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CHIL -SUP SO, 1 S EONG-T AEK YUN ,1* K EVIN L. S HELTON2 and D E-QUAN ZHANG 3
1
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Korea University, Seoul 136-701, Korea
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, Missouri 65211, U.S.A.
3
Institute of Mineral Deposits, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China
(Received June 11, 2001; Accepted January 7, 2002)
Mesothermal goldquartz veins of the Youngbogari deposit in the Youngdong area, South Korea, are
hosted in faulted shear zones in Precambrian gneiss of the Sobaegsan massif. The Youngbogari deposit
shares many features with other metamorphic rock-hosted gold deposits in the area, including a massive
single-stage nature of veins and a simple vein mineralogy. However, its ore mineralogy is unique in that
(1) arsenopyrite and pyrite occur dominantly with only minor pyrrhotite and (2) electrum grains are very
poor in gold content (<40 atom. % Au).
A variety of geochemical data indicate that deposition of the mesothermal goldsilver ores of the
Youngbogari deposit resulted mainly from cooling of ore fluids accompanying decreasing sulfur fugacity.
Fluid inclusion evidence indicates that gold deposition was not related to an early history of CO2 phase
separation (at temperatures of 300 to 420C), but rather was tied to a later history of cooling and dilution
of H2ONaCl ore fluids at temperatures of <300C. These temperature estimates for gold deposition agree
with those based on chlorite thermometry (270 to 320C) and sulfide mineral assemblages (<290C).
Measured and/or calculated, stable isotope compositions of hydrothermal fluids ( 18Owater = 5.8 to 8.0,
Dwater = 75 to 54) indicate an important role of rock-dominated (possibly magmatic) fluids in the
mesothermal goldsilver system.
The unusual arsenopyritepyrite-rich nature of the Youngbogari ores and their anomalously negative
34S values (2.9 to 5.1), compared to other mesothermal gold deposits of the Youngdong area, are
interpreted to reflect a more oxidizing nature of the Youngbogari ore fluids, likely due to less reaction with
graphite in wallrock gneiss.
I NTRODUCTION
Goldsilver vein deposits in South Korea are
associated intimately with major periods of
Jurassic and Cretaceous granitic plutonism
(Shimazaki et al., 1981, 1986). Cretaceous granites have been shown to be higher level intrusions
(<23 km) than Jurassic granites (>5 km, Tsusue
et al., 1981; Watanabe, 1981), providing an opportunity to investigate the influence of magma
emplacement depth on the post-magmatic evolution of granite-related gold systems. Three major
types of deposits previously documented which
*Corresponding author (e-mail: styun@mail.korea.ac.kr)
155
156
C.-S. So et al.
and simple ore mineralogy dominantly comprising iron sulfides and base-metal sulfides; the
dominance of pyrrhotite among iron sulfides; the
gold-rich nature of ores and electrum grains; and
high temperature (up to 480C), low salinity (<10
wt. % eq. NaCl) and CO2-rich nature of fluid inclusions (Yun, 1991; So et al., 1995, 1999; So and
Yun, 1997). These features are similar to those of
worldwide Archean gold deposits, orogenic gold
deposits, and mesothermal gold deposits in the
eastern edge of Sino-Korean platform (Kerrich and
Cassidy, 1994; Pan and Fleet, 1995; Groves et al.,
1998; Yao et al., 1999; Goldfarb et al., 2001).
Mining of the Youngbogari deposit was intermittent between 1936 and 1990. Reported ore
grades range from 0.7 to 30.0 g/ton of gold and
from 20 to 204 g/ton of silver (KMPC, 1986).
Remaining reserves are an estimated 145,200
metric tons of ore. The Youngbogari deposit shares
many features with other metamorphic rockhosted gold deposits in the Youngdong area (Choi
et al., 1988; Yun, 1991). However, its ore mineralogy is unique in that (1) arsenopyrite and pyrite
occur dominantly with only minor pyrrhotite, and
(2) electrum grains are very poor in gold content
(<40 atom. % Au). Such mineralogical differences
may reflect different physicochemical conditions
(e.g., fugacities of sulfur and oxygen) during mineralization.
The main purpose of this study is to determine
what conditions caused formation of the unusual
Youngbogari deposit. Based on mineralogical,
fluid inclusion and stable isotope studies, we decipher the fluid composition and physicochemical conditions that led to deposition of unique
mesothermal ores at Youngbogari. There is special emphasis on sulfur isotope data of ore sulfurs
in various types of gold(silver) deposits in the
Youngdong area.
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES
For this study, about eighty samples of vein
ore and wall-rocks were collected from underground ore stopes and surface outcrops of the
Youngbogari deposit. Among them, representative
157
158
C.-S. So et al.
during the late Paleozoic to early Mesozoic collision process between the North and South China
crustal blocks (Na and Kim, 1987; Ree et al., 1996;
Chough et al., 2000) and were intruded by foliated or massive granites of Permian to Jurassic
age (Fig. 1). Numerous hydrothermal quartz veins
in the Youngdong area mostly occur in
Precambrian basement rocks.
