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The giant Dexing porphyry Cu–Mo–Au deposit in east China: product of melting of juvenile lower crust in an intracontinental setting

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Abstract

The Dexing porphyry Cu–Mo–Au deposit in east China (1,168 Mt at 0.45 % Cu) is located in the interior of the South China Craton (SCC), made up of two lithospheric blocks, the Yangtze and Cathaysia blocks. The Cu–Mo–Au mineralization is associated with mid-Jurassic granodioritic porphyries with three high-level intrusive centers, controlled by a series of lineaments at the southeastern edge of the Yangtze block. Available age data define a short duration (172–170 Ma) of the felsic magmatism and the mineralization (171 ± 1 Ma). The deposit shows broad similarities with deposits in volcanoplutonic arcs, although it was formed in an intracontinental setting. Porphyries associated with mineralization are mainly granodiorites, which contain abundant phenocrysts (40–60 %) and carry contemporaneous microgranular mafic enclaves (MMEs). They are mainly high-K calc-alkaline and show geochemical affinities with adakite, characterized by relatively high MgO, Cr, Ni, Th, and Th/Ce ratios. The least-altered porphyries yielded relatively uniform ε Nd(t) values from −0.9 to +0.6, and wide (87Sr/86Sr)i range between 0.7046 and 0.7058 partially overlapping with the Sr–Nd isotopic compositions of the MMEs and mid-Jurassic mafic rocks in the SCC. Zircons from the porphyries have positive ε Hf(t) values (3.4 to 6.9), and low δ18O values (4.7 to 6.3 ‰), generally close to those of depleted mantle. All data suggest an origin by partial melting of a thickened juvenile lower crust involving mantle components (e.g., Neoproterozoic mafic arc magmas), triggered by invasion of contemporaneous mafic melts at Dexing. The MMEs show textural, mineralogical, and chemical evidence for an origin as xenoliths formed by injection of mafic melts into the felsic magmas. These MMEs usually contain magmatic chalcopyrite, and have original, variable contents of Cu (up to 500 ppm). Their geochemical characteristics suggest that they were derived from an enriched mantle source, metasomatized by Proterozoic slab-derived fluids, and supplied a part of Cu, Au, and S for the Dexing porphyry system during their injection into the felsic magmas. The 171 ± 1 Ma magmatic-hydrothermal event at Dexing is contemporaneous with the mid-Jurassic extension in the SCC, followed by 160–90 Ma arc-like magmatism in southeastern China. With respect to the tectono-magmatic evolution of the SCC, the emplacement of Cu-bearing porphyries and the associated Cu mineralization occurred in response to the transformation from a tensional regime, related to mid-Jurassic extension, to a transpressional regime, related to the subduction of the Paleo-Pacific oceanic lithosphere.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Jeremy Richards for a fruitful discussion and Dr. Reza Tafti for helpful comments. We are most grateful to reviewers Drs. Thomas Bissig and Huayong Chen for valuable and constructive reviews of this manuscript. Editor-in-chief Bernd Lehmann and Associate Editor Christina Yan Wang are thanked for greatly improving early manuscript. This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and IGCP/SIDA Project 600.

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  1. Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, 100037, China

    Zengqian Hou, Xiaofei Pan, Qiuyun Li, Zhiming Yang & Yucai Song

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TableS1

Results of major element, trace element, and REE analyses of the Dexing porphyries and their MMEs (DOC 341 kb)

Fig. S1

CCPI vs. AI plot of the Dexing porphyries and their MMEs (modified from Large et al. 2001), showing the effects of various alterations on major element compositions of the Dexing rocks. CCPI is a chlorite–calcite–pyrite index. CCPI = 100(MgO + FeO)/(MgO + FeO + K2O + Na2O) (Large et al. 2001). AI is a alteration index, AI = (100(MgO + K2O)/(MgO + K2O + Na2O + CaO)) (Häussinger et al. 1993). Data sources: Wang et al. (2006) and this paper (PDF 244 kb)

Fig. S2

Na2O/Al2O3 vs. K2O/Al2O3 molar ratio diagrams (Davies and Whitehead 2009): a alkli/alumina molar ratios of feldspars, micas, and clay minerals; b molar ratio plot of the Dexing porphyries and MMEs (PDF 234 kb)

Fig.S3

Plots of Zr vs. Al2O3 (a) and TiO2 vs. Al2O3 (b) for the Dexing porphyries and MMEs, illustrating the effects of alteration on immobile elements. Zr, Ti, and Al are immobile components during hydrothermal alteration. Fractionation trend line for these immobile components is determined by the least-altered rocks. Alteration line (path) for these immobile components are linear owing to mass gains and losses and pass through the origin at infinite dilution. The altered rocks with same protolith composition but different degrees of alteration should fall on an alteration line, which intersect with fractionation line. Intersection point between alteration line and fractionation trend line gives original compositions of the altered rocks (PDF 302 kb)

Fig. S4

Mass changes of major elements (a) and trace elements (b) in five altered porphyry samples with same protolith composition and variable alteration (PDF 243 kb)

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Hou, Z., Pan, X., Li, Q. et al. The giant Dexing porphyry Cu–Mo–Au deposit in east China: product of melting of juvenile lower crust in an intracontinental setting. Miner Deposita 48, 1019–1045 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-013-0472-5

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