Cu–(Ni–Co–Au)-bearing massive sulfide deposits associated with mafic–ultramafic rocks of the Main Urals Fault, South Urals: Geological structures, ore textural and mineralogical features, comparison with modern analogs

Autor: I. Yu. Melekestseva, V. V. Zaykov, Svetlana G. Tessalina, Gennady A. Tret'yakov, Paolo Nimis
Rok vydání: 2013
Předmět:
Zdroj: Ore Geology Reviews. 52:18-36
ISSN: 0169-1368
DOI: 10.1016/j.oregeorev.2012.03.005
Popis: Cu-rich massive sulfide deposits associated with mafic–ultramafic rocks in the southern portion of the Main Urals Fault (MUF) are characterized by variable enrichments in Ni (up to 0.45 wt.%), Co (up to 10 wt.%) and Au (up to 16 ppm in individual hand-specimens). The Cu (Ni–Co)-rich composition of MUF deposits, as opposed to the Cu (Zn)-rich composition of more eastward massive sulfide deposits of broadly similar age along the western flank of the Magnitogorsk arc, reflects the abundance of seafloor-exposed, Ni–Co-rich ultramafic rocks in the most external portion of the Early-Devonian Magnitogorsk forearc. Morphological, textural, and compositional differences between individual deposits are interpreted to be the result of the sulfide deposition style and, in part, of the original subseafloor lithology. One deposit produced by dominantly on-seafloor hydrothermal processes is characterized by pyrite–marcasite ≫ pyrrhotite, not so low Zn grades (occasionally up to 2 wt.%), abundant clastic facies and periodical superficial oxidation. Deposits produced by dominantly subseafloor hydrothermal processes are characterized by pyrrhotite > pyrite, very low Zn (generally
Databáze: OpenAIRE