163 3.

2 Hydrothermal deposits formed around magmatic centres

have been provided from U–Pb ages of zircons (e.g. von Quadt et al., 2011). Ar–Ar ages of
potassium-bearing hydrothermal mineral can be almost as precise. As Ar–Ar dates from
minerals are expected to record cooling through specific temperatures, times of cooling of
rocks can in some circumstances be constrained and used as input into bracketing.
Precision of ages is a measure of analytical reproducibility, and is not necessarily a
measure of accuracy, that is, whether the age is the true age that the event occurred.
Mid-crustal magma chambers that supply small porphyritic intrusions in porphyry
deposits, for instance, have long lifetimes of potentially millions of years (e.g. Grunder
et al., 2008). Even small shallow-level magma chambers that feed volcanoes have
lifespans of tens of thousands of years. Data from zircons from historic eruptions show
that they grew over the time periods of the life of shallow magma chambers and that
the erupted crystals have not in all cases grown immediately prior to eruption (e.g.
Schmitt et al., 2010; Strom et al., 2012). There may thus be limits to the accuracy of
dating of events at a magmatic centre and even the best-precision geochronology may
be insufficient to constrain periods of hydrothermal activity.
There are, however, a number of types of observation and data that can provide
constraints on time periods of hydrothermal activity complementary to those of
geochronology. These constraints indicate that the time periods required for ore
formation may vary widely between different ore deposit types. Some constraints on
three types of ore deposits include:
(1) Hydrothermal ores in sedimentary basins such as at MVT deposits (Section 4.2.1)
may form over relatively protracted time periods, especially if fluid flow is the result
of long-lived driving forces such as a topographic gradient. Waters in the down-
stream end of the topographically driven flow paths of the active Great Artesian
Basin of Australia have been dated at up to about 2 Ma (Bentley et al., 1986) and tufa
of mound springs formed by discharge of the water has formed over the last 700 000
years (Prescott and Habermehl, 2008). These ages can be considered minimum time
periods of groundwater flow in the Great Artesian Basin, and by analogy in similar
geological environments in the past.
Migrating fluids can carry heat, and rising hydrothermal fluids heat surrounding
rock. To a first approximation there is a relatively simple mathematical relation-
ship between the lateral gradient of temperature around a channelway, which is a
measure of the diffusion of heat away from the channelway, and the flux of fluid
and the temperature gradient along the channelway. This is a central relationship
used to assess the results of numerical modelling of coupled fluid flow and heat
flow at MVT deposits (see Box 4.1), and for these deposits suggests time periods
of fluid flow of order of 1 million years.
The complex paragenesis of the ores shows, however, that ore mineral precipi-
tation may not have occurred throughout the period of fluid flow and, if this is the
case, the time period of ore precipitation may be shorter. Conversely, Tompkins
et al. (1997) used interpretations of a change in the structural setting from
extensional to compressional tectonics between two phases of ore precipitation,
in consort with the tectonic history of the host terrain to the MVT deposit at

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164 Hydrothermal ore deposits I: magmatic and orogenic environments

Cadjebut, Western Australia, to imply that the deposit formed over two periods
separated by as long as 35 million years.
(2) Order-of-magnitude constraints for the time period of formation of magmatic-
hydrothermal deposits such as high-sulfidation epithermal (Section 3.2.5) and low-
sulfidation epithermal deposits (Section 3.2.6) around or above high-level intru-
sions are provided by measurements of the fluxes of ore metals in emissions from
volcanoes and in subsurface fluids in geothermal fields (see Table 3.2). Emissions
of Cu and Au in SO2-bearing gases through fumaroles at the active andesitic
volcano of White Island, New Zealand are sufficient to form a deposit with about
1 Mt of Cu and 45 t of Au in about 10 000 years (Hedenquist et al., 1993), and
similarly for the andesitic Galeras volcano in the Andes of Colombia, where a 200-
t Au deposit could form over this period of time (Goff et al., 1994). More recent
direct measurements of the Au content of fluid and the flux of geothermal fluid at
about 1 km depth below the Pleistocene Ladolam epithermal Au deposit, Lihir
Island, Papua New Guinea, give a similar time period, with sufficient gold flux to
deposit 1300 t of Au in about 50 000 years (Simmons and Brown, 2006). In all
cases these measurements provide a limit for the minimum time required to form a
deposit. The estimates based on gas-emission measurements have the additional
uncertainty that they are of emitted metal rather than metal deposited below the
surface. The order-of-magnitude estimates of ore formation over 10 000 years are
however consistent with independent estimates of the time period of cooling of
small, shallow-level intrusions in the crust (e.g. Cathles, 1977). Similar time
periods of activity have been determined directly for VHMS mounds on the ocean
floor (e.g. Lalou et al., 1998, and see Section 3.2.7).
(3) Porphyry deposits (Section 3.2.1) may constitute extremely rapid ore formation.
These deposits are interpreted to result from upwards release of overpressured
fluid from crystallising plutons. Multiple intersecting vein sets in the ores opened
and filled simultaneously in a single phase of relatively short-lived fluid flow.
Chemical diffusion into rock from channelways of hydrothermal fluid flow is
mathematically analogous to diffusion of heat around a fluid channelway, and
the widths and lengths of potassic alteration haloes around veins in major porphyry
Cu deposits were used by Cathles and Shannon (2007) to estimate the period of
hydrothermal fluid flow in example deposits. The results suggest formation over
time periods in the two cases of about 100 and about 700 years. The estimates are
dependent on relatively poorly known rates of chemical diffusion in rock, but
suggest that these large deposits formed rapidly through ‘controlled explosions’ of
high-pressure fluid at a few kilometres depth in the crust.

