Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny 9780443216848

Table of contents :
Front Cover
Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny
Copyright Page
Contents
Preface
1 Introduction
2 Representative examples of mineral system models
2.1 Definition of mineral systems
2.2 Example of porphyry Cu–Au–Mo system
2.2.1 Introduction
2.2.2 Development of a coherent genetic model
2.2.3 A coherent mineral system model
2.2.3.1 Geodynamic factors
2.2.3.2 Fertility factors
2.2.3.3 Architecture parameters
2.2.3.4 Preservation constraints
2.2.4 Exploration summary
2.3 Example of orogenic gold system
2.3.1 Introduction
2.3.2 Development of a holistic genetic model
2.3.3 A coherent mineral system model for orogenic gold deposits
2.3.3.1 Fertility
2.3.3.2 Geodynamic parameter
2.3.3.3 Architecture parameter
2.3.3.4 Preservation parameters
2.3.4 Exploration overview
3 Summary mineral systems models for relevant systems
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Mineral systems involving mineralization processes in sedimentary basins
3.2.1 Paleoplacer gold (U) system
3.2.2 Unconformity-type uranium systems
3.2.3 Mississippi Valley type Pb–Zn–Ba system
3.2.4 SEDEX Zn–Pb–Cu system
3.2.5 Zambian-type Cu–Co system
3.2.6 Broken Hill-type Pb–Zn–Ag system
3.3 Submarine hydrothermal systems
3.3.1 Iron enrichment in banded iron formation systems
3.3.2 Sediment-hosted manganese systems
3.3.3 Volcanogenic massive sulfide Cu–Zn–Pb (Au–Ag) system
3.4 Magmatic hydrothermal systems
3.4.1 Greisen/vein/replacement Sn–W system
3.4.2 Intrusion-related gold (W) system
3.4.3 Distal Carlin-type gold system
3.4.4 Kiruna-type Fe–P system
3.4.5 Iron–oxide copper–gold system
3.5 Magmatic systems with hydrothermal fluid involvement
3.5.1 Carbonatite-related Cu–P and REE–Nb systems
3.5.2 Kimberlite/lamproite diamond system
3.6 Magmatic systems
3.6.1 Lithium pegmatite (Ta, Cs) systems
3.6.2 Giant-layered intrusion-hosted PGE–Cr–Fe–Ti–V system
3.6.3 Mafic intrusion-hosted Ni–Cu–PGE system
3.7 Summary
4 The critical role of subduction
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Systems with direct associations to subduction in convergent margins
4.2.1 Introduction
4.2.2 Porphyry-high sulfidation-skarn Cu–Au±Mo systems in arcs
4.2.3 Granite-related tin and tungsten deposits in continental back-arcs
4.2.4 Volcanogenic massive sulfide Cu–Zn–Pb systems in arcs
4.2.5 Epithermal Au–Ag systems in back-arc basins
4.2.6 Preservation potential
4.3 Orogenic gold systems in transpressional settings
4.4 Indirect association with late-subduction orogenic collapse or rifting
4.4.1 Introduction
4.4.2 Intrusion-related gold systems
4.4.3 Carlin-type gold systems
4.5 Indirect association with subduction-related metasomatized lithosphere
4.5.1 Introduction
4.5.2 The Jiaodong orogenic gold system
4.6 Indirect association with magmatic systems derived from subduction-related lithosphere metasomatism
4.6.1 Introduction
4.6.2 Magmatic copper, iron, niobium, phosphate, rare earth elements (REE), and diamond deposits
4.6.3 Magmatic-hydrothermal Cu–Au systems
4.7 Summary
5 Mineral systems, tectonics, and the supercontinent cycle
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Evolution of the early Earth
5.2.1 Early Earth tectonics
5.2.2 Mantle overturns
5.2.3 Early plate tectonics
5.2.4 Formation of cratons
5.2.5 Heterogeneous Precambrian metallogeny of Archean cratons
5.2.6 Unique Archean to Paleoproterozoic mineral systems
5.3 Supercontinent cycles
5.3.1 Assembly and dispersal of supercontinents
5.3.2 Supercontinents through Earth history
5.4 Mineral systems and their relationship to the supercontinent system
5.4.1 Critical parameters of mineral systems
5.4.2 Mineral systems formed in convergent margin environments
5.4.2.1 Orogenic gold systems
5.4.2.2 Volcanogenic massive sulfide systems
5.4.2.3 Porphyry Cu–Au–Mo systems
