Quantifying metasomatic high-field-strength and rare-earth element transport from alkaline magmas

Alkaline igneous rocks host many global high-field-strength element (HFSE) and rare-earth element (REE) deposits. While HFSEs are commonly assumed to be immobile in hydrothermal systems, transport by late-stage hydrothermal fluids associated with alkaline magmas is reported. However, the magnitude of the flux and the conditions are poorly constrained and yet essential to understanding the formation of REE-HFSE ores. We examined the alteration of country rocks (“fenitization”) accompanying the emplacement of a syenite magma at Illerfissalik in Greenland, through analysis of changes in rock chemistry, mineralogy, and texture. Our novel geochemical maps show a 400-m-wide intrusion aureole, within which we observed typically tenfold increases in the concentrations of many elements, including HFSEs. Textures suggest both pervasive and structurally hosted fluid flow, with initial reaction occurring with the protolith’s quartz cement, leading to increased permeability and enhancing chemical interaction with a mixed Ca-K-Na fenitizing fluid. We estimated the HFSE masses transferred from the syenite to the fenite by this fluid and found ~43 Mt of REEs were mobilized (~12% of the syenite-fenite system total rare-earth-oxide [TREO] budget), a mass comparable to the tonnages of some of the world’s largest HFSE resources. We argue that fenite can yield crucial information about the tipping points in magma evolution because retention and/or loss of volatile-bonded alkali and HFSEs are key factors in the development of magmatic zirconosilicate-hosted HFSE ores (e.g., Kringlerne, at Ilímaussaq), or the formation of the syenite-hosted Nb-Ta-REE (Motzfeldt-type) roof-zone deposits.

Supplemental Material: Quantifying metasomatic high-field-strength and rare-earth element transport from alkaline magmas

Petrographic information, parameterization of the Grant model, description of the HFSE tonnage estimation method, and supplemental tables of whole-rock data, standardization, and HFSE volume-tonnage calculations.<br>

Supplemental Material: Quantifying metasomatic high-field-strength and rare-earth element transport from alkaline magmas

Petrographic information, parameterization of the Grant model, description of the HFSE tonnage estimation method, and supplemental tables of whole-rock data, standardization, and HFSE volume-tonnage calculations.<br>

San José de Guaviare Syenite, Colombia: Repeated Ediacaran intrusions in the northwestern Amazonian Craton

The Neoproterozoic igneous rocks found in the municipality of San José del Guaviare include several isolated plutonic bodies that protrude from the Phanerozoic sedimentary cover in belts aligned NW-SE. Limited to the Guaviare department, these intrusions stretch from the La Lindosa mountain range to the corregimiento El Capricho. These plutonic bodies consist of nepheline syeni­tes, nepheline monzosyenites, nepheline-bearing alkali-feldspar syenites, syenites, quartz-syenites, quartz-alkali-feldspar syenites, syenogranites, and quartz-rich granitoids, which have been grouped and termed the San José del Guaviare Syenite unit (SJGS). The intrusion of the unit occurred in the Ediacaran (604 ± 7 Ma and 620.5 ± 7.5 Ma) by mantle-derived alkaline magmas formed in anorogenic settings, most likely in rift-like stretching zones. The silica-subsaturated magma may have reacted with host rocks at the crust level, producing some silica-saturated igneous rocks, such as syenogranites and quartz-syenites, which are found in the El Capricho and Cerritos bodies.

Petrological and geochemical characteristic of the rocks of the Voznesensky intrusive massif (Southern Urals): Оn the question of the composition and sources of magma producing gold and copper porphyry mineralization

Research subject. The petrological and geochemical features of the rocks of the Voznesensky intrusive massif and its dyke series were studied in order to clarify the composition, possible sources and geodynamic settings of magma generation that produced Au- and Cu-porphyry mineralization.Methods. The content of petrogenic oxides was determined by the chemical method, trace elements – by ICP-MS analysis.Results. Among the rocks of the Voznesensky massif, which have the geochemical characteristics of suprasubduction formations, varieties with calc-alkaline and adakite-like properties were established. The main phase of the massif is represented by gabbro-diorites and diorites belonging to the calc-alkaline series. Ore-bearing dykes of gabbro-diorites, diorites and granodiorites of the Au-porphyry Bolshekaransky deposit are of calc-alkaline composition, while the post-ore dykes of granodiorites and plagiogranites of this deposit exhibit adakite-like characteristics.Conclusions. The ore-bearing dyke series of the Voznesensky deposit is represented by calc-alkaline diorites and adakite-like granodiorites and plagiogranites. The metallogenic specialization of the dykes was influenced by the silicic acidity and the redox state of the ore-generating melts. Granitoids with Cu-porphyry mineralization, compared to their gold-bearing varieties, crystallized from more acidic melts with a higher degree of oxidation. It is assumed that the main mantle component of magmas for the Voznesensky rocks were relatively weakly depleted spinel peridotites of the suprasubduction lithospheric mantle. Calc-alkaline magmas were melted from a mantle substrate previously metasomatized by aqueous fluids, and magmas with adakite-like properties – metamorphosed by melts of basalts and sedimentary rocks of slab. Melting of slab rocks may have been associated with additional heating due to friction caused by changes in direction and/or velocity of oblique subduction.