Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T07:49:17.693Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Intrusive metallogenic provinces in eastern Australia based on granite source and composition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Phillip L. Blevin ,
Bruce W. Chappell  and
Charlotte M. Allen
Phillip L. Blevin
Affiliation:
Phillip L. Blevin, Bruce W. Chappell and Charlotte M. Allen, Key Centre for Geochemical Evolution and Metallogeny of Continents (GEMOC), Department of Geology,Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
Bruce W. Chappell
Affiliation:
Phillip L. Blevin, Bruce W. Chappell and Charlotte M. Allen, Key Centre for Geochemical Evolution and Metallogeny of Continents (GEMOC), Department of Geology,Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
Charlotte M. Allen
Affiliation:
Phillip L. Blevin, Bruce W. Chappell and Charlotte M. Allen, Key Centre for Geochemical Evolution and Metallogeny of Continents (GEMOC), Department of Geology,Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Ore element ratios in intrusion-related mineralisation are in part a function of the relative oxidation state and degree of fractionation of the associated granite suite. A continuum from Cu-Au through W to Mo dominated mineralisation related to progressively more fractionated, oxidised I-type magmas can be traced within single suites and supersuites. Such systematic relationships provide strong evidence for the magmatic source of ore elements in granite-related mineral deposits and for the production of the observed ore element ratios dominantly through magmatic processes. The distribution of mineralised intrusive suites can be used to define a series of igneous metallogenic provinces in eastern Australia. In general, there is a correlated evolution in the observed metallogeny (as modelled based on the compatibility of ore elements during fractionation) with increasing degree of chemical evolution of the associated magmatic suite. This is from Cu-Au associated with chemically relatively unevolved magmas, through to Sn and Mo-rich mineralisation associated with highly evolved magmas that had undergone fractional crystallisation. Provinces recognised in that way do not necessarily correlate with the tectonostratigraphic boundaries defined by the near-surface geology, indicating that the areal distribution of some granite source regions in the deep crust is unrelated to upper crustal geology.

Keywords

Australiagranitesmetallogenic provincesmineral depositsfractionation
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 87 , Issue 1-2: Third Hutton Symposium. The Origin of Ganites and Related Rocks , 1996 , pp. 281 - 290
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, C. M.&Chappell, B. W. 1993. Contrasting Carboniferous-Permian and Cretaceous plutonism in the Urannah Batholith, northern New England Fold Belt. In Flood, P. G.&Aitchison, J. C. (eds)New England Orogen, Eastern Australia, 573–9. Armidale: University of New England.Google Scholar
Arnold, G. O.&Sillitoe, R. H. 1989. Mount Morgan gold-copper deposit, Queensland, Australia: evidence for an intrusion-related replacement origin. ECON GEOL 84, 1805–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blevin, P. L. 1993. Halogen (F, Cl) contents of biotites from I- and S-type granites of eastern Australia: possible metallogenic implications. GEOL SOC AUST ABSTR 34, 83–4.Google Scholar
Blevin, P. L.&Chappell, B. W. 1991. Relationships between granites and mineral deposits in the Lachlan Fold Belt. GEOL SOC AUST ABSTR 29, 4.Google Scholar
Blevin, P. L.&Chappell, B. W. 1992. The role of magma sources, oxidation states and fractionation in determining the granite metallogeny of eastern Australia. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 83, 305–16.Google Scholar
Blevin, P. L.&Chappell, B. W. 1993. The influence of fractionation and magma redox on the distribution of mineralisation associated with the New England Batholith. In Flood, P. G.&Aitchison, J. C. (eds) New England Orogen, Eastern Australia, 423–29. Armidale: University of New England.Google Scholar
Blevin, P. L.&Chappell, B. W. 1995. Chemistry, origin and evolution of mineralized granites in the Lachlan Fold Belt, Australia; the metallogeny of I- and S-type granites. ECON GEOL 90, 1604–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Candela, P. A. 1991. Physics of aqueous phase evolution in plutonic environments. AM MINERAL 76, 1081–91.Google Scholar
Candela, P. A.&Holland, H. D. 1986. A mass transfer model for copper and molybdenum in magmatic hydrothermal systems: the origin of porphyry-type ore deposits. ECON GEOL 81, 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carr, G. R., Dean, J. A., Suppel, D. W.&Heithersay, P. S. 1995. Precise lead isotope fingerprinting of hydrothermal activity associated with Ordovician to Carboniferous metallogenic events in the Lachlan Fold Belt of New South Wales. ECON GEOL 90, 1467–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Champion, D. C.&Bultitude, R. J. 1994. Granites of the Eastern Hodgkinson Province. II. Their geochemical and Nd-Sr isotopic characteristics and implications for petrogenesis and crustal structure in north Queensland. GEOL SURV QUEENSLAND REC 1994/1.Google Scholar
Champion, D. C.&Chappell, B. W. 1992. Petrogenesis of felsic I-type granites: an example from northern Queensland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 83, 115–26.Google Scholar