3.2.6 Low-sulfidation epithermal deposits

Low-sulfidation epithermal deposits are mined predominantly for Au and Ag, although
many have concentrations of Pb, Zn and Cu in sulfide minerals. The two precious metals
have differing relative importance in deposits around the world. Some are markedly

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165 3.2 Hydrothermal deposits formed around magmatic centres

Ag-rich, in particular the deposits in the Eocene and Miocene magmatic belts of central
and northern Mexico.
Low-sulfidation epithermal deposits are hosted by a greater variety of rock types and
are typically at greater distances ( 2–10 km) from volcanic centres than high-sulfidation
deposits. These deposits are hosted in sub-aerial volcanic rocks within a few kilometres of
central volcanoes, and the typical host sequences are bedded sequences of intermediate-
to felsic-composition lavas and pyroclastic rocks. The host sequences generally lack
abundant cross-cutting shallow intrusive rocks such as are characteristic of magmatic
centres. One characteristic siting of these deposits is just outside of a caldera rim fault.
Well-studied examples include Creede, Colorado, USA (Bethke, 1988); Waihi and other
deposits in the Coromandel Peninsula (Hauraki goldfield), New Zealand (Simpson et al.,
2001; Simpson and Mauk, 2007); Hishikari, Japan (Ibaraki and Suzuki, 1993).
The style and setting of mineralisation of low-sulfidation epithermal deposits is itself
very variable. However, some of the variability of the deposits that have been classified as
low-sulfidation epithermal is probably due to lumping of deposits into the category on the
basis of alteration and ore mineralogy, even though the deposits may have formed through
different processes. Many deposits in and around alkaline magmatic centres, for example,
especially centres with silica-undersaturated rocks, do not share all the characteristics
described below, e.g. Cripple Creek, Colorado, USA (Thompson et al., 1985) and
Ladolam, Papua New Guinea (Carman et al., 2003).

Geological settings of low-sulfidation ores

The most characteristic style and setting of low-sulfidation epithermal deposits is in
interconnected networks or swarms of steeply dipping small to large (up to 10 m thick)
veins, in which the ore is in the veins and in immediately adjacent, hydrothermally
altered wall-rock. A structural control (see Box 3.7) on the orientation and siting of
veins is common – multiple veins commonly have sub-parallel orientations in a deposit
(Figure 3.35) and are, for instance, hosted along segments of faults in fault sets that are
more extensive than the host volcanic centres.
The veins and ore may be continuous along strike lengths of up to a couple of kilometres,
but although veins may be traceable to more than 1 km depth, economic ore is only
developed over restricted vertical intervals of about 500 m, and in some cases as little as
200 m. Ore may thus form a near-horizontal ribbon along the strike length of the vein. The
depths of mineralisation is estimated from fluid-inclusion data to be typically between
about 200 and 700 m below the water table, or rarely to about 1.5 km depth. Ore can also
occur in breccia pipes, with the ore minerals in either the clasts or the breccia matrix.

Nature of the ores and associated hydrothermally altered rocks

Figure 3.36 shows components of an idealised low-sulfidation epithermal deposit. Ore veins
are quartz-dominated with adularia (low-temperature K-feldspar) and variably calcite,
chlorite and other gangue minerals. Many veins are zoned vertically with for instance
calcite and adularia only within restricted depth intervals. Ore minerals are disseminated in
the veins or occur in massive pods and may also be disseminated in strongly altered rock
adjacent to veins. The sulfide mineral assemblage in the veins is very variable from deposit
to deposit. Some of this variability is related to sulfidation state, with pyrite or marcasite
being the dominant sulfide in intermediate-sulfidation-state ores and pyrrhotite together

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