A detailed fluid inclusion study in silicified breccias from the Kombolgie sandstones (Northern Territory, Australia): inferences for the genesis of middle-Proterozoic unconformity-type uranium deposits

The relative chronology and detailed chemistry of paleofluids circulating at the base of the Kombolgie Sub-basin were investigated in the East Alligator River district (Northern Territory, Australia), where world-class unconformity-type uranium deposits are located. The chemistry of fluid inclusions was determined using in-situ analysis (Raman microprobe and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy [LIBS]) and by observing the melting sequences by microthermometry. This study revealed the occurrence of three distinct fluids: (i) a sodium-rich brine that corresponds to a diagenetic fluid percolating at the bottom of the Kombolgie sandstones at a temperature close to 150±15 °C; (ii) a calcium-rich brine, probably corresponding to a residual brine in evaporitic environment that has evolved by fluid–rock interactions with the basement lithologies; and (iii) a low salinity fluid, heated in the basement, injected into the base of the sandstone cover. H₂ and O₂ and/or traces of CH₄ were detected in the vapor phase of some fluid inclusions, especially in the low salinity ones in quartz breccia samples taken above mineralized areas. Hydraulic brecciation of the sandstone was associated with a pressure decrease favoring fluid mixing and the subsequent cementation of breccias. According to the fluid inclusion study and other geologic constrains, the minimum thickness of the Sub-Kombolgie Basin is estimated at 4 km. Drusy quartz breccias with evidence of fluid mixing are quite common at the base of the Kombolgie Basin, but not necessarily linked to U-mineralization. However, it is proposed that the presence of gases such as H₂ and O₂ in fluid inclusions, which results from water radiolysis, constitutes an indicator of gas linked to significant U concentrations deeper in the basement rocks.