148 Hydrothermal ore deposits I: magmatic and orogenic environments

the small intrusions, including the Bingham Stock, and not directly from the Bingham
Stock that is adjacent to the deposit. The 10- to 20-times higher grades of the skarns
than adjacent low-grade porphyry ore are presumably the result of the efficiency of copper
sulfide precipitation on acid neutralisation, although they may have been enhanced by
channelisation of fluid flow along the carbonate units as porosity is developed on dissolution
of calcite.
The Pb–Zn–Ag carbonate-replacement deposits in the Bingham district are 0.5 to
1.5 km from the edge of the Cu shell of the porphyry deposit (Figure 3.24). They likely
formed at temperatures of approximately 300  C, as would be expected at the outer edges
of a rising cylindrical plume of magmatic ‘vapour’. The concentrations of lead and zinc in
the input fluid to the porphyry deposit are similar to those of Cu (Box 3.1). Galena and
sphalerite are present in the outer parts of the porphyry ore shell, but at abundances much
less than 1% and too low for Zn and Pb to be extracted as by-products. These peripheral
deposits may thus also be formed at the margins of the same vapour plume that formed the
porphyry deposit with efficient metal precipitation on acid neutralisation. The paragenetic
timing of ore mineral precipitation suggests rather that the ores formed during infiltration
of the later, lower-temperature fluids of dominantly magmatic origin, which formed the
D-type quartz–pyrite veinlets with sericitic haloes that are abundant through both the
porphyry ore and immediately surrounding rock. The radial distribution of ore shoots
suggests that fractures were an important control on fluid flow in this peripheral zone of
the hydrothermal system.
The Gilman (Figure 3.25) and Santa Eulalia (Figure 3.26) deposits are different in that
they are not spatially associated with known magmatic centres. Both are in the neigh-
bourhood of intermediate to felsic sills, which formed broadly during the same tectonic
event, although the overlying sill at Gilman is earlier than the ore. Isotope compositions of
ore and gangue minerals imply, however, that the ore fluids were dominated by
magmatic-hydrothermal fluids and hydrothermal temperatures of up to about 400  C
imply a relatively proximal, but unexposed, magmatic fluid source. Ore fluids appear to
have been very strongly channelised along highly permeable channelways in order to
retain a high temperature. In both areas, and also elsewhere, earlier karst was likely a
major control on ease and patterns of hydrothermal fluid flow. Clay-filled doline depres-
sions at the top of the Gilman ore body indicate some karstification before deposition of
the overlying clastic sedimentary rocks and hence more than 100 million years before the
early-Cenozoic mineralisation. Karst cavities would have been themselves controlled by
faults and fractures and hence these would also control the geometry of the ores.

3.2.4 Polymetallic veins and vein fields associated with magmatic centres
There are a large number of small, mainly historic mines in and around magmatic centres
in which multiple individual veins were or are selectively mined in contrast to bulk
mining of large volumes of veined and mineralised rock at porphyry deposits. Many vein
fields are well-defined clusters of veins spread over several kilometres diameter, each vein
separated by altered but unmineralised rock or by unaltered rock. It is in many cases a
question of economics as to whether mining is bulk-rock or selective. These veins mark a
hydrogeologically different style of fluid migration away from magmatic centres than
porphyry deposits in particular.

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149 3.2 Hydrothermal deposits formed around magmatic centres

Veins of vein fields include economic grades of one or more of the metals Sn, W, Mo,
Bi, U, Au, Ag, Cu and Zn. Many are polymetallic and contain ore extracted for multiple
commodities.
Vein fields in some ore camps overprint porphyry ores but may be significantly more
extensive, such as at Main Stage Veins at Butte, Montana, USA (Meyer et al., 1968) and
at Morococha, Peru (Catchpole et al., 2011). Other examples are peripheral to either
greisens or porphyry deposits (tin mining districts of Cornwall, UK) or occur around
magmatic centres which lack known porphyry or greisen deposits (Idaho Springs –
Central City district of Colorado, USA, Rice et al., 1985).
Common characteristics of veins around magmatic centres include the following:

