The Altaids, also known as the Central Asian Orogenic Belt, lie between the Siberian and Baltic cratons to the north, and the Tarim and North China cratons to the south (Figure 1a). They are the largest accretionary orogenic collage on the planet, recording the world's highest rate of continental growth in the Phanerozoic (Jahn et al., 2000;Şengör et al., 1993;Wilhem et al., 2012;Windley et al., 2007). The Altaids comprise extensive outcrops of ophiolites, blueschists, eclogites, and schist-gneiss complexes, interpreted to be the remnants of island arcs, seamounts and oceanic plateaus, and microcontinents accreted during progressive subduction and consumption of the Paleo-Asian Ocean (
The Lubei Ni–Cu–Co deposit situated in western segment of the Huangshan-Jing’erquan mafic–ultramafic rock belt in eastern Tianshan of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). The estimated reserve is approximately 9.11 million tons of ore resources with average grades of 0.82 wt% Ni, 0.52 wt% Cu, and 0.03 wt% Co. The Lubei intrusion is mainly composed of gabbro (phase I), peridotite (phase II), pyroxene peridotite (phase III), olivine pyroxenite (phase IV), and diorite (phase V), which intruded into the early Carboniferous tuffaceous clastic rocks. Zircon Laser Ablation–Inductively Coupled Plasma–Mass Spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS) U–Pb age of the diorite (phase V) from the edge of the intrusion is interpreted as the top-limit metallogenic age, which is consistent with the formation ages of the Huangshan and Xiangshan Ni–Cu deposits in eastern Tianshan. The roughly parallel rare earth element (REE) curves of the Lubei intrusion indicate the magma originated from a homologous source. The slightly enriched large ion lithophile elements (LILE) are compared to high field strength elements (HFSE) with negative Nb and Ta anomalies show that the Lubei intrusion has arc-affiliate geochemical characteristics. The Sr–Nd–Hf isotopes show that the magma was derived from depleted lithospheric mantle, while suffering 4–10% lower crustal contamination with slight contamination of the upper crust. Based on a comprehensive conservation of regional geological, geochemical, and geochronological evidence, the primary magma of the Lubei intrusion was identified that it was derived from the partial melting of metasomatized lithospheric mantle previously modified by subduction events. The Lubei nickel–copper–cobalt sulfide deposit was formed after the primary magma experienced fractional crystallization, crustal contamination, and sulfide segregation in a post-collisional extensional geodynamic setting after the closure of the Kanggur ocean basin in the early Permian.
The newly discovered Juyuan tungsten deposit is hosted in Triassic granite in the Beishan Orogen, NW China. The tungsten mineralization occurred as quartz veins, and the main ore minerals included wolframite and scheelite. The age, origin, and tectonic setting of the Juyuan tungsten deposit, however, remain poorly understood. According to the mineralogical assemblages and crosscutting relationships, three hydrothermal stages can be identified, i.e., the early stage of quartz veins with scheelite and wolframite, the intermediate stage of quartz veinlets with sulfides, and the late stage of carbonate-quartz veinlets with tungsten being mainly introduced in the early stage. Quartz formed in the two earlier stages contained four compositional types of fluid inclusions, i.e., pure CO2, CO2-H2O, daughter mineral-bearing, and NaCl-H2O, but the late-stage quartz only contained the NaCl-H2O inclusions. The inclusions in quartz formed in the early, intermediate, and late stages had total homogenization temperatures of 230–344 °C, 241−295 °C, and 184−234 °C, respectively, with salinities no higher than 7.2 wt.% NaCl equiv (equivalent). Trapping pressures estimated from the CO2-H2O inclusions were 33−256 MPa and 36−214 MPa in the early and intermediate stages, corresponding to mineralization depths of 3–8 km. Fluid boiling and mixing caused rapid precipitation of wolframite, scheelite, and sulfides. Through boiling and inflow of meteoric water, the ore-forming fluid system evolved from CO2-rich to CO2-poor in composition and from magmatic to meteoric, as indicated by decreasing δ18Owater values from early to late stages. The sulfur and lead isotope compositions in the intermediate-stage suggest that the Triassic granite was a significant source of ore metals. The biotite 40Ar/39Ar age from the W-bearing quartz shows that the Juyuan tungsten system was formed at 240.0 ± 1.0 Ma, coeval with the emplacement of granitic rocks at the deposit. Integrating the data obtained from the studies including regional geology, ore geology, biotite Ar-Ar geochronology, fluid inclusion, and C-H-O-S-Pb isotope geochemistry, we conclude that the Juyuan tungsten deposit was a quartz-vein type system that originated from the emplacement of the granites, which was induced by collision between the Tarim and Kazakhstan–Ili plates. A comparison of the characteristics of tungsten mineralization in East Tianshan and Beishan suggests that the Triassic tungsten metallogenic belt in East Tianshan extends to the Beishan orogenic belt and that the west of the orogenic belt also has potential for the discovery of further quartz-vein-type tungsten deposits.
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