Progressive crushing 40Ar/39Ar dating of a gold-bearing quartz vein from the Liaotun Carlin-type gold deposit, Guangxi, southern China

Rongguo Hu; Baocheng Pang; Xiujuan Bai; Fraukje M. Brouwer; Lingan Bai; Xijun Liu; Yuanqiang Li; Jianqi Xu; Huaning Qiu

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-17061-x

Progressive crushing ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating of a gold-bearing quartz vein from the Liaotun Carlin-type gold deposit, Guangxi, southern China

Rongguo Hu^*, Baocheng Pang, Xiujuan Bai, Fraukje M. Brouwer, Lingan Bai, Xijun Liu, Yuanqiang Li, Jianqi Xu, Huaning Qiu

^*Corresponding author for this work

Geology and Geochemistry

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Carlin-type gold deposits are among the largest hydrothermal gold deposits in the world. However, direct dating the metallogenic age of these deposits is difficult, because not all deposits provide material suitable for conventional radiometric methods. Syn-mineralization stage quartz veins from these deposits usually contain abundant fluid inclusions, which allow fluid inclusion ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating. In this study, progressive crushing ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating has been performed on a gold-bearing quartz vein from the Liaotun Carlin-type gold deposit in northwestern Guangxi, China. Argon isotopes liberated from the later steps yielded an isochron age of 200.7 ± 2.1 Ma. We infer that Ar-bearing gas was extracted from the primary fluid inclusions, and that the age of ca. 200.7 Ma reflects the timing of gold mineralization. The initial ⁴⁰Ar/³⁶Ar ratio corresponding to the isochron is 298.0 ± 4.3, which is statistically indistinguishable from the value for air, indicating that the ore-forming fluids probably mainly derived from gravitational pressure flow in the basin of air-saturated water. Our preliminary study shows the feasibility and great potential of ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating of gases from fluid inclusions by progressive crushing of quartz veins to date the mineralization age and decipher the fluid origins of Carlin-type gold deposits.

Original language	English
Article number	12793
Pages (from-to)	1-11
Number of pages	11
Journal	Scientific Reports
Volume	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17061-x
Publication status	Published - 27 Jul 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We gratefully acknowledge editorial board member and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and reviews. We sincerely thank Dr. Zhipeng Xia and Mr. Guofeng Zheng for their help preparing the double polished thick section and technical support for fluid inclusion analysis. This work was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (41362006) and the Guangxi Natural Science Foundation Program (2020GXNSFAA297049).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

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@article{d56a277b92b146c091d05a7fa0e4b93d,

title = "Progressive crushing 40Ar/39Ar dating of a gold-bearing quartz vein from the Liaotun Carlin-type gold deposit, Guangxi, southern China",

abstract = "Carlin-type gold deposits are among the largest hydrothermal gold deposits in the world. However, direct dating the metallogenic age of these deposits is difficult, because not all deposits provide material suitable for conventional radiometric methods. Syn-mineralization stage quartz veins from these deposits usually contain abundant fluid inclusions, which allow fluid inclusion 40Ar/39Ar dating. In this study, progressive crushing 40Ar/39Ar dating has been performed on a gold-bearing quartz vein from the Liaotun Carlin-type gold deposit in northwestern Guangxi, China. Argon isotopes liberated from the later steps yielded an isochron age of 200.7 ± 2.1 Ma. We infer that Ar-bearing gas was extracted from the primary fluid inclusions, and that the age of ca. 200.7 Ma reflects the timing of gold mineralization. The initial 40Ar/36Ar ratio corresponding to the isochron is 298.0 ± 4.3, which is statistically indistinguishable from the value for air, indicating that the ore-forming fluids probably mainly derived from gravitational pressure flow in the basin of air-saturated water. Our preliminary study shows the feasibility and great potential of 40Ar/39Ar dating of gases from fluid inclusions by progressive crushing of quartz veins to date the mineralization age and decipher the fluid origins of Carlin-type gold deposits.",

