The muscovite granites: Parental rocks to the Nanling Range tungsten mineralization in South China

Muscovite granites (MGs) in the Nanling Range (South China) occur as satellite intrusions within or surrounding batholitic biotite monzogranites (BMs). The MGs are massive and fine-grained with a porphyritic texture, and contain quartz, K-feldspar and albite in nearly equal portions. The accessory minerals in the MGs include alumina-rich minerals (e.g., Mn- and Fe-rich garnet, andalusite, topaz, and tourmaline), anatase, rutile, wolframite, cassiterite, xenotime, chalcopyrite, molybdenite, and volatile-rich minerals (e.g., microlite, topaz, tourmaline, fluorite, and calcite). Compared with the BMs, the MGs are geochemically enriched in major elements of Si, K, and Na, and incompatible trace elements of Rb, Cs, Y, U, Nb, Ta, W, Sn, Pb, Bi, Li, and Be, and depleted in major elements of Fe, Mg, Ca, Ti, and P, and compatible trace elements of Ba, Sr, Co, Ni, Cr, Cd, V as well as Zr and Hf. The chondrite-normalized REE patterns of the MGs are flat with large negative Eu anomalies. The mineralogical and geochemical features of the MGs indicate that they crystallized from highly fractionated granitic magmas. Zircons separated from the MG samples, which were collected from six different tungsten deposits, show characters of hydrothermal origin according to their morphologies, chemical compositions and inclusions. In-situ U–Pb dating of the zircons yields a weighted mean ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U age of 133.4 ± 1.0 Ma. This age is similar to the mean age of the zircons from wolframite-bearing quartz veins (WQVs) in the Nanling Range (133.7 ± 1.3 Ma) reported from our previous study. Zircon Hf isotopes also reveal that the MGs and the WQVs are homologous. These mineralogical, geochemical and zirconological features indicate that the MGs are the parental rocks of the tungsten deposits in the Nanling Range. This study provides a new guidance for the exploration of magmatic-hydrothermal tungsten deposits.