6: Classification of VMS deposits: Lessons from the South Uralides

VMS deposits of the South Urals developed within the evolving Urals palaeo-ocean between Silurian and Late Devonian times. Arc-continent collision between Baltica and the Magnitogorsk Zone (arc) in the south-western Urals effectively terminated submarine volcanism in the Magnitogorsk Zone with which the bulk of the VMS deposits are associated. The majority of the Urals VMS deposits formed within volcanic-dominated sequences in deep seawater settings. Preservation of macro and micro vent fauna in the sulphide bodies is both testament to the seafloor setting for much of the sulphides but also the exceptional degree of preservation and lack of metamorphic overprint of the deposits and host rocks. The deposits in the Urals have previously been classified in terms of tectonic setting, host rock associations and metal ratios in line with recent tectono-stratigraphic classifications. In addition to these broad classes, it is clear that in a number of the Urals settings, an evolution of the host volcanic stratigraphy is accompanied by an associated change in the metal ratios of the VMS deposits, a situation previously discussed, for example, in the Noranda district of Canada.Two key structural settings are implicated in the South Urals. The first is seen in a preserved marginal allochthon west of the Main Urals Fault where early arc tholeiites host Cu–Zn mineralization in deposits including Yaman Kasy, which is host to the oldest macro vent fauna assembly known to science. The second tectonic setting for the South Urals VMS is the Magnitogorsk arc where study has highlighted the presence of a preserved early forearc assemblage, arc tholeiite to calc-alkaline sequences and rifted arc bimodal tholeiite sequences. The boninitc rocks of the forearc host Cu–(Zn) and Cu–Co VMS deposits, the latter hosted in fragments within the Main Urals Fault Zone (MUFZ) which marks the line of arc-continent collision in Late Devonian times. The arc tholeiites host Cu–Zn deposits with an evolution to more calc-alkaline felsic volcanic sequences matched with a change to Zn–Pb–Cu polymetallic deposits, often gold-rich. Large rifts in the arc sequence are filled by thick bimodal tholeiite sequences, themselves often showing an evolution to a more calc-alkaline nature. These thick bimodal sequences are host to the largest of the Cu–Zn VMS deposits.The exceptional degree of preservation in the Urals has permitted the identification of early seafloor clastic and hydrolytic modification (here termed halmyrolysis sensu lato) to the sulphide assemblages prior to diagenesis and this results in large-scale modification to the primary VMS body, resulting in distinctive morphological and mineralogical sub-types of sulphide body superimposed upon the tectonic association classification.It is proposed that a better classification of seafloor VMS systems is thus achievable using a three stage classification based on (a) tectonic (hence bulk volcanic chemistry) association, (b) local volcanic chemical evolution within a single edifice and (c) seafloor reworking and halmyrolysis.     

Southern Urals and Rudny Altai: A Comparative Paleovolcanic and Metallogenic Analysis

Geology of Ore Deposits - The authors have performed a comparative paleovolcanic and metallogenic analysis of two massive sulfide-bearing regions: the Southern Urals and Rudny Altai, which are...     

Correlation between compositions of ore and host rocks in volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits of the Southern Urals

The geology and typification of volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits of the Southern Urals are considered. The mineralogical-geochemical types of these deposits correlate with the composition of the underlying igneous rocks: Ni-Co-Cu deposits correlatedwith serpentinites (Ivanovka type); (Co)-Cu deposits, with basalts (Dombarovka type); Cu-Zn deposits, with basalt-rhyolite and basalt-andesite-rhyolite complexes (Ural type); and Au-Ba-Pb-Zn-Cu deposits, with basalt-andesite-rhyolite complexes with predominance of andesitic and felsic volcanics (Baimak type). The Ural-type deposits are subdivided into three subtypes: I, underlain by basalts (Zn-Cu deposits); II, hosted in felsic volcanic rocks of bimodal complexes (Cu-Zn deposits); and III, hosted in felsic volcanic rocks of continuously differentiated complexes (Zn-Cu deposits with Ba, Pb, and As). The above types and subtypes bearing local names are compared with global types of VMS deposits (MAR, Cyprus, Noranda, and Kuroko), to which they are close but not identical.     

