Fluid evolution in base‐metal sulphide mineral deposits in the metamorphic basement rocks of southwest Scotland and Northern Ireland

The Dalradian and Ordovician–Silurian metamorphic basement rocks of southwest Scotland and Northern Ireland host a number of base‐metal sulphide‐bearing vein deposits associated with kilometre‐scale fracture systems. Fluid inclusion microthermometric analysis reveals two distinct fluid types are present at more than half of these deposits. The first is an H₂O–CO₂–salt fluid, which was probably derived from devolatilization reactions during Caledonian metamorphism. This stage of mineralization in Dalradian rocks was associated with base‐metal deposition and occurred at temperatures between 220 and 360°C and pressures of between 1.6 and 1.9 kbar. Caledonian mineralization in Ordovician–Silurian metamorphic rocks occurred at temperatures between 300 and 360°C and pressures between 0.6 and 1.9 kbar. A later, probably Carboniferous, stage of mineralization was associated with base‐metal sulphide deposition and involved a low to moderate temperature (T_h 70 to 240°C), low to moderate salinity (0 to 20 wt% NaCl eq.), H₂O–salt fluid. The presence of both fluids at many of the deposits shows that the fractures hosting the deposits acted as long‐term controls for fluid migration and the location of Caledonian metalliferous fluids as well as Carboniferous metalliferous fluids. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.