterized by
deep-seated magmatic activities). We therefore conclude that the Early Cretaceous porphyry,
skarn and hydrothermal vein type deposits in SGXR belong to a unified metallogenic series
and developed a synthetical model for these deposits.
1.Introduction
As one of the important non-ferrous metal ore concentrating areas in northeastern China, the southern
Great Xing'an Range (SGXR) has been listed as one of the 19 key belts that are often targets for
mineral exploration in China [1-4]. Apart from the newly discovered deposits, the number of mineral
resources from known deposits has also increased in recent years, making this belt a continuous hot
area for ore deposit research in northern China.
During the past years, geologists have carried out a lot of work on zircon U-Pb, molybdenite Re-
OS, cassiterite U-Pb, sphalerite Rb-Sr, and muscovite Ar-Ar dating to accurately constrain the
mineralization ages of these deposits [5-10]. And the results reveal that Early Cretaceous deposits
constitute the most important part of hydrothermal mineralization in SGXR. On the basis of their
mineral assemblages, host rocks and major ore controlling factors, the major deposits of Early
Cretaceous from SGXR can be divided into the following three types: (1) skarn type deposits, (2)
porphyry type deposits, and (3) hydrothermal vein type deposits[11]. During the past years, we have
successively carried out studies on geology, fluid inclusion, stable isotope, lithogeochemistry, and
geochronology metallogenic prediction of the major Early Cretaceous deposit in the area [12-15]. In this
paper, we reviewed the geology, fluid inclusion and isotope characteristics of the Early Cretaceous
hydrothermal Pb-Zn and associated metal deposits, and the temporal, spatial and genetic relationships
between different types of ore deposits.

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2. Skarn type deposit
Three important skarn type deposits, mainly including Huanggang, Haobugao and Baiyinnuoer have
been found in SGXR. Results of molybdenite Re–Os dating shows that the Haobugao deposit is
formed at 140.3 Ma and the Huanggang deposit is formed at 135.8 Ma, mineralization related granites
of the two deposits are formed between 136.7~144.8 Ma and 136.6~136.8 Ma, respectively[7,8,10,11]
(zircon LA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating). Therefore, we can conclude that the Haobugao and Huanggang
deposits are genetically related to Early Cretaceous magmatism. While the formation age of
Baiyinnuoer deposit is still controversial between scholars till the present moment, and no accurate
metallogenic age has been obtained yet.
The Huanggang and Haobugao deposit generally occurred along the contact between Mesozoic
intrusions and Permian carbonate rocks. Magnetite, hematite, cassiterite, varlamoffite, sphalerite,
scheelite, loellingite, chalcopyrite constitute the main ore minerals of the ores, which display a variety
of textures. Gangue minerals of the deposit are dominated by skarn minerals such as garnet, pyroxene,
amphibole, fluorite, calcite, quartz, epidote, chlorite and phlogopite. The ores of the deposit show
mainly massive, banded, breccia, veinlike structures and disseminated structures. The ore-forming
process of the two deposits both can be divided into the four stages based: (1) prograde skarn stage.
Mineral assemblage of this stage is mainly composed of pyroxene, garnet, wollastonite; (2) retrograde
alteration stage. This stage is characterized by occurrence of hydrous skarn mineral,including
hornblende, actinolite, epidote, and chlorite; (3) quartz–sulfide stage; and (4) carbonate stage (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Macro- and hand-specimen scale characteristic for the skarn type deposits; a-c Haobugao
deposi, d- Huanggang deposit
3. Porphyry type deposit
Several porphyry type deposits developed in SGXR, and most of the deposits are copper-molybdenum
mineralization, only a few are lead-zinc mineralization. The Dongshanwan deposit is a typical
porphyry type deposit with intense mineralization of W, Mo, Pb, Zn and Ag. Molybdenite Re–Os and
zircon U-Pb dating reveals that both of the mineralization and hosting granites are formed at
140~142Ma. Recently, porphyry type Cu-Mo-(Pb)-(Zn) mineralization has also been discovered
in the periphery of the mining district of Haobugao deposit, which also indicates that a great potential
for discovering porphyry type deposits exist in this area. Our LA-MC-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb dating of
granite porphyry yielded a weighted mean 206Pb/238U age of 141.9 ± 1.2 Ma, which was interpreted as
the emplacement age of the granite porphyry, while the model ages of molybdenite Re-Os dating
range from 139.9 ± 2.3 Ma to 141.0 ± 1.7 Ma. The molybdenite Re-Os age is quite consistent with the
LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb age of the host granite, suggesting a coeval and causative relation between
the granite and mineralization. These deposits are characterized by veinlet–disseminated

