Gold contents of both mantle-derived xenoliths and sulfides in them from eastern China

The gold contents of 59 samples of mantle-derived xenoliths, along with 85 samples of sulfide assemblages in them, of Cenozoic basalt from eight districts in eastern China are analyzed. The gold contents of mantle xenoliths usually fall in the range of 10⁻⁹−10⁻⁸, whereas those of the sulfide assemblages fall in the range of 10⁻⁴−10⁻². This implies that the latter are several hundred thousand times higher than the former, and thus that Au in the mantle is concentrated mostly in sulfide assemblages. Gold contents of both mantle-derived xenoliths and sulfide assemblages in them are inhomogeneous spatially, but their distribution rules are similar. Except the samples from Hainan Province, either the mantle xenoliths with high gold content or sulfide assemblages of the mantle-derived xenoliths with high gold content are distributed mostly on the north and south margins of the North China platform (Hannuoba of Hebei Province and Linqu, Changle of Shandong Province), corresponding to districts with concentrated gold deposits in northwest Hebei Province and Jiaodong Peninsula of Shandong Province. This may reflect the correlativity in age, nature and composition between the continental crust and the underlying lithospheric mantle. The underlying lithospheric mantle of the North China platform is an ancient gold-rich lithospheric mantle. The gold-rich lithospheric mantle may be the material source of later activation, enrichment, transportation and mineralization of gold by auriferous CO₂ mantle fluids. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40372052) and the Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (Grant No. 2004B27)