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The Naozhi deposit of northeast China comprises intermediate-sulfidation epithermal-style veins and subeconomic, porphyry-style Cu mineralization hosted by dioritic to granitic plutons, which formed at ca. 130 Ma. These intrusive phases were fed by magmas that ponded at mid- to upper-crustal levels and were finally emplaced at < 0.6 kbar based on amphibole geobarometry. The magmas were moderately oxidized (∆NNO − 0.35 to 2.21; with NNO being the nickel–nickel–oxide buffer) and water-rich (mostly > 4 wt. %), and likely experienced a relatively prolonged evolution in the shallow crust rather than at depth. Magma devolatilization and fluid exsolution at shallow-crustal levels lead to decreases in both oxygen fugacity (log ƒO2 − 10.96 to − 14.13) and water content (6.53 to 2.26 wt. %) at < 2.5 kbar pressures. Thermochronological data of zircon and apatite, thermal history modeling, and geological preservation record complex time–temperature histories of the mineralized intrusive rocks, from the cooling of the parent magma itself through burial by younger volcanic rocks to protracted erosion with time. It is estimated that < 2 km of pre-mineralization material was removed from the top of the Naozhi magmatic–hydrothermal system from the Early Cretaceous to present. A 108 ± 2 Ma volcanic event possibly tilted the hydrothermal system, but buried the ores, protecting them from extensive erosion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protracted magma storage in the deep crust is a key stage in the formation of evolved, hydrous arc magmas that can result in explosive volcanism and the formation of economically valuable magmatic-hydrothermal ore deposits. High magmatic water content in the deep crust results in extensive amphibole ± garnet fractionation and the suppression of plagioclase crystallization as recorded by elevated Sr/Y ratios and high Eu (high Eu/Eu*) in the melt. Here, we use a novel approach to track the petrogenesis of arc magmas using apatite trace element chemistry in volcanic formations from the Cenozoic arc of central Chile. These rocks formed in a magmatic cycle that culminated in high-Sr/Y magmatism and porphyry ore deposit formation in the Miocene. We use Sr/Y, Eu/Eu*, and Mg in apatite to track discrete stages of arc magma evolution. We apply fractional crystallization modeling to show that early-crystallizing apatite can inherit a high-Sr/Y and high-Eu/Eu* melt chemistry signature that is predetermined by amphibole-dominated fractional crystallization in the lower crust. Our modeling shows that crystallization of the in situ host-rock mineral assemblage in the shallow crust causes competition for trace elements in the melt that leads to apatite compositions diverging from bulk-magma chemistry. Understanding this decoupling behavior is important for the use of apatite as an indicator of metallogenic fertility in arcs and for interpretation of provenance in detrital studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]