Extreme variation of sulfur isotopic compositions in pyrite from the Qiuling sediment-hosted gold deposit, West Qinling orogen, central China: an in situ SIMS study with implications for the source of sulfur

摘要

High spatial resolution textural (scanning electron microscope (SEM)), chemical (electron microprobe (EMP)) and laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS)), and sulfur isotopic (secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS)) analyses of pyrite from the Qiuling sediment-hosted gold deposit (232 +/- 4 Ma) in the West Qinling orogen, central China were conducted to distinguish pyrite types and gain insights into the source and evolution of sulfur in hydrothermal fluids. The results reveal an enormous variation (-27.1 to +69.6 aEuro degrees) in sulfur isotopic composition of pyrite deposited during three paragenetic stages. Pre-ore framboidal pyrite, which is characterized by low concentrations of As, Au, Cu, Co, and Ni, has negative delta S-34 values of -27.1 to -7.6 aEuro degrees that are interpreted in terms of bacterial reduction of marine sulfate during sedimentation and diagenesis of the Paleozoic carbonate and clastic sequences, the predominant lithologies in the deposit area, and the most important hosts of many sediment-hosted gold deposits throughout the West Qinling orogen. The ore-stage hydrothermal pyrite contains high concentrations of Au, As, Cu, Sb, Tl, and Bi and has a relatively narrow range of positive delta S-34 values ranging from +8.1 to +15.2 aEuro degrees. The sulfur isotope data are comparable to those of ore pyrite from many Triassic orogenic gold deposits and Paleozoic sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) Pb-Zn deposits in the West Qinling orogen, both being hosted mainly in the Devonian sequence. This similarity indicates that sulfur, responsible for the auriferous pyrite at Qiuling, was largely derived from the metamorphic devolatization of Paleozoic marine sedimentary rocks. Post-ore-stage pyrite, which is significantly enriched in Co and Ni but depleted in Au and As, has unusually high delta S-34 values ranging from +37.4 to +69.6 aEuro degrees, that are interpreted to result from thermochemical reduction of evaporite sulfates in underlying Cambrian sedimentary rocks with very high delta S-34 values. The variations in Au content and sulfur isotopic compositions across a single ore-stage pyrite grain may reflect displacement of indigenous groundwater with low delta S-34 values by auriferous metamorphic fluids with high delta S-34 values. The very low-grade metamorphism of the host rocks and the metamorphic derivation of sulfur for the ore pyrite indicate that the Qiuling sediment-hosted gold deposit is an epizonal manifestation of an orogenic gold system in the West Qinling orogen.