Epithermal gold deposits are typical precious metal deposits related to volcanic and subvolcanic magmatism.Due to the lack of direct geological and petrographic evidences,the origin of the ore-forming fluid is deduced from the spatial diagenesis-mineralization relationship,chronological data,physicochemical characteristics of mineral fluid inclusions,mineral or rock elements and isotopic geochemical characteristics.By objectively examining this scientific problem via a geological field survey and petrographic analysis of the Gaosongshan epithermal gold deposit,we recently discovered and verified the following points:(1) Pyrite-bearing spherical quartz aggregates (PSQA) occur in the rhyolitic porphyry;(2) the mineralization is structurally dominated by WNW- and ENE-trending systems and occurs mostly in hydrothermal breccias and pyrite-quartz veins,and the ore types are mainly hematite-crusted quartz,hydrothermal breccia,massive pyrite-quartz,etc.;(3) the alteration types consist of prevalent silicification,sericitization,propylitization and carbonation,with local adularization and illitization.The ore minerals are mainly pyrite,primary hematite,native gold,and electrum,with lesser amounts of chalcopyrite,magnetite,sphalerite,and galena,indicating a characteristic epithermal low-sulfidation deposit.The ore-forming fluid may have been primarily derived from magmatic fluid exsolved from a crystallizing rhyolitic porphyry magma.Further zircon U-Pb geochronology,fluid inclusion,physicochemical and isotopic geochemical analyses revealed that (1) rhyolitic porphyry magmatism occurred at 104.6 ± 1.0 Ma,whereas the crystallization of the PSQA occurred at 100.8 ± 2.1 Ma;(2) the hydrothermal fluid of the pre-ore stage was an exsolved CO2-bearing H2O-NaCl magmatic fluid that produced inclusions mainly composed of pure vapor (PV),vapor-rich (WV) and liquid-rich (WL) inclusions with a small number of melt-(M) and solid-bearing (S) inclusions;mineralization-stage quartz contains WL and rare PV,WV and pure liquid (PL) inclusion
Yang LiuJinggui SunJilong HanLiang RenAlei GuKeqiang ZhaoChangshen Wang
