The Upper Permian Sedimentary Facies and Its Role in the Dajing Cu-Sn Deposit, Linxi County, Inner Mongolia, China

Abstract: Exhaustive investigations were launched for confirming the upper Permian host rocks of the Dajing Cu-Sn Deposit, probing into the possibility that Dajing is a Sedex type deposit during cosedimentation, complementing the deficiency of previous researches and going further into substantiating the role of the upper Permian strata in the control of ore distribution. After more than two years work, we reclassified the sedimentary facies in the Dajing area and its periphery as shallow fresh water lake and delta. Indicative sedimentary structures, such as ripple marks, rain marks, and mud cracks combined with contemporary fossils, were revealed. Having measured the flow directions, performed chemical comparison, and analyzed various sediments from sourceland in the Dajing area by XRF, we consequently redivided the strata into four sedimentary members, among which P₂l₁ and P₂l₂ were concluded as significant ore-hosted strata. The upper Permian basin was a lateral rift basin. The water and sediments in the basin are much deeper and thicker in the north than those in the south.
The indicators of special sedimentary facies, such as gravity flow, brine pool and synchronogenic stratiform structure of the ore cannot be found in the Dajing area. There was no growth fault, assemblage of sulfide and sulfate, and no zonation as well.
On the basis of study in this area, taking into account the paleosedimentary environment as capriciously flowing shallow lake, which approximated the state of oxidation, we figured that the paleogeography made it prohibitively difficult to form stratiform sulfide deposits which are prone to form in deoxidized environment. It can be ruled out the possibility that the Dajing deposit is a syngenetic deposit during sedimentation.     

ANORTHOCLASE, A SECOND MICROPROBE STANDARD FROM KAKANUI, NEW ZEALAND

A second mineral from the Kakanui Mineral Breccia, an anorthoclase, has been prepared as an international microprobe standard. The K2O content may be variable. Major and trace element contents are tabulated. Relatively high Sr (2260 ppm) and Ba (622 ppm) may make this mineral a useful trace element standard.     

Porphyroblastic manganaxinite metapelagites with incipient garnet in prehnite–pumpellyite facies, near Meyers Pass, Torlesse Terrane, New Zealand

Moderately manganiferous siliceous pelagites near Meyers Pass, Torlesse Terrane, South Canterbury, New Zealand, have been metamorphosed in the prehnite–pumpellyite facies. A conodont colour index measurement suggests T _max in the range 190–300 °C. Porphyroblastic manganaxinite, manganoan pumpellyite, manganoan chlorite and trace spessartine-rich garnet and sphalerite have formed in an extremely fine-grained quartz–albite–berthierine–phengite–titanite groundmass. Porphyroblastic manganaxinite semischists and schists are distinctive rocks in prehnite–pumpellyite to lower-grade greenschist and blueschist facies of New Zealand and Japan. Mn in the manganoan pumpellyites substitutes for Ca in W sites. Total Fe/(Fe+Mg) ratios in chlorite are dependent on oxidation state, being ≤0.22 in red hematitic hemipelagites, and ≥0.61 in low-f O₂ grey metapelagites. In the low-f O₂ metapelagites, manganoan berthierine with little or no chlorite is inferred in the groundmass and iron-rich chlorite occurs as porphyroblasts and veinlets, whereas in the red rocks, Mg-rich chlorite occurs both in groundmasses and veinlets. Variably high Si in the manganoan chlorites correlates with evidence for contaminant phases. The Mn content of chlorite contributing to garnet growth is dependent on metamorphic grade; incipient spessartine indicates a saturation value of 6–8% MnO in chlorite in low-f O₂ rocks at Meyers Pass. Lower MnO contents are recorded for otherwise analogous rocks with increasing metamorphic grade, but at a given grade coexisting chlorite and garnet are richer in Mn where f O₂ is high. Manganaxinite and manganoan pumpellyite also contributed to reactions forming grossular–spessartine solid solutions. Formation of garnet in siliceous pelagites is dependent on both Mn and Ca content. The spessartine component increases with grade into the greenschist facies. Partial recrystallization of berthierine to chlorite and the growth of porphyroblastic patches of other minerals was facilitated by brittle fracture and access of fluids to an otherwise impermeable matrix; to this extent the very low-grade metamorphism was episodic.     

KAERSUTITE, A POSSIBLE INTERNATIONAL MICROPROBE STANDARD

Two kaersutite amphiboles from the Kakanui mineral breccia, South Island, New Zealand, have been prepared for electron microprobe analysis. Chemical analyses of bulk samples by XRF techniques are tabulated. These samples may be suitable as international standards.     

Mineralogy and petrology of a piemontite-bearing schist, western Otago, New Zealand

Abstract. Pink piemontite-spessartine-bearing and grey-green spessartine-bearing manganiferous quartzose schists derived from siliceous pelagites, and green quartzofeldspathic schists, are described from the greenschist facies of the Haast Schist terrane, near Arrow Junction, western Otago. Electron microprobe data are reported for sphene, spessartine-rich garnet, manganoan epidote, piemontite, tourmaline, phengitic muscovite, chlorite, albite, haematite, rutile, manganoan calcite and chalcopyrite. Metamorphism occurred at about 6.4kbar, 400°C. X_co2 was above the quartz-rutile-calcite-sphene buffer (X_co2± 0.02) throughout the recorded metamorphic history of the piemontite schists. It dropped from above to below this critical buffering value in a spessartine-rich schist and it was close to or below the buffering value in the quartzofeldspathic schists. Production of piemontite required high f_O2, believed to be inherited from MnO_x in the parent pelagite. Substantial loss of O₂ (e.g. minimum of 0.19% by weight in one rock) during diagenesis and/or metamorphism is inferred. In the grey-green schists this inhibited piemontite formation. Slight loss of O₂ and Ca²⁺ accompanied minor late-stage replacement of piemontite by second generation spessartine. Observed zoning and mineral replacements indicate rise of temperature, drop in pressure, or invasion by solutions of lower f_O2 and X_CO2 equilibrated with surrounding schists. The detailed chemistry of the minerals studied correlates with available Mn and with bulk-rock (Fe³⁺ x 100)/(Fe²⁺+ Fe³⁺). The oxidation ratio ranges from 24 in average green quartzofeldspathic schist, through 78 in average grey-green manganiferous quartzose schist, to almost 100 in some piemontite-bearing schists. As Fe²⁺ gives way to Fe³⁺, Mg/Fe ratios tend to rise in chlorite, phengite, tourmaline, spessartine, and calcite, Mn increases and Ti decreases in haematite, Mn increases in spessartine and calcite, and Fe increases in rutile. Available divalent cations are depleted relative to Al; chlorite is more aluminous, and phengite more paragonitic than in typical Haast schists.