The composition of magmatic-hydrothermal fluids and their related metal mineralization.

Magmatic hydrothermal deposits are important sources of many bulk, precious, and rare metals, and have attracted interest from both academic and industrial communities. However, it is still unclear if the major enrichment of the ore-forming metals occurs in the parental magma source region, during the magma evolution, or after the fluid exsolution. Fluid inclusions trapped in hydrothermal minerals crystallized in the early, high-temperature stage before metal precipitation record information close to that of the initially exsolved magmatic fluids, which are helpful in revealing whether the metals have been already significantly enriched prior to the hydrothermal stage. In this study, available compositional data of such early-stage fluid inclusions from magmatic hydrothermal systems globally have been compiled. The results indicate that the concentrations of Cu, Sn, and W respectively from the Cu-, Sn-, and W-mineralized fluids are significantly higher than the hydrothermal systems that do not produce ores with the corresponding metals. This suggests that Cu, Sn, and W could have already been enriched in the magma source and/or magma evolution stage. The Mo concentrations show no difference between Mo-mineralized and Mobarren fluid systems, indicating no significant pre-enrichment in the source region or during the magma evolution. This also implies that an efficient collection of Mo from a large volume of magmas is required to account for the formation of a large Mo deposit. Almost all the hydrothermal fluids contain high concentrations of Fe and Zn-Pb, but only a few of them eventually form Fe or Zn-Pb deposits, reflecting an important role of the hydrothermal evolution process on the selective metal mineralization. The above results indicate that different metals are enriched in different stages of a magmatic hydrothermal system, and that the major roles played in the formation of a deposit vary with the metal types. In addition to the metal concentrations in the ore-related magmas and fluids, other factors (including but not limited to the intrusion shapes, emplacement depths, structural pathways, and wallrock properties) are also critical in determining the fertility and mineralization diversity of a magmatic hydrothermal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]