Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Seo, Jung Hun
• Guillong, Marcel
• Heinrich, Christoph A.

Titel

The role of sulfur in the formation of magmatic–hydrothermal copper–gold deposits

Ist Teil von

• Earth and planetary science letters, 2009-05, Vol.282 (1), p.323-328

Ort / Verlag

Elsevier B.V

Erscheinungsjahr

2009

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Essential resources of many rare metals including copper, zinc, molybdenum, silver and gold occur in natural sulfide mineral deposits. Understanding the origin of these metal resources has been limited by a lack of data about the geochemistry of sulfur, the most important and abundant element of ore deposits. We report the first directly measured sulfur concentrations in high-temperature fluids, together with their ore-metal contents, using a new method for sulfur quantification in fluid inclusions by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Co-genetic brine and vapor inclusions from magmatic–hydrothermal ore deposits and granitic intrusions show an excess of sulfur over ore metals, as required for efficient ore-mineral precipitation. The results demonstrate that S, Cu and Au are highly enriched in vapor-like magmatic fluids, implying that such low-salinity fluids are the key agent for the formation of porphyry copper and epithermal gold deposits.