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mineralization that developed in the granitic rocks (Fig. 2), and show characteristics of alteration-
mineralization zoning.
Fig. 2. Ore characteristics of porphyry type deposits; a,c-Dongshanwan deposit, b,d-Porphyry
mineralization in the periphery of Haobugao mining area
4. Hydrothermal vein type deposit
The important hydrothermal vein type deposits in SGXR include Shuangjianshan Pb-Zn-Ag deposit,
Dajing Cu–Sn–Ag–Pb–Zn deposit, Bairendaba Ag-Pb-Zn deposit and Weilasituo Zn–Cu–Ag deposit.
Orebodies of this type of deposits occur in Permian strata, and lack clear link with intrusive rocks in
space and time.Wu et al. (2013) used the sphalerite Rb-Sr dating method to determine the
mineralization age of the Shuangjianshan deposit [16], and obtained the isochronous age of 132.7 + 3.9
Ma. Liao et al. (2014) carried out cassiterite LA-ICP-MS U-Pb isotope dating for the Dajing deposit
and obtained the mineralization age of 144 Ma [17]. Muscovite Ar-Ar dating conducted by Pan et al.,
(2009) and Chang et al., (2010) reveals that the Weilasituo and Bairendaba deposit are formed at 133.4
Ma and 135.0Ma, respectively [18-19]. It can be concluded that the formation of hydrothermal vein type
deposits in SGXR also mainly concentrate in the Early Cretaceous.
Fig. 3. Chracteristics of hydrothermal vein type deposits; a,b-Dajing deposit, c-Weilasituo deposit; d-
Bujinhei depsoit
5. Genetic relationships and metallogenic model of different types of deposits
The research of fluid inclusion show that liquid rich, vapor-rich, daughter minerals bearing fluid
inclusions have been identified in early stage of the skarn and porphyry type deposits. And CH4 and
CO2 have been detected in fluid inclusions of calcites from skarn type deposits, indicating that the ore-

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forming fluids of late stage are affected by materials of Permian strata. Fluid inclusion assemblages of
the hydrothermal vein type deposits are quite different, which represent the complexities of
metallogenic process and formation mechanism. Liquid-rich, aqueous-carbonic inclusions, vapor-rich
inclusions, and CO2-bearing three-phase inclusions have been identified in main-ore stage of vein type
Weilasituo and Bairendaba depostit, indicating that the main-ore stage fluids are characterized by a
complex NaCl–H2O–CH4–CO2 system. Daughter minerals can also be recognized in fluid inclusions
of Dajing deposit, and the fluid inclusions from Shuangjianshan deposit are characterized by simple
liquid-rich two-phase inclusions. Stable isotope data from ore minerals and associated gangue
minerals indicate that the initial ore fluids were dominated by magmatic waters, some of which had
clearly exchanged oxygen with wall rocks during their passage through the strata. Sulfur isotope
values reported from SGXR span a narrow range, generally ranging from –6 to + 5‰. The narrow
range for the δ34S values presumably reflects the corresponding uniformity of the ore forming fluids,
and these δ34S values have been interpreted to reflect a magmatic source for the sulfur. The
comparation of lead isotope ratios between ores and different geological units also reveals that deeply
seated magma has been a significant source of lead in the ores.
Fig. 4. Metallogenic model and genetic-spatial relationships for skarn, porphyry and hydrothermal
vein type deposits in SGXR
The results of zircon U-Pb geochronology and major-, trace-and rare earth-element geochemistry
reveal that the Early Cretaceous granitoids of SGXR show characteristics of A-type granites. And it is
broadly accepted that this kind of granites are formed in an extensional within plate tectonic
environment [10-12].
Therefore, the formation process of the Early Cretaceous deposits from SGXR can be summarized
as follows: during the Early Cretaceous, the A-type granites originated from the partial melting of the
upper crust with some input of mantle material. It appears plausible that the lithospheric thinning not
only resulted in emplacement of magmatic rocks and related Pb–Zn polymetallic mineralization, but
also caused outward migration of mineralizing fluids in a regional thermal gradient. These magmas
emplaced at a shallow level and finally formed porphyry–skarn– hydrothermal vein Pb–Zn and
associated metal deposits. The spatial distribution of the deposits usually shows an obvious regularity,
that is, from the internal to outer zone of the intrusion, porphyry→skarn→vein deposits distribute in
order.
6. Conclusions
(1) Mineralization of skarn type deposits occur in the contact zone between Early Cretaceous granites
and Permian formations. The main characteristics of these deposits are a wide variety of calc-silicate
and associate minerals, which is dominated by garnet, pyroxene, tremolite and actinolite.

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(2) Porphyry type mineralization occurs as veinlets and disseminations in the phyllic and K-silicate
alteration zones developed in Early Cretaceous granitic intrusions.
(3) The hydrothermal vein type deposits are mainly hosted in various terranes or different
lithologies, and orebodies of this type of deposits are strictly controlled by faults. Alteration
assemblages of this type of deposit are dominated by silicification, sericitization, chlorinification and
carbonation.
(4) A close genetic relationship exist between porphyry, skarn and hydrothernmal vein type
deposits, and these deposits belong to a unified metallogenic series.
Acknowledgements
This research is founded by Open Fund of Key Laboratory of Seabed Mineral Resources, Ministry of
Land and Resources(No. KLMMR-2015-B-05).
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