Hydrothermal Mineralization on the Mesoproterozoic Passive Continental Margins of China: A Case Study of the Langshan‐Zha'ertaishan Belt, Inner Mongolia, China
Authors: Runmin PENG , Yusheng ZHAI 
Published: September 2010

Abstract  Most ore‐forming characteristics of the Langshan‐Zha'ertaishan hydrothermal exhalation belt, which consists of the Dongshengmiao, Huogeqi, Tanyaokou and Jiashengpan large‐superlarge Zn‐Pb‐Cu‐Fe sulfide deposits, are most similar to those of Mesoproterozoic SEDEX‐type provinces of the world. The characteristics include: (1) All deposits of this type in the belt occur in third‐order fault‐basins in the Langshan‐Zha'ertaishan aulacogen along the northern margin of the North China Platform; (2) these deposits with all their orebodies hosted in the Mesoproterozoic impure dolomite‐marble and carbonaceous phyllite (or schists) have an apparent stratabound nature; ores display laminated and banded structures, showing clear depositional features; (3) there is some evidence of syn‐sedimentary faulting, which to a certain extent accounts for the temporal and spatial distribution and the size of the orebodies in all deposits and the formation of intrabed conglomerates and breccias; (4) they show lateral and vertical zonation of sulfides; (5) The Cu/(Pb+Zn+Cu) ratio of the large and thick Pb+Zn+Cu orebodies gradually decreases from bottom to top; and (6) barite is interbedded with pyrites and sometimes with sphalerite. However, some characteristics such as the Co/Ni radio of the pyrites, the volcanism, for example, of the Langshan‐Zha'ertaishan metallogenic belt, are different from those of the typical SEDEX deposits of the world. The meta‐basic volcanic rock in Huogeqi, the sodic bimodal volcanic rocks in the Dongshengmiao and potassic bimodal‐volcanic rocks with blastoporphyritic and blasto‐glomeroporphyritic texture as well as blasto‐amygdaloidal structure in the Tanyaokou deposits have been discovered in the only ore‐bearing second formation of the Langshan Group in the past 10 years. The metallogeny of some deposits hosted in the Langshan Group is closely related to syn‐sedimentary volcanism based on the following facts: most of the lead isotopes in sphalerite, galena, pyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite plot on both sides of the line for the mantle or between the lines for the mantle and lower crust in the lead isotope composition diagram; cobalt content of some pyrites samples is much higher than the nickel content (Co/Ni=11.91‐12.19). Some volcanic blocks and debris have been picked out from some pyritic and pyrrhotitic ores. All Zn‐Pb‐Cu‐Fe sulfide orebodies in these deposits occur in the strata overlying metamorphic volcanic rocks in the only ore‐bearing second formation. In the Jiashengpan deposit that lacks syn‐sedimentary volcanic rocks in the host succession only Pb and Zn ores occur without Cu ore, but in the Dongshengmiao, Tanyaokou and Huogeqi deposits with syn‐sedimentary volcanic rocks in the host succession Cu ores occur. This indicates a relatively higher ore‐forming temperature. The process of syn‐sedimentary volcanic eruption directly supplied some ore‐forming elements, and resulted in secular geothermal anomaly favorable for the circulation of a submarine convective hydrothermal system, which accounts for the precipitation of deep mineralizing fluids exhaling into anoxidic basins along the syn‐sedimentary fault system in the Langshan‐Zha'ertai rift. The Dongshengmiao, Tanyaokou, and Huogeqi deposits hosted in the Langshan Group appear to be a transitional type of mineral deposit between SEDEX and VMS‐types but with a bias towards SEDEX, while the Jiashengpan deposit hosted in the Zha'ertai Group is of a characteristic SEDEX type. This evidence, together with other new discoveries of Mesoproterozoic volcanic rocks and the features of lithogeny and metallogeny of the Bayun Obo deposit in the neighborhood emphasize the diversity, complexity and uniqueness of the Mesoproterozoic Langshan‐Zha'ertai‐Bayun Obo ore belt.