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Mercury isotope constraints on the source for sediment-hosted lead-zinc deposits in the Changdu area, southwestern China

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Abstract

The Lanuoma and Cuona sediment-hosted Pb-Zn deposits hosted by Upper Triassic limestone and sandstone, respectively, are located in the Changdu area, SW China. Mercury concentrations and Hg isotopic compositions from sulfide minerals and potential source rocks (e.g., the host sedimentary rocks and the metamorphic basement) were investigated to constrain metal sources and mineralization processes. In both deposits, sulfide minerals have higher mercury (Hg) concentrations (0.35 to 1185 ppm) than the metamorphic basement rocks (0.05 to 0.15 ppm) and sedimentary rocks (0.02 to 0.08 ppm). Large variations of mass-dependent fractionation (3.3‰ in δ202Hg) and mass-independent fractionation (0.3‰ in Δ199Hg) of Hg isotopes were observed. Sulfide minerals have Hg isotope signatures that are similar to the hydrothermal altered rocks around the deposit, and similar to the metamorphic basement, but different from barren sedimentary rocks. The variation of ∆199Hg suggests that Hg in sulfides was mainly derived from the underlying metamorphic basement. Mercury isotopes could be a geochemical tracer in understanding metal sources in hydrothermal ore deposits.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (2015CB452603, 2009CB421005) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (41303014). We thank Dr. Zhonggen Li and Dr. Buyun Du for hel** with THg concentration analysis. Also, Dr. Neng** Shen and Dr. Jiehua Yang are acknowledged for their aid with field sampling. We acknowledge the USGS Wisconsin Mercury Research Lab and Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene for the use of their lab space and multicollector ICP-MS for the determination of stable Hg isotopes. Dr. Bernd Lehmann and several anonymous reviewers are thanked for their constructive comments that have largely improved the quality of this paper.

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  1. Chunxia Xu and Runsheng Yin contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Ore Deposit Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550081, China

    Chunxia Xu, Runsheng Yin, Jiantang Peng, Jianfeng Gao, Ruizhong Hu & **anwu Bi

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100039, China

    Chunxia Xu

  3. Environmental Chemistry and Technology Program, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Runsheng Yin, James P. Hurley & Ryan F. Lepak

  4. Department at Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, 53709, USA

    James P. Hurley

  5. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550081, China

    **nbin Feng

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  1. Chunxia Xu
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Xu, C., Yin, R., Peng, J. et al. Mercury isotope constraints on the source for sediment-hosted lead-zinc deposits in the Changdu area, southwestern China. Miner Deposita 53, 339–352 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-017-0743-7

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