Genesis of PGE mineralization in the Wengeqi mafic–ultramafic complex, Guyang County, Inner Mongolia, China

• DOI: 10.1007/s00126-011-0351-x
• Publication Date: 2011-05-05T08:36:47Z
• Authors: Shangguo Su; C. Michael Lesher
• Keywords: Ultramafic rock; Pentlandite

The Wengeqi complex in Guyang County, Inner Mongolia, is one of several Pd–Pt-mineralized Paleozoic mafic–ultramafic complexes along the north-central margin of the North China. The complex comprises pyroxenites, biotite pyroxenites, amphibole pyroxenites, gabbros, and amphibolites. Zircons extracted from a pyroxenite yield a U–Pb SHRIMP age of 399 ± 4 Ma. Several 2–6-m wide syngenetic websterite dikes contain 1–3 ppm Pd + Pd and are dominated by pyrite–chalcopyrite–pyrrhotite–magnetite–(pentlandite) assemblages with minor sperrylite, sudburyite, and kotuskite. Textural relationships indicate that pyrite has replaced magmatic chalcopyrite and that magnetite has replaced magmatic pyrrhotite. The mineralization is enriched in Pd–Pt–Cu > Au >> Rh–Ir–Os–Ni > Ru, similar to other occurrences of hydrothermally modified magmatic mineralization, but very different from the much less fractionated compositions of magmatic PGE mineralization. Textural, mineralogical, and geochemical relationships are consistent with alteration of an original magmatic Fe–Ni–Cu sulfide assemblage by a S-rich oxidizing high-temperature (deuteric) hydrothermal fluid.