Precambrian basement rocks in the
Youngbogari deposit area consist of banded biotite
gneiss, granitic gneiss and small lenses of schist
within the gneisses (Fig. 2). Banded biotite gneiss
and granitic gneiss have a gradational contact and
are locally migmatitic. A whole-rock RbSr age
Ore deposit
The Youngbogari deposit comprises two major quartz veins with strike and dip directions of
N2068E and 7080SE, respectively (Fig. 2).
The veins extend up to 1 km along strike direction and vary in thickness from 0.6 to 1.0 m. Weak
alteration of wall-rock gneiss occurs along mineralized fault planes as narrow (<0.2 m thick), pale
green zones consisting of quartz, sericite, chlorite,
carbonates (calcite, dolomite) and pyrite. No economic gold concentration occurs in the alteration
zones. Mineralogical characteristics and chemical composition of electrum and sphalerite from
Youngbogari ores have been briefly described in
Choi et al. (1988). However, most data in this section were collected by this study.
Ore mineralization occurs in massive quartz
veins whose ore mineralogy is relatively simple,
consisting mainly of iron sulfides (dominantly
arsenopyrite and pyrite) and base-metal sulfides
(sphalerite and galena). The veins contain variable amounts of sulfides (generally <10 vol %,
but locally up to 50 vol % of the vein) in massive
gray to milky quartz and locally show crude
sulfide bands in the following sequence, from vein
margins to center: arsenopyrite + pyrite +
sphalerite; sphalerite + chalcopyrite + pyrite
pyrrhotite; sphalerite + galena + pyrite + AuAg
minerals (electrum, argentite, pyrargyrite). Mineralogy and paragenesis of veins are summarized
in Fig. 3.
Arsenopyrite (31.433.4 atom. % As) is the
most abundant sulfide mineral (>40 vol % of ore
159
Compared with other Jurassic, mesothermaltype gold deposits in the Youngdong area (Choi
et al., 1988; Yun, 1991; So et al., 1995, 1999; So
and Yun, 1997), the Youngbogari deposit shows
160
C.-S. So et al.
161
Fig. 5. Sulfur fugacity versus temperature diagram showing the depositional conditions of ore mineral assemblages in the Youngbogari ores. Hatched area indicates deposition of arsenopyrite + pyrite pyrrhotite (early;
pre-gold); shaded area, deposition of electrum + iron-poor (410 mole % FeS) sphalerite argentite (late; golddepositing). The sources of stability curves are: isopleths (atom. fraction of Ag; NAg) of electrum from Barton and
Toulmin (1964); isopleths (mole % FeS) of sphalerite from Barton and Skinner (1979); and isopleths (atom. % As;
numbers 31, 32 and 33) of arsenopyrite from Kretchmar and Scott (1976).
162
C.-S. So et al.
temperatures near 21C, indicating the dominance of NaCl among dissolved salts (Crawford,
1981). Final melting of ice (Tmice) occurred at
temperatures between 6.1 and 1.6C. If we
neglect the effect of a small amount of clathrate
formation by which ice melting temperatures can
be depressed (Collins, 1979; Hedenquist and
Henley, 1985), the Tmice values correspond to
salinities of 9.3 to 2.7 wt. % eq. NaCl (Fig. 6).
Aqueous inclusions homogenized to the liquid
phase at temperatures of 232 to 418C (Fig. 7).
Tmclath data of type a aqueous inclusions were
very difficult to obtain because of their small size,
but fall in the range of 5.9 to 8.6C (corresponding to salinities of 2.8 to 7.6 wt. % eq. NaCl, within
the range estimated from Tmice data).
The salinity and homogenization temperature
data obtained for obvious secondary aqueous inclusions (type b) fall in the range 1.2 to 10.4
wt. % eq. NaCl (corresponding to Tmice values
of 0.7 to 6.9C) and 163 to 228C, respectively (Figs. 6 and 7).
Carbonic inclusions Melting temperatures of
the CO2-bearing phase (TmCO2) in type a carbonic inclusions range between 60.4 and
56.6C (Fig. 8A), indicating the presence of small
amounts of CH4 in the carbonic phase (Burruss,
1981). Homogenization of the CO2-rich portion
(ThCO2) in type a carbonic inclusions to the
liquid CO2 phase occurred at temperatures of 19.2
to 29.6C (Fig. 8B). Within a single quartz grain,
163
Fig. 8. Temperatures of melting (TmCO 2) and homogenization (ThCO 2) of carbonic phase, and temperatures of clathrate melting (Tmclath) in liquid CO2bearing inclusions in vein quartz from the Youngbogari
AuAg deposit.
Fig. 9. Total homogenization temperature versus salinity diagram for fluid inclusions in vein quartz from
the Youngbogari AuAg deposit.
164
C.-S. So et al.
Table 1. Sulfur isotope data of sulfide minerals from goldquartz veins of the Youngbogari deposit
Sample No.
