Oxygen Isotopes of Iron Oxides as a Diagnostic Tool for Iron Formation-Hosted High-Grade Magnetite-Hematite Deposits

Abstract

Coarse-grained granoblastic magnetite-hematite and sheared platy hematite iron orebodies comprise several small deposits (5 to 30 Mt each) on the eastern margin of the São Francisco Craton, bordering the Ediacaran–Cambrian Brasiliano Orogenic belt. Three main mineralization stages are associated with the Brasiliano Orogeny: (1) syn- to the late-collisional stage (ca. 580–560 Ma) with development of lens-shaped schistose orebodies along thrust planes. (2) late- to the post-collisional stage (ca. 560–530 Ma) with the formation of massive magnetite bodies by contact metamorphic-metasomatism with pegmatite. (3) Post-tectonic stage with crystallization of granular hematite associated with late pegmatite (ca. 530–490 Ma). In order to better evaluate the fluid oxygen signature of each mineralization stage, new oxygen isotopes measurements were performed on ore bodies associated with the three stages. These stages are followed by changes in the oxygen isotope signature, with a progressive decrease of the δ18O from the iron formation (1.7 to 8.1‰) to high-grade ore (-1.6 to 2.6‰) that appears to be a common aspect of the mineralization of iron formations. In the present cases, magmatic fluids (δ18O from 4.6 to 13.1‰) have imprinted a relatively “heavier” signature than the most hypogene iron formation high-grade ores worldwide that was progressively modified by meteoric water percolated along extensional fractures. The iron oxides from the contact zones of pegmatitic yielded intermediate δ18O values (1.8 to 5.0‰), indicating a higher magmatic fluid/rock ratio.