5.4.3 Magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal systems formed near craton margins
5.4.3.1 Mafic intrusion-hosted Ni–Cu–PGE systems
5.4.3.2 Iron oxide–copper gold systems
5.4.3.3 Kiruna-type Fe–P systems
5.5 Mineral deposits as sensitive indicators of Earth evolution
5.5.1 Coupled metallogenic and supercontinent cycles
5.6 Summary
6 The anomalous Boring Billion
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Overview of the Boring Billion
6.3 Metallogeny before and during the Boring Billion
6.3.1 Introduction
6.3.2 Early Precambrian mineral systems absent or rare in the Boring Billion
6.3.2.1 Orogenic gold systems
6.3.2.2 Volcanogenic massive sulfide systems
6.3.2.3 Porphyry copper–gold systems
6.3.2.4 Paleoplacer gold (uranium) systems
6.3.2.5 Layered intrusion PGE–Cr–Fe Ti–V systems
6.3.3 Mineral systems extending into the Boring Billion
6.3.3.1 Iron oxide–copper–gold systems
6.3.3.2 Kiruna-type iron–phosphorous systems
6.3.3.3 Intrusion-related nickel–copper systems
6.3.3.4 Carbonatite-related rare earth elements (REE) (Cu, Nb, P) systems
6.3.4 Mineral systems largely confined to the Boring Billion
6.3.4.1 Sedimentary exhalative deposits (SEDEX) zinc–lead–copper systems
6.3.4.2 Broken Hill-type lead–zinc–silver systems
6.3.4.3 Unconformity-type uranium systems
6.3.4.4 Lamproite diamond systems
6.4 The not-so-boring metallogeny of the Boring Billion
6.5 The critical conjunction between metallogeny and tectonic evolution
6.6 Summary
7 Paleoproterozoic great oxidation event
7.1 Evolution of the atmosphere–hydrosphere–biosphere system
7.1.1 Earth climate and evolution of life
7.1.2 Great oxygenation events
7.2 Metallogeny related to the Paleoproterozoic GOE
7.2.1 Valency implications for subsequent mineral systems
7.2.2 The great period of formation of iron deposits in banded iron formation systems
7.2.3 Evolution of manganese deposits
7.2.4 Evolution of uranium deposits
7.3 Summary: redox reflections of atmosphere evolution
8 Cambrian explosion of life
8.1 Neoproterozoic to Phanerozoic hydrosphere–biosphere system evolution
8.2 Contrasting temporal pattern of SEDEX and MVT systems
8.3 Importance of abundant organisms
8.4 Potential importance of hydrocarbons
9 The role of craton and thick lithosphere margins
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Longevity of cratons and their margins
9.3 Modification of craton margins and underlying lithosphere
9.3.1 Structural modification
9.4 Metasomatic alteration of mantle lithosphere
9.5 Magmatic deposits derived from metasomatized lithosphere
9.5.1 Carbonatite-related Cu and P deposits
9.5.2 Carbonatite-related REE–Nb deposits
9.5.3 Kiruna-type Fe–P deposits
9.5.4 Lamproite-associated diamonds
9.6 Magmatic-hydrothermal deposits from metasomatized lithosphere
9.6.1 Iron oxide–copper–gold systems
9.6.2 Intrusion-related gold deposits
9.6.3 Carlin-type gold systems
9.7 Hydrothermal deposits derived from metasomatized lithosphere
9.7.1 Jiaodong and other Chinese orogenic gold deposits
9.7.2 Other orogenic gold deposits on craton margins
9.8 Magmatic systems related to intrusion via trans-lithosphere structures
9.8.1 Intrusion-related nickel–copper–PGE systems
9.8.2 Anorthosite-hosted ilmenite deposits
9.9 Hydrothermal deposits related to deformation on craton margins
9.9.1 BIF-hosted iron ores
9.10 Sediment-hosted deposits on craton and thick lithosphere margins
9.10.1 Zambian copper belt-type deposits
9.10.2 SEDEX zinc–lead–copper systems
9.11 Diversity of mineral systems along craton and thick lithosphere margins
9.12 Summary
10 Implications for global exploration
10.1 Introduction
10.2 The role and appropriate scale of conceptual targeting
10.3 Most productive time periods for specific mineral systems
10.4 Association with craton and thick lithosphere margins
10.5 Detection of lithosphere scale structures connected to mineral systems
10.6 Summary
References
Index
Back Cover