Mineral
YB-2-1
YB-2-2
YB-2-3
YB-5
YB-5-1
YB-5-2
YB-6-1
YB-6-2
YB-15-1
YB-15-2
YB-16
YB-20-1
YB-20-2
YB-21-1
YB-21-2
YB-21-3
YB-25
YB-26
YB-27-1
YB-27-2
Sphalerite
Galena
Arsenopyrite
Galena
Arsenopyrite
Pyrite
Sphalerite
Galena
Sphalerite
Galena
Arsenopyrite
Sphalerite
Arsenopyrite
Sphalerite
Galena
Pyrite
Chalcopyrite
Galena
Sphalerite
Galena
3 4 S ()
and Temp.1 )
T (C) 2 )
34 S H 2S () 3 )
2.6
4.9
3.4
6.6
2.5
3.6
4.1
6.4
4.4
6.4
2.4
4.8
2.7
2.8
5.2
2.8
4.4
5.4
5.4
5.9
285
285
380
270
370
370
285
285
320
320
370
360
370
275
275
290
310
280
310
310
2.9
2.9
4.5
4.6
4.4
4.4
4.7
4.6
5.0
3.1
3.1
4.1
4.3
3.1
5.1
4.0
Remarks
middle; sp + gn band
middle; sp + gn band
early; apy + py band
late; gn-rich band
early; apy + py band
early; apy + py band
middle; sp + gn band
middle; sp + gn band
middle; sp + gn band
middle; sp + gn band
early; apy + py band
early; apy + py + sp band
early; apy + py + sp band
late; sp + gn + py band
late; sp + gn + py band
late; sp + gn + py band
middle; sp + cp band
late; gn-rich band
middle; sp + gn band
middle; sp + gn band
165
Table 2. Oxygen isotope data of vein quartz, and hydrogen and carbon isotope data of inclusion fluids extracted from quartz, Youngbogari deposit
Sample No.
YB-1
YB-2
YB-5
YB-6
YB-9
YB-10
YB-15
YB-20
1 8 Oq z ()
Dwater ()
13 C CO2 ()
T (C) 1 )
1 8 Owater () 2 )
12.1
13.6
12.8
13.8
12.6
11.7
13.1
11.8
67
71
71
72
75
54
61
67
7.5
7.4
8.9
10.4
330
285
370
300
320
330
320
360
6.2
6.2
8.0
6.9
6.4
5.8
6.9
6.8
qz = quartz.
1)
Based on the average fluid inclusion and/or sulfur isotope temperatures and paragenetic constraints.
2)
Calculated water-isotope composition based on quartzwater oxygen isotope fractionation equation in Matsuhisa et al. (1979).
166
C.-S. So et al.
1994a, b).
Mesothermal-type gold deposits occur in
graphite-bearing, Precambrian gneisses and
formed at high-temperatures (up to 480C) and
relatively high pressures (up to 2 kbar), from
CO2(CH4)-rich fluids that were genetically related to Jurassic Daebo granitoids (around 166
Ma; So and Yun, 1997). These deposits are commonly simple in ore mineralogy and contain large
amounts of pyrrhotite, suggesting relatively low
fO2 conditions of ore fluids. Based on fluid chemistry, So and Yun (1997) suggested that the
mesothermal auriferous fluids were evolved under reducing conditions that were defined by both
graphitefluid interactions and the QFM buffer.
167
168
C.-S. So et al.
dicate low concentrations of CH4 in fluid. The difference in CH4 concentrations in inclusion fluids
may be taken as an estimation of the extent of both
graphitefluid interaction and resultant reduction
of hydrothermal fluids during mineralization. Nevertheless, we conclude that pyrrhotite-rich deposits formed from higher temperature (up to 480C)
and more reducing fluids than did pyrite-rich deposits.
We speculate that the Youngbogari deposit
possibly formed from the most oxidized fluids.
Higher oxygen fugacity of ascending hydrothermal fluids would have formed sulfate from reduced sulfur species (H2S and HS). Sulfate preferentially incorporates 34S, resulting in lower 34S
values of H2S (Ohmoto, 1986) and the observed
lower values of precipitated sulfides in the
Youngbogari deposit.
SUMMARY
A variety of types of geochemical data indicate that deposition of mesothermal, goldsilver
ores of the Youngbogari deposit resulted mainly
from cooling of ore fluids accompanying decreasing sulfur fugacity. Fluid inclusion evidence indicates that gold deposition was not related to an
early history of CO2 separation (at temperatures
of >300C), but rather was tied to a later history
of cooling and dilution of H2ONaCl ore fluids at
temperatures of <300C. These temperature estimates for gold deposition agree with those based
on chlorite thermometry (270 to 320C) and
sulfide mineral assemblages (<290C). The unusual arsenopyritepyrite-rich nature of the
Youngbogari ores and their anomalously negative
34S values, compared to other mesothermal gold
deposits of the Youngdong area, are interpreted
to reflect more oxidizing nature of the
Youngbogari ore fluids, likely due to less reaction with graphite in wallrock gneiss.
AcknowledgmentsThis study was supported by the
Non-Directed Research Fund of the Korea Research
Foundation. We also acknowledge partial support from
the Center for Mineral Resources Research at Korea
University.
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