Role of metasomatized mantle lithosphere in the formation of giant lode gold deposits: Insights from sulfur isotope and geochemistry of sulfides

The Wulong deposit is one of the largest quartz vein-type gold deposits with at least 80 tons of identified gold reserves in the eastern part of the Liaodong Peninsula. Gold orebodies are mainly hosted in the Late Jurassic gneissic two-mica granite and Early Cretaceous diorite dykes, and are structurally controlled by the NNE-and NW-trending faults. Gold mineralization mainly occurs as veins with lenticular shapes and is closely associated with sulfides and Bi minerals. Previous studies on the deposit mainly focused on its geological characteristics, fluid inclusions and the timing of gold mineralization. However, the extreme enrichment mechanism of gold, the geodynamic setting and ore source of the gold deposit remain equiv-ocal. Here we present results from geochemical studies of pyrite and pyrrhotite at Wulong to address these issues. Pyrrhotite can be grouped into euhedral (Po1) and anhedral (Po2) varieties based on the tex-tures. Four generations of pyrite were identified based on petrographic studies: Py1 is coarse-grained subhedral to euhedral crystal coexisting with milky quartz, and Au-depleted in composition; Py2 is rep-resented by medium-grained, subhedral to anhedral pyrite coexisting with euhedral Po1, smoky quartz and minor chalcopyrite; Py3 occurs as fined-grained anhedral grains in the quartz-polymetallic sulfide veins; Py4 occurs as veinlets or aggregates in the quartz-calcite veins and contains the lowest Au concen-trations. The time-resolved LA-ICP-MS ablation depth profiles of sulfides combined with detailed petro-logical observations indicate that gold mainly occurs either as invisible solid solution within the crystal lattice of sulfides, to some extent, or as small blebs of native gold and electrum. The close temporal and spatial relationships among native bismuth, native gold and Bi-Te-S minerals suggest that Bi-rich melts may have significantly sequestered gold from the hydrothermal fluids in the Wulong gold deposit. Sulfides from auriferous quartz veins have a restricted D33S range (-0.2 parts per thousand to +0.2 parts per thousand) and a mean d34S value of +1.25 parts per thousand with a feature of the mass-dependent fractionation (MDF) of sulfur isotopes, implying that the ore-forming materials were potentially derived from the mantle lithosphere that was metasom-atized and fertilized by subduction-related fluids released from slab during the Early Cretaceous. This study demonstrates the Bi-rich melts as significant gold scavengers in As-deficient ore-forming fluid, and highlights the fundamental role of the metasomatized and fertilized mantle lithosphere in the forma-tion of giant lode gold deposits in the eastern North China Craton at ca. 120 Ma.(c) 2023 CHINA UNIVERSITY OF GEOSCIENCES (BEIJING) and PEKING UNIVERSITY. Published by Elsevier B. V. on behalf of China University of Geosciences (Beijing). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC -ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).