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Dr. Joan Carles Melgarejo Draper

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Departament de Mineralogia, Petrologia i Geologia Aplicada, Facultat de Geologia, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Martí i Franquès s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: mineralogy; mineral deposits; critical elements
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

The strategic and economic interests in some critical elements have drastically increased in the last few years. However, these growing interests have been often decoupled from the enhancement of our understanding of the associated mineral deposits. For many years, what are meant nowadays strategic commodities had been considered mineralogical oddities and less-than-desirable published information exists about the mechanisms of concentration of these elements in nature. Most potential ore minerals are unfamiliar to most geologists, the mineralogy of some important deposits is not well characterized, and even some phases are not established as mineral species yet. A better understanding of the mechanisms of concentration of critical elements and their mineralogical expression will favour their exploration and the development of improved mineral processing schemes. Therefore, the aim of this Special Issue is to provide a contribution to the state of the art of the ore deposits hosting critical elements, mainly from a mineralogical point of view.

Dr. Joan Carles Melgarejo Draper
Guest Editor

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

18 pages, 14867 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Insights into the Ore Genesis of the Harla Gold Deposit in Eastern Tianshan, NW China: Evidence from Geology, Fluid Inclusions, and H-O-C-S-Pb Isotopes

by Chuan Chen, Shunda Li, Fang Xia, Lingling Gao and Xuebing Zhang

Minerals 2022, 12(7), 793; https://doi.org/10.3390/min12070793 - 22 Jun 2022

Viewed by 1237

Abstract

The Harla gold deposit is located on the eastern segment of the Kanggur-Huangshan ductile shear belt in Eastern Tianshan, on the southern margin of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. The orebodies show close spatial association with NEE-trending faults and are hosted in volcanic rocks of the Lower Carboniferous Xiaorequanzi Formation. Three mineralization stages were recognized: an early stage characterized by specularite–pyrite–quartz mineralization, an intermediate stage with pyrite–chalcopyrite–gold–quartz genesis, and a late stage defined by sulfide-poor calcite and quartz veins. Three types of fluid inclusions (FIs) were recognized: daughter mineral-bearing triphase FIs (S-type), liquid-dominated biphase FIs (LV-type), and liquid-only monophase FIs (L-type). S- and LV-type FIs entrapped in the early stage show similar homogenization temperatures (T_h) at 216–229 °C and 199–222 °C. However, they display contrasting salinities of 32.2–33.4 and 6.7–8.9 wt.% NaCl eqv., respectively. LV-type FIs entrapped in the intermediate stage display T_h of 163–191 °C, with salinities of 5.6–7.4 wt.% NaCl eqv. LV-type FIs occur in the late stage display T_h of 135–258 °C and salinities of 3.7–5.6 wt.% NaCl eqv. Insights from hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon isotope analyses (δ¹⁸O_H2O = −10.7 to 3.3‰, δD_H2O = −88.1 to −61.4‰, δ¹³C_H2O = −8.9 to −6.2‰), combined with FI characteristics, indicate that the ore-forming fluids were derived from a hybrid source of magmatic and meteoric water, with the latter becoming dominant in the later stage. Sulfide and lead isotopic compositions (δ34S_pyrite = 0.2 to 2.5‰, ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 17.709–18.273, ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 15.483–15.569, ²⁰⁸Pb/²⁰⁴Pb = 37.533–37.754) suggest that ore-forming materials were mainly derived from wall rocks (Xiaorequanzi Formation rocks and plagiogranite). By integrating geological background work and fluid inclusion analyses, as well as isotope data, we conclude that the Harla gold deposit is an epithermal-type deposit. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mineral Deposits of Critical Elements, Volume II)

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