Geology, geochemistry, and genesis of the hot-spring-type Sipingshan gold deposit, eastern Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China

The Sipingshan gold deposit, located in the eastern part of the Nadanhada Terrane, is hosted within cherts and silicified breccias of the Upper Cretaceous Sipingshan Formation and rhyolites of the Upper Cretaceous Datashanlinchang Formation. The orebodies are composed of gold- and pyrite-bearing cherts, silicified breccias, and quartz veins accompanied by various types of wall rock alteration, including silicification, pyritization, sericitization, chloritization, pyrophyllitization, and carbonatization. LA-ICP-MS UPb zircon ages determined for the ore-bearing rhyolites range between 122 +/- 1.4 and 135.2 +/- 1.9 million years slightly older than the metallogenic age of the Sipingshan gold deposit. The rhyolite has aluminium saturation index values ranging from 0.015 to 1.25 and shows the following features: enrichment in LILE (e.g. Rb, Pb, K, and Th); depletion of Ba, Sm, and Ti; and negative Eu anomalies. These geochemical characteristics indicate that (1) the rhyolite contains features typical of S-type granites; (2) the felsic magma likely originated through partial melting of the continental crust; and (3) plagioclase crystals were present in the partial melt residues in the magma source region, or else magma evolution involved plagioclase fractionation. The host cherts have high Al/(Al + Fe + Mn) ratios (0.230.81, averaging 0.60) and low Al2O3 and TiO2 contents. Their North American shale-normalized REE patterns are characterized by flat REE, slightly positive Eu anomalies, no Ce anomalies, and (La/Yb)SN ratios of 1.271.38, indicating that these cherts formed in a continental margin environment. In addition, the analysed cherts have low sigma REE (1.563.64 ppm) and Zr (9.113.5 ppm) contents, suggesting a hydrothermal origin. Fluid inclusions in quartz veins show elliptical to irregular shapes that range from 5 to 12 m in size and have homogenization temperatures of 118.7223.4 degrees C, densities of 0.840.94 g/cm3, and pressures of 21.251.4 MPa, indicating that the hot-spring-type Sipingshan gold deposit is epithermal in origin.