author = "Rongguo Hu and Baocheng Pang and Xiujuan Bai and Brouwer, {Fraukje M.} and Lingan Bai and Xijun Liu and Yuanqiang Li and Jianqi Xu and Huaning Qiu",

note = "Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge editorial board member and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and reviews. We sincerely thank Dr. Zhipeng Xia and Mr. Guofeng Zheng for their help preparing the double polished thick section and technical support for fluid inclusion analysis. This work was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (41362006) and the Guangxi Natural Science Foundation Program (2020GXNSFAA297049). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s).",

year = "2022",

month = jul,

day = "27",

doi = "10.1038/s41598-022-17061-x",

language = "English",

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journal = "Scientific Reports",

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T1 - Progressive crushing 40Ar/39Ar dating of a gold-bearing quartz vein from the Liaotun Carlin-type gold deposit, Guangxi, southern China

AU - Hu, Rongguo

AU - Pang, Baocheng

AU - Bai, Xiujuan

AU - Brouwer, Fraukje M.

AU - Bai, Lingan

AU - Liu, Xijun

AU - Li, Yuanqiang

AU - Xu, Jianqi

AU - Qiu, Huaning

N1 - Funding Information: We gratefully acknowledge editorial board member and two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and reviews. We sincerely thank Dr. Zhipeng Xia and Mr. Guofeng Zheng for their help preparing the double polished thick section and technical support for fluid inclusion analysis. This work was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (41362006) and the Guangxi Natural Science Foundation Program (2020GXNSFAA297049). Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).

PY - 2022/7/27

Y1 - 2022/7/27

N2 - Carlin-type gold deposits are among the largest hydrothermal gold deposits in the world. However, direct dating the metallogenic age of these deposits is difficult, because not all deposits provide material suitable for conventional radiometric methods. Syn-mineralization stage quartz veins from these deposits usually contain abundant fluid inclusions, which allow fluid inclusion 40Ar/39Ar dating. In this study, progressive crushing 40Ar/39Ar dating has been performed on a gold-bearing quartz vein from the Liaotun Carlin-type gold deposit in northwestern Guangxi, China. Argon isotopes liberated from the later steps yielded an isochron age of 200.7 ± 2.1 Ma. We infer that Ar-bearing gas was extracted from the primary fluid inclusions, and that the age of ca. 200.7 Ma reflects the timing of gold mineralization. The initial 40Ar/36Ar ratio corresponding to the isochron is 298.0 ± 4.3, which is statistically indistinguishable from the value for air, indicating that the ore-forming fluids probably mainly derived from gravitational pressure flow in the basin of air-saturated water. Our preliminary study shows the feasibility and great potential of 40Ar/39Ar dating of gases from fluid inclusions by progressive crushing of quartz veins to date the mineralization age and decipher the fluid origins of Carlin-type gold deposits.

AB - Carlin-type gold deposits are among the largest hydrothermal gold deposits in the world. However, direct dating the metallogenic age of these deposits is difficult, because not all deposits provide material suitable for conventional radiometric methods. Syn-mineralization stage quartz veins from these deposits usually contain abundant fluid inclusions, which allow fluid inclusion 40Ar/39Ar dating. In this study, progressive crushing 40Ar/39Ar dating has been performed on a gold-bearing quartz vein from the Liaotun Carlin-type gold deposit in northwestern Guangxi, China. Argon isotopes liberated from the later steps yielded an isochron age of 200.7 ± 2.1 Ma. We infer that Ar-bearing gas was extracted from the primary fluid inclusions, and that the age of ca. 200.7 Ma reflects the timing of gold mineralization. The initial 40Ar/36Ar ratio corresponding to the isochron is 298.0 ± 4.3, which is statistically indistinguishable from the value for air, indicating that the ore-forming fluids probably mainly derived from gravitational pressure flow in the basin of air-saturated water. Our preliminary study shows the feasibility and great potential of 40Ar/39Ar dating of gases from fluid inclusions by progressive crushing of quartz veins to date the mineralization age and decipher the fluid origins of Carlin-type gold deposits.

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