Studies of Metallic and Trace Minerals of the Tiegelongnan Cu-Au Deposit, Central Tibet, China
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We sincerely thank Guoxiang Chi for the thorough and thoughtful review, which resulted in a substantial improvement of the manuscript. We also acknowledge with thanks the editorial handling of our manuscript by the Editor, Lian Liu. We thank Jia Sun, Wei Jian, and Yuegu Hu for their critical and valuable comments, which significantly improved the quality of the manuscript. This research was supported by Public Science and Technology Research Funds Projects, Ministry of Land Resources of the People’s Republic of China (project No. 201511017 and 201511022-05); the Basic Research Fund of Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (Grant No. YYWF201608); the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41402178); Geological Survey Project of the China Geological Survey (project 1212011405040).

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    Abstract:

    Electron probe micro-analysis (EPMA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) have been used to investigate the principal ore minerals and coexisting metallic mineral inclusions in polished thin sections from the Tiegelongnan deposit, which consists of a high-sulfidation epithermal system (HSES) and a porphyry system (PS). Molybdenite, chalcopyrite, bornite, tennantite, enargite, digenite, anilite, covellite, and tetrahedrite have been identified by EPMA. Intergrowth, cross-cutting and replacement relationships between the metallic minerals suggest that molybdenite formed first (stage 1), followed by chalcopyrite ± bornite ± hematite (stage 2), then bornite ± Cu-sulfides ± Cu-Fe-sulfoarsenides (stage 3), and lastly Cu-Fe- sulfoarsenides ± Cu- sulfides (stage 4). Pyrite is developed throughout all the stages. Droplet-like inclusions of Au-Te minerals commonly occur in tennantite but not in the other major sulfides (molybdenite, chalcopyrite and bornite), implying that tennantite is the most important Au telluride carrier. The pervasive binary equilibrium phases of calaverite and altaite constrain fTe2 in the range from ~?6.5 to ~?8 and fS2 < ?11. The intergrowth of bornite and chalcopyrite and the conversion from bornite to digenite suggest fluctuated and relatively low precipitation temperature conditions in the HSES relative to the PS. Contrastingly, the dominance of chalcopyrite in the PS, with minor bornite, suggests relatively high temperature conditions. These new results are important for further understanding the mineral formation processes superimposed by HSES and PS systems.

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HE Wen, LIN Bin, YANG Huanhuan, SONG Yingxin.2018. Studies of Metallic and Trace Minerals of the Tiegelongnan Cu-Au Deposit, Central Tibet, China[J]. Acta Geologica Sinica(),92(3):1123-1138

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  • Received:
  • Revised:March 21,2018
  • Adopted:
  • Online: June 19,2018
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