Siderophile and chalcophile elemental constraints on the origin of the Jinchuan Ni-Cu-(PGE) sulfide deposit, NW China

The Jinchuan deposit, NW China, is one of the world’s most important Ni-Cu-(PGE) sulfide deposits related to a magma conduit system and is hosted in an ultramafic intrusion. The intrusion is composed of lherzolite and dunite with the two largest sulfide ore bodies (named as ore body 1 and 2) in its middle portion. The sulfide ores may be disseminated, net-textured, or massive. The disseminated and net-textured sulfide ores are characterized by variable but generally low PGE concentrations: 10-3200 ppb Pt, 240-9800 ppb Pd, 17-800 ppb Ir, 25-1500 ppb Ru, and 15-400 ppb Rh in 100% sulfides. The massive sulfide ores are extremely low in Pt (<30 ppb) on a 100% sulfides and have very high Cu/Pd ratios, ranging from 10⁴ to 4.5 × 10⁵. The low PGE contents suggest that the sulfide ores formed from the silicate magmas that had already experienced prior-sulfide separation.Our calculations indicate that if the first stage basaltic magmas had contained 6.3 ppb Pt, 6.2 ppb Pd, and 0.1 ppb Ir, 0.008% sulfide removal would result in PGE-depletion in the residual magma with 0.57 ppb Pt, 0.25 ppb Pd, and 0.009 ppb Ir. The Jinchuan sulfides were formed by a second stage of sulfide segregation from a PGE-depleted magma under silicate/sulfide liquid ratios (R-factor) ranging from 10³ to 10⁴ in a deep-seated staging chamber. The massive sulfide ores and some of the net-textured sulfide ores exhibit strong negative Pt-anomalies that cannot be explained by sulfide segregation under variable R-factors. Instead, the sulfide melts that formed the massive ores were segregated from magmas experienced prior fractionation of Pt-Fe alloy. Alternatively, the Pt may have been selectively leached by hydrothermal fluids during remobilization of the sulfide melts that produced the massive sulfides, which occur in cross-cutting veins. We propose that the Jinchuan intrusion and ore bodies were formed by injections of sulfide-free and sulfide-bearing olivine mushes from a deep-seated staging chamber.