The dilemma of the Jiaodong gold deposits: Are they unique?

The ca. 126e120 Ma Au deposits of the Jiaodong Peninsula, eastern China, define the country＇s largest gold province with an overall endowment estimated as＆gt;3000 t Au. The vein and disseminated ores are hosted by NE-to NNE-trending brittle normal faults that parallel the margins of ca. 165e150 Ma, deeply emplaced, lower crustal melt granites. The deposits are sited along the faults for many tens of kilometers and the larger orebodies are associated with dilatational jogs. Country rocks to the granites are Pre-cambrian high-grade metamorphic rocks located on both sides of a Triassic suture between the North and South China blocks. During early Mesozoic convergent deformation, the ore-hosting structures developed as ductile thrust faults that were subsequently reactivated during Early Cretaceous ＂Yan-shanian＂intracontinental extensional deformation and associated gold formation. 〈br〉 Classification of the gold deposits remains problematic. Many features resemble those typical of orogenic Au including the linear structural distribution of the deposits, mineralization style, ore and alteration assemblages, and ore fluid chemistry. However, Phanerozoic orogenic Au deposits are formed by prograde metamorphism of accreted oceanic rocks in Cordilleran-style orogens. The Jiaodong de-posits, in contrast, formed within two Precambrian blocks approximately 2 billion years after devolati-lization of the country rocks, and thus require a model that involves alternative fluid and metal sources for the ores. A widespread suite of ca. 130e123 Ma granodiorites overlaps temporally with the ores, but shows a poor spatial association with the deposits. Furthermore, the deposit distribution and mineral-ization style is atypical of ores formed from nearby magmas. The ore concentration requires fluid focusing during some type of sub-crustal thermal event, which could be broadly related to a combination of coeval lithospheric thinning, asthenospheric upwelling, paleo-Pacific plate subduction, and seismicity along the continental-scale Tan-Lu fault. Possible ore genesis scenarios include those where ore fluids were produced directly by the metamorphism of oceanic lithosphere and overlying sediment on the subducting paleo-Pacific slab, or by devolatilization of an enriched mantle wedge above the slab. Both the sulfur and gold could be sourced from either the oceanic sediments or the serpentinized mantle. A better understanding of the architecture of the paleo-Pacific slab during Early Cretaceous below the eastern margin of China is essential to determination of the validity of possible models.

Two Super-Large Gold Deposits Have Been Discovered in Jiaodong Peninsula of China

During 2015, gold prospecting in Laizhou City of Shandong Peninsula in China has achieved a major breakthrough. Deposits containing 470 and 389 tons of gold metal were discovered in the northern sea area of Sanshandao and the Shaling area, respectively. As a result, the gold prospective resources in the entire Jiaodong Peninsula have now exceeded 4000 tons, fully indicative of the super-large prospecting potential of the Jiaojia-type deposits.

Metallogenic Epoch of Nonferrous Metallic and Silver Deposits in the Jiaodong Peninsula, China and its Geological Significance

As China＇s most important gold-producing district, the Jiaodong Peninsula also contains copper, lead-zinc, molybdenum （tungsten）, and other nonferrous metal ore deposits, but the space-time and genetic relationships with gold deposits remain uncertain. To investigate the temporal relationship between these nonferrous metal and gold ore deposits, We collected the samples from a number of nonferrous metallic and silver deposits and metallogenetic rock bodies in the eastern Jiaodong Peninsula for isotopic dating. The results show that the Re-Os isotopic model ages of the Lengjia molybdenum deposit in Rongcheng range from 114.5 ± 1.8 Ma to 112.6 ± 1.5 Ma, with an average age of 113.6 ± 1.6 Ma; the LA-ICP-MS ^206pb/^238U ages of 33 zircons in the sericitization porphyritic monzogranite that hosts the Tongjiazhuang silver deposit in Rongcheng range between 122 Ma and 109 Ma, with a weighted mean age of 116.04 ± 0.95 Ma; the LA-ICP-MS ^206pb/^238U ages of 31 zircons in the copper metallogenic pyroxene monzodiorite that hosts the Kuangbei copper deposit in Rongcheng range from 126 Ma to 106 Ma, with a weighted mean age of 116.6 ± 1.7 Ma; and the LA-ICP-MS ^206pb/^238U ages of 19 zircons in the pyroxene monzodiorite surrounding the Dadengge gold and multimetal deposit in Weihai range from 113 Ma to 110 Ma, with a weighted mean age of 111.7 ± 0.6 Ma. All these results indicate that the metallogenic ages of the silver and nonferrous metallic deposits in the Jiaodong Peninsula are in a limited range from 118 Ma to 111 Ma. Previous studies have demonstrated that the isotopic ages of gold deposits in the Jiaodong Peninsula range from 123 Ma to 110 Ma, while Weideshanian magmatism occurred between 126 Ma to 108 Ma. Both these ranges are grossly consistent with the metallogenic ages of silver and nonferrous metallic deposits in this study, suggesting that the large-scale mineralization occurred in the Early Cretaceous when magmatic activities were strong. This epoch may be linked to the lithosphere thinning and the thermo-upwelling extension in eastern China at that time. In addition, field investigation also shows that gold and nonferrous metallic deposits are distributed nearby the Weideshanian granite, with the nonferrous metallic deposits lying within or surrounding the granite pluton and the gold deposits outside the granite pluton. We propose the following mineralization scenario： In the Early Cretaceous, an intensive lithospheric extension induced partial melting and degassing of the metasomatized lithospheric mantle, which resulted in the formation of mantle-derived fluids enriched in metal elements. During the rapid process of magma ascent and intrusion, crust-derived fluids were activated by the magmatic thermal dome and served to further extract ore-forming materials from the crust. These fluids may have mixed with the mantle-derived fluid to form a crust-mantle mixing-type ore-forming fluid. The high-temperature conditions in the center or in contact with the granitic magmatic thermal dome would have been favorable for the formation of porphyry-type, skarn-type, and hydrothermal-vein-type ores, thus forming a series of Mo（W）, Cu, and Pb-Zn deposits in the mid-eastern Jiaodong Peninsula. In contrast, the medium- to low-temperature conditions in the periphery of the magmatic thermal dome would have favored the deposition of gold （silver） ores under the appropriate physiochemical and structural conditions. The metaliogenic epoch of the molybdenum, copper, and silver deposits, and their spatio-temporal and genetic relations to the gold deposits, as demonstrated in this study, not only provide important insights to the study of regional metallogeny, our understanding of the metallogenesis of the Jiaodong type gold deposit, and the geodynamic background of the large-scale mineralization in the Jiaodong Peninsula, but also have practical value in guiding the mineral exploration.

Measurement of Metallogenic Depth and Deep Second Enrichment Belt Forecasting in Jiaodong Gold Deposit

The depth is important for ore finding in Jiaodong gold deposit. However, many geologists are still discussing how to confirm the depth for the tectonic and metallogenesis formation. The authors of this paper propose a new method-the correction of metallogenic depth via its structure to calculate the depth. This method, based on the crust rock in a solid stress state, emphasizes the elastic pattern rather than the static fluid pattern. In addition, this method is more appropriate to the actual situation in the crust than the method of weight/special weight. The authors of this paper illustrating, with the Jiaodong gold deposit as an example, the metallogenic depth correction via structure conclude that the depth of the most deposits, lower than 4-6 km, is often 2.5 km. Therefore, the authors suggest that there exists a second enrichment belt and that ore resources are more potential at the belt of Jiaodong area. These results have been demonstrated by years of exploration.