Geochemical comparison of woodlawn and mount painter acid volcanics,Southeastern Australia

Major‐ and trace‐element chemistry (including rare‐earth elements), total‐rock Rb‐Sr and U‐Pb and zircon U‐Pb data are used in an attempt to distinguish between two essentially coeval, felsic volcanic suites: the predominantly submarine Woodlawn suite which is associated with massive Cu‐Pb‐Zn sulphide mineralization and the terrestrial Mt Painter suite, with minor vein‐type mineralization. The Woodlawn samples are the unmineralized equivalents of the volcanics in the immediate ore environment.

Alteration perturbs some of the major‐ and trace‐element chemistry, particularly Ca and alkalis, thereby precluding their usefulness. REE patterns exhibit a significant light to heavy rare‐earth enrichment with an average La/Yb of 12 in the Mt Painter volcanics compared with 5.6 in the Woodlawn volcanics. Both suites have a marked negative Eu anomaly, with that of the Woodlawn samples more pronounced (‐45.5) than in the Mt Painter volcanics (‐29.2). A hydrothermally‐altered sample from Woodlawn has apparently lost about 50% of its light rare‐earth elements.

Initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios at about 0.711 are the same for rocks from both suites and differences in initial lead‐isotopic ratios appear negligible.

Zircons from both suites are a mixture of clear euhedral crystals and rounded discrete crystals or rounded cores overgrown by clear zircon. The U‐Pb data substantiate the morphological features in that the zircon suites both contain older inherited Pb but the Mt Painter zircons contain a greater proportion.

Cs concentrations and Cs/Rb and Ti/Zr ratios can be used to distinguish between the Woodlawn suite and the Mt Painter suite.