Timing and duration of supergene mineralization at the Xinrong manganese deposit,western Guangdong Province,South China: cryptomelane 40Ar/39Ar dating

Supergene Mn-oxide deposits are widely distributed in Guangxi, Guangdong, Yunnan, and Hunan Provinces, South China, accounting for 18% of the total Mn reserves in the country. Direct dating of supergene Mn enrichment, however, is lacking. In this paper, we present high-resolution ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of Mn oxides from the Xinrong Mn deposit, western Guangdong, to place numerical constraints on the timing and duration of supergene Mn enrichment. A total of ten cryptomelane samples, spanning a vertical extent of 67 m, were dated using the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar laser incremental heating technique, with seven samples yielding well-defined plateau or pseudo-plateau ages ranging from 23.48 ± 0.91 to 2.06 ± 0.05 Ma (2σ). One sample yields a staircase spectrum that does not reach a plateau; the spectrum, however, indicates the presence of two or more generations of Mn oxides in the sample, whose ages are best estimated at 22.34 ± 0.31 and 10.2 ± 0.86 Ma, respectively. The remaining two samples gave meaningless or uninterpretable results due to significant ³⁹Ar recoil and contamination by old phases. The ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data thus reveal a protracted history of weathering and supergene Mn enrichment that started at least in the end of the Oligocene or beginning of Miocene and extending into the latest Pliocene. Staircase-apparent age spectra, resulting from banded or botryoidal samples, yield an average growth rate of Mn oxides at 0.6–0.7 × 10⁻³ mm kyr⁻¹. The values indicate that a 1-mm grain of Mn oxides may host minerals precipitated during a time span of ca. 1.5 m.y., and accumulation of Mn oxides to form economic deposits under weathering environments may take millions of years. The distribution of weathering ages shows that the oldest Mn oxides occur on the top of the profile, whereas the youngest minerals are found at the bottom, suggesting downward propagation of weathering fronts. However, two samples located at the intermediate depths of the profile yield ages comparable with those occurring at the highest elevations. Such a complexity of age distribution is interpreted in terms of preferential penetration of Mn-rich weathering solutions along more permeable fault zones, or as a result of multi stages of dissolution and re-precipitation of Mn oxides. A synthesis of geochronological and geological data suggests that formation of the Xinrong deposit was a consequence of a combination of favorable lithological, climatic, and structural conditions. Because the climatic and structural conditions are similar among the provinces of South China during the Cenozoic, the geochronological results obtained at Xinrong may also have implications for the timing of supergene Mn enrichment throughout South China.