Fluid Evolution, H-O Isotope and Re-Os Age of Molybdenite from the Baiyinhan Tungsten Deposit in the Eastern Central Asian Orogenic Belt, NE China, and Its Geological Significance

The quartz-vein-type Baiyinhan tungsten deposit is located at the eastern part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt, NE China. Analyses of fluid inclusions, H-O isotope of quartz and Re-Os isotope of molybdenite were carried out. Three stages of mineralization were identified: The early quartz + wolframite + bismuth stage, the middle quartz + molybdenite stage and the late calcite + fluorite stage. Quartz veins formed in the three stages were selected for the fluid inclusion analysis. The petrographic observation and fluid inclusion microthermometry results revealed three types of fluid inclusions: CO2-H2O (C-type), liquid-rich (L-type) and vapor-rich (V-type). The homogenization temperatures of C-type, V-type and L-type inclusions were 233&ndash
374 &deg
C, 210&ndash
312 &deg
C, and 196&ndash
311 &deg
C, respectively. The salinity of the three types of inclusions was identical, varying in the range of 5&ndash
12 wt%. The H-O isotope analyses results showed that quartz had &delta
18OH2O and &delta
DSMOW compositions of &minus
2.6&permil
to 4.3&permil
and &minus
97&permil
to &minus
82&permil
respectively, indicating that the ore-forming fluids were mainly derived from magmatic water with a minor contribution of meteoric water. The addition of meteoric water reduces the temperature and salinity of the ore-forming fluids, which leads to a decrease of the solubility of tungsten and molybdenum in the fluids and eventually the precipitation of minerals. Re-Os isotopic analysis of five molybdenite samples yielded an isochron age of 139.6 &plusmn
7.6 Ma (2&sigma
) with an initial 187Os of &minus
0.05 &plusmn
0.57 (MSWD = 3.5). Rhenium concentrations of the molybdenite samples were between 3.1 ug/g and 8.5 ug/g. The results suggest that the metals of the Baiyinhan deposit have a crust origin, and the mineralization is one episode of the Early Cretaceous tungsten mineralization epoch which occurred at the eastern part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt.