~(40)/Ar~(39)Ar Ages of Auriferous Quartz Veins from the Fengyang and Zhangbaling Regions and Their Geological Significance

1IntroductionAuriferousquartzveinsarecommonintheFengyangandZhangbalingregionsofAnhuiProvinceandtheyconstitutetheRongdu ,Zhuding ,Dagongshan ,MaoshanandShangchenggolddepositsandalotofgoldperspectives .TheRb SrisochronagesofalterationmineralsfromtheRongduandDagongshangolddepositsare (10 9.0± 4 .4 )Maand (15 3.76± 11.2 )Ma ,respectively (Dongetal .,1995 ) .Thereisalargedifferenceinagebetweenthetwogolddeposits ,butitcanbeseenthatthegolddepositswereformedinLateJurassictoEarlyCretaceous .A…

40 Ar/39 Ar Ages of Auriferous Quartz Veins from the Fengyang and Zhangbaling Regions and Their Geological Significance

Geotectonically the Fengyang and Zhangbaling regions belong to the North China craton and the Dabie-Sulu orogene, respectively. Neo-Archean gneiss and amphibolite and metamor-phosed sea-facies sodic volcanic rocks are the main outcrops in the two regions, respectively. The Zhangbaling terrane strike-skipped along the Tancheng-Lujiang fault zone in Mesozoic and Cenozo-ic eras and got close to the Fengyang terrane. Mesozoic Yanshanian intrusions occur broadly in the two regions. Gold-bearing quartz veins occur in the metamorphic rocks in the Fengyang region and in the granodiorite and metamorphosed sea-facies sodic volcanic rocks in the Zhangbaling region.Generally, the formation of the auriferous quartz veins involved three stages. At the first stage, gold-poor sulfide quartz veins were formed; at the second stage gold-rich quartz sulfide veins were formed; and at the third stage gold-poor barite and/or carbonate veins were formed. The 40Ar/39Ar step-heating plateau ages of the first-stage and the second-stage quartz aggregates from the Zhuding, Maoshan and Shangcheng gold deposits range between 116.1 + 0.6 Ma and 118.3 + 0.5 Ma and are pretty close to their least apparent ages and isochronal ages, respectively. All plat-eau, least apparent and isochronal ages range between 113.4 ± 0.4 Ma and 118.3 ± 0.5 Ma,which are considered as the formation age range of the quartz. It is reasonable and reliable to take the 40Ar/39Ar age range of the quartz as the formation age range of gold-bearing quartz veins on the basis of spatial relationship between gold-bearing quartz veins and their country rocks. The gold deposits in the two regions were formed in Aptian, Cretaceous, when the Tancheng-Lujiang fault zone moved as a normal fault with slightly right-lateral strike-skip, was extensional and expe-rienced very strong magmatic process. It is shown that the magmatic hydrothermal fluid is a very important part of the gold ore-forming hydrothermal fluid in the Fengyang and Zhangbaling re-gions. The formation of the gold ore deposits in the Fengyang and Zhangbaling regions had genetic relations with the extensional movement of the Tancheng-Lujiang fault zone and magmatic activities and took place under the extensional dynamic condition in Late Cretaceous. Therefore, the exten-sional movement of the Tancheng-Lujiang fault zone presented the energy and space for magmatic and gold ore-forming processes.