 The veins are quartz- and calcite-dominated, with disseminated sulfide or small pods of
massive sulfide in the vein and in adjacent altered wall-rock.
 Ore veins can range from a few centimetres to about 10 m in width and can be spaced at
up to about 1 km distance.
 There are typically one or multiple sets of veins by orientation, with multiple sets by
orientation and gradual changes in vein orientation similar to those of the veinlets at
porphyry deposits (Figure 3.12).
 The size of vein fields and the nature of the associated magmatic centres vary. Tin-
bearing systems are typically the most widespread and many of these are associated
with equigranular granites with large areas of surface exposure that are much wider
than deep and that intruded to a few kilometres depth in the crust. A vein field
extends over 30 km from the outcrop centre of the Mole Granite of the New
England Orogen, New South Wales, Australia (Figure 3.27). The most peripheral
veins of the field occur up to about 10 km beyond the lateral extent of the pluton,
which is interpreted from geophysical data to be disc-shaped and not more than
about 5 km thick. In contrast, the Pb–Zn–Ag–Au system such as at Central City
is centred on a magmatic centre formed of multiple phases of pipe-shaped,
small porphyritic intrusions similar to those in and around porphyry deposits. The
area of the vein field is about 5 km across and hence much smaller than at the
Mole Granite.
 Ore fields are zoned with respect to metal content of the veins and also to the alteration
assemblages in the vein haloes. In the case of the Mole Granite, there are zones from
the centre of the granite outwards with vein ore of (Figure 3.27):
 W–Bi (wolframite–bismuthinite)
 Sn (cassiterite)
 Sn–Cu–Pb–Zn–As (cassiterite–arsenopyrite–chalcopyrite)
 Pb–Ag–Zn–Cu (sphalerite–galena).

The W deposits in the centre of the field are associated with silicification and albite
alteration, whereas greisen-style alteration (muscovite–quartz) is dominant around the Sn
veins, and chlorite–sericite alteration around veins at greatest distance from the pluton.
There is thus similarity of both the metal content and alteration mineralogies of the ores
with those of greisen deposits.
Isotope data show that the hydrothermal fluid in these vein fields is in most cases
dominantly a magmatic-hydrothermal fluid, although with varying proportions of

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150 Hydrothermal ore deposits I: magmatic and orogenic environments

350 360 370 380 390

6770

6760

Torrington

Ore deposits:
6750 W dominant
Sn dominant
As dominant
Pb Zn Cu domin.
Au Bi dominant
0 5 10 km

Figure 3.27 Distribution of metalliferous veins around the Permian Mole granite, New South
Wales, Australia, showing the zonation with respect to metal content (Audétat et al., 2000,
after the Geological Survey of New South Wales). The outcrop limit of the granite is indicated
by the thicker solid line.

in-mixed meteoric waters, especially in the peripheries of the fields and late in the
paragenetic histories. The large-scale metal zonation in vein fields reflects saturation of
the fluid with respect to different ore minerals at different positions within the hydrother-
mal system, due to fluid cooling and evolution of the fluid composition because of
interaction with wall-rock, and mixing of the metal-carrying fluid with other fluids. In
the case of the Mole Granite (Figure 3.27), the W deposits are interpreted to have formed
at 500–600  C, and the Pb–Zn–Cu deposits at about 250  C. Fluid-phase separation is
recorded in a number of fields, but in the same fashion as in porphyry deposits it may not
be a critical factor promoting ore mineral precipitation. Mixing with groundwaters will in
general be most important at the outer edges of the vein field and during the later infill
stages of the veins.
Different vein fields appear to have formed from different styles of fluid migration.
The smaller fields such as at Central City are of similar dimensions as lithocaps and
of phyllic caps above some porphyry deposits (e.g. Figure 3.14). Fluid exsolution
to form these veins fields was thus less focussed at the source pluton than that of
typical magmatic vapour plumes. In the case of the broader fields such as at the Mole
Granite dispersed fluid exsolution seems inferred, as does lateral migration of fluids
away from the source pluton, or alternatively it seems that the fluids in the peripheral
veins were derived from deeper buried larger intrusions of the same suite as the
outcropping pluton.

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