Abstract:
Objective The Zaozigou gold deposit is located in the Triassic intracontinental rift basin at the western part of the West Qinling orogenic belt, between the Zacalebu-Zaozigou fault and the Sangqu-Diluotang fault.
Methods The Zaozigou gold deposit has been divided into two periods and four stages, the electron probe analysis is focused on the sulfide in the pyrite - arsenopyrite - quartz (II) stage during the hydrothermal mineralization stage in this paper. There are mainly four groups of structures in the mine, such as NE, NW, near EW and near SN trending, among which NE and NW trending are the main ones. There were two types of sulfide assemblage in stage II, one is porous hemidiomorphic pyrite (II1), the other is flat idiomorphic pyrite (II2). In situ sulfur and LA-ICP-MS trace element experiments were carried out for the two subclasses in stage II.
Results The results showed that the pyrite is arsenic-containing pyrite with poor iron and sulfur. The δ34SV-CDT of pyrite in II1 stage is −9.92‰~−14.00‰, the δ34SV-CDT of pyrite in II2 stage is −15.58‰~−23.46‰, and the δ34SV-CDT value of pyrite in II2 stage is larger. The ore-forming materials may be mainly sedimentary and magmatic sources at first, with a small amount of metamorphic sources added later. The trace data of pyrite show that the occurrence form of Au shows a gradual transition trend from Au+ to Au0, the changes of Co, Ni and As elements in iron and copper elements show a downward trend, and the changes of Cu, Pb, Zn and Ag elements in metallogenic elements show an upward trend. The Co-Ni binary discriminant map indicates that the proportion of hydrothermal deposits increased in the later ore-forming period, and the Co-Ni-As map shows that the two subpyrites are located in the combination area of Carlin type, epithermal type and magmatic hydrothermal type, indicating that the Zaozigou gold deposit has multi-stage genesis.
Conclusion Based on the geological and geochemical characteristics of the deposit, it is considered that the Zaozigou gold deposit belongs to the post-magmatic hydrothermal type.