Structural controls of lode-gold mineralization by mafic dykes in late-Paleozoic granitoids of the Kochkar district, southern Urals, Russia

The Kochkar gold district in the East Uralian Zone of the southern Urals is located in late-Paleozoic granite gneisses of the Plast massif. Gold mineralization is associated with tabular quartz lodes that are preferentially developed along the margins of easterly trending mafic dykes. Fabric development indicates that dykes had a profound influence on the development of shear zones in granitoids. ENE- and SE-trending dykes have been reactivated as dextral and sinistral oblique strike-slip shear zones, respectively, forming a set of approximately conjugate shear zones related to the Permian, regional-scale E-W directed shortening. Dyke-shear zone relationships in the Plast massif are the result of strain refraction due to the presence of biotite-rich, incompetent dykes in more competent granite-gneisses. Deformation and the formation of associated gold-quartz lodes occurred close to peak-metamorphic, upper-greenschist to lower-amphibolite facies conditions. Strain refraction has resulted in partitioning of the bulk strain into a component of non-coaxial mainly ductile shear in mafic dykes, and a component of layer-normal pure shear in surrounding granitoids where deformation was brittle-ductile. Brittle fracturing in granitoids has resulted in the formation of fracture permeabilities adjacent to sheared dykes, that together with the layer-normal dilational component, promoted the access of mineralizing fluids. Both ore-controlling dykes and gold-quartz lodes were subsequently overprinted by lower greenschist-facies, mainly brittle fault zones and associated hydrothermal alteration that post-date gold mineralization. Received: 15 October 1998 / Accepted: 18 August 1999     

The geological setting of lode-gold deposits in the central southern Urals: a review

The late-Paleozoic Uralides represent one of the largest lode-gold metallogenic provinces in the world. In the southern Urals, gold distribution is heterogeneous and is confined mainly to two tectonostratigraphic zones, namely the Main Uralian fault and the East Uralian zone. The important lode-gold districts within and in the immediate hangingwall of the first-order crustal suture of the Main Uralian fault are characterized by a complex tectonic history of earlier compressional tectonics involving thrusting, folding and reverse faulting and later transcurrent shearing. Gold mineralization is hosted by second- and third-order brittle to brittle–ductile strike-slip faults that developed late during the kinematic history of the Main Uralian fault. Strike-slip reactivation of earlier compressional structures was related to the late-stage docking of the passive margin of the East European platform with island-arc complexes of the southern Urals, an event that is tentatively related to changes in plate motion during the final stages of terrane accretion during the upper Permian and lower Triassic. Gold mineralization was controlled by the permeability characteristics of the hydrothermal conduits, as well as by competence contrasts and geochemistry of the mainly volcanic host rocks. Mineralization occurred at relatively shallow crustal levels (2–6 km) and largely post dates peak-metamorphism of the host rocks. The large and very large (up to 300 to Au) gold deposits of the East Uralian zone are hosted by upper-Paleozoic granitoid massifs. Gold mineralization is temporally associated with the main phase of regional-scale compressional tectonics and granite plutonism during the upper Carboniferous and lower Permian. Controlling structures have a dominantly east–west strike and occur as hybrid shear-tensional vein systems in competent granitoids subjected to east/west-directed regional shortening. Deformation textures and alteration mineral assemblages indicate lower-amphibolite-facies conditions of mineralization close to peak metamorphic conditions that are associated with the mid-Permian regional metamorphism and tectonism. Gold deposits in the southern Urals are, therefore, polygenetic and are temporally and genetically distinct in each of the two major mineralized tectonostratigraphic zones of this well-preserved collisional orogenic belt. The different timing of ore fluid generation and fluid discharge is interpreted to be the result of the different tectonic, metamorphic and magmatic evolution of terranes in the southern Urals.     

Stratiform base-metal deposits in the Eastern province of the Southern Urals, Russia

The stratiform base-metal Biksizak and Amur deposits, Kolpakovsky and Andree-Yul??evsky group of ore occurrences localized in the Eastern province of the Southern Urals and the adjacent Central Urals are considered in this paper. Their geology, composition of ore, and orebody morphology are characterized. These objects and occurrences occupy different geological positions, being hosted in (1) Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian limestones formed in an island-arc setting (Biksizak deposit, Kolpakovsky occurrence); (2) Middle and Upper Devonian flyschoid sequences at a distance from the active volcanic zone (Amur deposit); and (3) Riphean (?) platform cover (Andree-Yul??evsky group of occurrences). The objects considered differ in origin. The hydrothermal Pb-Zn ores of the Biksizak deposit and the Kolpakovsky occurrence are epigenetic with respect to the host rocks. They were formed in the Early Carboniferous and related to early collisional minor andesite and quartz diorite porphyry intrusions. The hydrothermal-sedimentary Amur massive sulfide Zn deposit of the Filizchai type was formed at the end of Middle Devonian. Zinc occurrences of the Andree-Yul??evsky group are probably products of regeneration of older stratiform lodes.