Chappell, B. W. 1968. Volcanic greywackes from the Upper Devonian Baldwin Formation, Tamworth-Barraba district, New South Wales. J GEOL SOC AUST 15, 87–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chappell, B. W. 1979. Granites as images of their source rocks. GEOL SOC AM PROGRAM ABST 11, 400.Google Scholar
Chappell, B. W. 1994. Lachlan and New England: fold belts of contrasting magmatic and tectonic development. J PROC R SOC NSW 127, 47–59.Google Scholar
Chappell, B. W.&Stephens, W. E. 1988. Origin of infracrustal (I-type) granite magmas. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 79, 71–86.Google Scholar
Chappell, B. W.&White, A. J. R. 1990. Tin granites: their evolution from fertile sediments by partial melting and fractional crystallisation. 10TH AUST GEOL CONVENTION R. L. STANTON SYMP ABST, 17–8.Google Scholar
Chappell, B. W.&White, A. J. R. 1992. I- and S-type granites in the Lachlan Fold Belt. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 83, 1–26.Google Scholar
Chappell, B. W., White, A. J. R.&Hine, R. 1988. Granite provinces and basement terranes in the Lachlan Fold Belt, southeastern Australia. AUST J EARTH SCI 35, 505–521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chappell, B. W., Williams, I. S., White, A. J. R.&McCulloch, M. T. 1990. Granites of the Lachlan Fold Belt. ICOG 7 Field Excursion A-2. BUR MINERAL RESOUR CANBERRA REC 1990/48.Google Scholar
Coney, P. J. 1992. The Lachlan belt of eastern Australia and Circum-Pacific tectonic evolution. TECTONOPHYSICS 214, 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ewart, A., Schon, R. W.&Chappell, B. W. 1992. The Cretaceous volcanic-plutonic province of the central Queensland (Australia) coast—a rift related ‘calc-alkaline’ province. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 83, 327–45.Google Scholar
Flood, P. G.&Aitchison, J. C. 1992. Late Devonian accretion of the Gamilaroi Terrane to eastern Gondwana: province linkage suggested by the first appearance of Lachlan Fold Belt-derived quartzarenite. AUST J EARTH SCI 39, 539–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, C. M. 1990. A strontium isotope traverse across the granitic rocks of southeastern Australia: petrogenetic and tectonic implications. J GEOL SOC AUST 37, 331–49.Google Scholar
Hensel, H.-D., McCulloch, M. T.&Chappell, B. W. 1985. The New England Batholith: constraints on its derivation from Nd and Sr isotopic studies of granitoids and country rocks. GEOCHIM COSMOCHIM ACTA 49, 369–84.Google Scholar
Horton, D. J. 1978. Porphyry-type copper–molybdenum mineralization belts in eastern Queensland. ECON GEOL 73, 904–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ishihara, S. 1981. The granitoid series and mineralization. ECON GEOL 75TH ANNIV VOL, 458–84.Google Scholar
Leitch, E. C.&Willis, S. G. A. 1982. Nature and significance of plutonic clasts in Devonian conglomerates of the New England Fold Belt. J GEOL SOC AUST 29, 83–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowenstern, J. B., Mahood, G. A., Hervig, R. L.&Sparks, J. 1993. The occurrence and distribution of Mo and molybdenite in unaltered peralkaline rhyolites from Pantelleria, Italy. CONTRIB MINERAL PETROL 114, 119–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCulloch, I.&Chappell, B. W. 1982. Nd isotopic characteristics of S- and I-type granites. EARTH PLANET SCI LETT 58, 51–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morand, V. J. 1993. Stratigraphy and tectonic setting of the Calliope Volcanic Assemblage, Rockhampton area, Queensland. AUST J EARTH SCI 40, 15–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munoz, J. L. 1992. Calculation of HF and HCl fugacities from biotite compositions: revised equations. GEOL SOC AM ABSTR PROGRAM 24, A221.Google Scholar
O'Driscoll, E. S. T. 1990. Lineament tectonics of Australian ore deposits. In Hughes, F. E. (ed) Geology of the mineral deposits of Australia and Papua New Guinea, 33–44. Melbourne: The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.Google Scholar
Owen, M.&Wyborn, D. 1979. Geology and geochemistry of the Tantangara and Brindabella 1 :100000 sheet areas. BULL BMR GEOL GEOPHYS 204, 52 pp.Google Scholar
Pearce, J. A. 1983. Role of the sub-continental lithosphere in magma genesis at active continental margins. In Hawkesworth, C. J.&Norry, M. J. (eds) Continental basalts and mantle xenoliths, 231–49. Nantwich: Shiva.Google Scholar
Shaw, S. E.&Flood, R. H. 1993. Carboniferous magmatic activity in the Lachlan and New England Fold Belts. In Flood, P. G.&Aitchison, J. C. (eds) New England Orogen, Eastern Australia, 113–21. Armidale: University of New England.Google Scholar
Webb, A. W.&McDougall, I. 1968. The geochronology of the igneous rocks of eastern Queensland. J GEOL SOC AUST 15, 313–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whalen, J. B. 1985. Geochemistry of an island-arc plutonic suite: the Uasilau-Yau Yau Complex, New Britain, P.N.G. J PETROL 26, 603–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wyborn, D. 1992. The tectonic significance of Ordovician magmatism in the eastern Lachlan Fold Belt. TECTONOPHYSICS 214, 177–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wyborn, D., Turner, B. S.&Chappell, B. W. 1987. The Boggy Plain Supersuite: a distinctive belt of I-type igneous rocks of potential economic significance in the Lachlan Fold Belt. AUST J EARTH SCI 34, 21–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar