Geological and Geochemical Constraints on the Newly Discovered Yangchongli Gold Deposit in Tongling Region, Lower Yangtze Metallogenic Belt

摘要

The newly discovered Yangchongli gold deposit is a unique independent gold deposit in the Tongling ore-cluster region controlled by the tectonic alteration firstly discovered in the Lower Yangtze Metallogenic Belt(LYMB). The host magmatic rocks mainly consist of monzodiorite and K-feldspar granite. The LA-ICP-MS U-Pb zircons dating yielded weighted mean ^(206)Pb/^(238)U ages of 140.7 ± 1.8 Ma and 126.4 ± 1.2 Ma for the monzodiorite and K-feldspar granite, respectively. Monzodiorites are enriched in Sr, Ba, Rb, and depleted in Y, Yb with high Sr/Y and La/Yb ratios, similar to the geochemical features of adakite, considered as products of differentiation of mafic magmas originating from lithospheric mantle melt/fluids caused by metasomatism during paleo-Pacific Plate subduction in the Mesozic. In contrast, the compositions of K-feldspar granites are A-type granites, indicating an extensional tectonic background. Gold ores hosted in the fracture zone occurred as quartz vein within cataclastic rock. Sulfur and lead isotopes from pyrites show crust-mantle mixing characteristics. Metal components from strata also took part in the gold mineralization, and resulted from two episodes of magmatism that were probably related to tectonic transition from a compressive to an extensional setting between 140–126 Ma, which led to the Mesozoic large-scale polymetallic mineralization events in eastern China.