Geochemical and isotopic (Nd, O) data from Ordovician felsic plutonic and volcanic rocks of the Miramichi Highlands: petrogenetic and metallogenic implications for the Bathurst Mining Camp
Middle Ordovician felsic magmatism contemporaneous with Bathurst Camp Pb-Zn volcanogenic massive sulphide(VMS) deposits consists of strongly altered volcanic to subvolcanic rocks, belonging to the Tetagouche Group, and relativelyunaltered granitoid plutons, which are divided into northern, central, and southern groups within the Miramichi Highlands.Calc-alkalic felsic volcanic rocks and northern plus central plutons have EpsilonNd(T) values ranging from -8.2 to -1.9 and -4.0 to +0.3, respectively. They exhibit within-plate-type volcanic and transitional I- to A-type granite geochemical characteristics.Granitoid rock Delta18O values range from +8.0 to +10.1. Published granitoid rock Pb isotopic compositions overlapunpublished galena data from Bathurst VMS deposits. Field, geochemical, and isotopic evidence indicate that these volcanicand granitoids rocks are consanguineous and mainly derived from Proterozoic orolder infracrustal sources. Alkalic felsic volcanic rocks, and associated alkaline basaltic rocks, are more juvenile (EpsilonNd(T) = +3.2 to +4.2) and were possibly derivedfrom slightly enriched mantle sources. Southern plutons exhibit continental arc-type features. The felsic magmatism and VMS deposits likely formed in an Okinawa-type back-arc basin developed from rifting the Early Ordovician Popelogan continentalarc, of which the southern plutons are remnants. Correlations between pluton groups and volcanic formations indicate that felsic magmatism was erupted through and onto the Miramichi Group. As most felsic volcanic formations lack plutonicequivalents, the Tetagouche Group probably does not represent disrupted slices of an originally conformable stratigraphic section. This supports a model in which thrust slices juxtapose remnants of volcanic centres erupted at different locationswithin a back-arc basin.