Citation preview

Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny

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Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny

David Ian Groves China University of Geosciences, Beijing, P.R. China; The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia

M. Santosh China University of Geosciences, Beijing, P.R. China; Department of Earth Science, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

Elsevier Radarweg 29, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, Netherlands The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, United Kingdom 50 Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on how to seek permission, further information about the Publisher’s permissions policies and our arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions. This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the Publisher (other than as may be noted herein). Notices Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary. Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional responsibility. To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein. ISBN: 978-0-443-21684-8 For Information on all Elsevier publications visit our website at https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals

Publisher: Joseph P. Hayton Acquisitions Editor: Jennette McClain Editorial Project Manager: Naomi Robertson Production Project Manager: Bharatwaj Varatharajan Cover Designer: Miles Hitchen Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India

Contents Preface

xi

1.

Introduction

1

2.

Representative examples of mineral system models

3

2.1 Definition of mineral systems 2.2 Example of porphyry Cu Au Mo system 2.2.1 Introduction 2.2.2 Development of a coherent genetic model 2.2.3 A coherent mineral system model 2.2.4 Exploration summary 2.3 Example of orogenic gold system 2.3.1 Introduction 2.3.2 Development of a holistic genetic model 2.3.3 A coherent mineral system model for orogenic gold deposits 2.3.4 Exploration overview

3 5 5 6 7 15 18 18 19

3.

Summary mineral systems models for relevant systems 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Mineral systems involving mineralization processes in sedimentary basins 3.2.1 Paleoplacer gold (U) system 3.2.2 Unconformity-type uranium systems 3.2.3 Mississippi Valley type Pb Zn Ba system 3.2.4 SEDEX Zn Pb Cu system 3.2.5 Zambian-type Cu Co system 3.2.6 Broken Hill-type Pb Zn Ag system 3.3 Submarine hydrothermal systems 3.3.1 Iron enrichment in banded iron formation systems 3.3.2 Sediment-hosted manganese systems 3.3.3 Volcanogenic massive sulfide Cu Zn Pb (Au Ag) system 3.4 Magmatic hydrothermal systems 3.4.1 Greisen/vein/replacement Sn W system 3.4.2 Intrusion-related gold (W) system

21 25

31 31 36 36 38 39 40 41 42 44 44 45 46 47 47 48 v

vi

4.

5.

Contents

3.4.3 Distal Carlin-type gold system 3.4.4 Kiruna-type Fe P system 3.4.5 Iron oxide copper gold system 3.5 Magmatic systems with hydrothermal fluid involvement 3.5.1 Carbonatite-related Cu P and REE Nb systems 3.5.2 Kimberlite/lamproite diamond system 3.6 Magmatic systems 3.6.1 Lithium pegmatite (Ta, Cs) systems 3.6.2 Giant-layered intrusion-hosted PGE Cr Fe Ti V system 3.6.3 Mafic intrusion-hosted Ni Cu PGE system 3.7 Summary

49 52 54 56 56 58 60 60 62 64 65

The critical role of subduction

67

4.1 Introduction 4.2 Systems with direct associations to subduction in convergent margins 4.2.1 Introduction 4.2.2 Porphyry-high sulfidation-skarn Cu Au 6 Mo systems in arcs 4.2.3 Granite-related tin and tungsten deposits in continental back-arcs 4.2.4 Volcanogenic massive sulfide Cu Zn Pb systems in arcs 4.2.5 Epithermal Au Ag systems in back-arc basins 4.2.6 Preservation potential 4.3 Orogenic gold systems in transpressional settings 4.4 Indirect association with late-subduction orogenic collapse or rifting 4.4.1 Introduction 4.4.2 Intrusion-related gold systems 4.4.3 Carlin-type gold systems 4.5 Indirect association with subduction-related metasomatized lithosphere 4.5.1 Introduction 4.5.2 The Jiaodong orogenic gold system 4.6 Indirect association with magmatic systems derived from subduction-related lithosphere metasomatism 4.6.1 Introduction 4.6.2 Magmatic copper, iron, niobium, phosphate, rare earth elements (REE), and diamond deposits 4.6.3 Magmatic-hydrothermal Cu Au systems 4.7 Summary

67

79 81 82

Mineral systems, tectonics, and the supercontinent cycle

83

5.1 Introduction 5.2 Evolution of the early Earth

83 84

68 68 70 71 72 72 72 73 73 73 74 75 75 75 76 77 77

Contents

5.2.1 5.2.2 5.2.3 5.2.4 5.2.5

5.3

5.4

5.5 5.6

6.

7.

Early Earth tectonics Mantle overturns Early plate tectonics Formation of cratons Heterogeneous Precambrian metallogeny of Archean cratons 5.2.6 Unique Archean to Paleoproterozoic mineral systems Supercontinent cycles 5.3.1 Assembly and dispersal of supercontinents 5.3.2 Supercontinents through Earth history Mineral systems and their relationship to the supercontinent system 5.4.1 Critical parameters of mineral systems 5.4.2 Mineral systems formed in convergent margin environments 5.4.3 Magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal systems formed near craton margins Mineral deposits as sensitive indicators of Earth evolution 5.5.1 Coupled metallogenic and supercontinent cycles Summary

vii 84 85 87 89 92 94 96 96 99 99 99 100 105 109 109 113

The anomalous Boring Billion

115

6.1 Introduction 6.2 Overview of the Boring Billion 6.3 Metallogeny before and during the Boring Billion 6.3.1 Introduction 6.3.2 Early Precambrian mineral systems absent or rare in the Boring Billion 6.3.3 Mineral systems extending into the Boring Billion 6.3.4 Mineral systems largely confined to the Boring Billion 6.4 The not-so-boring metallogeny of the Boring Billion 6.5 The critical conjunction between metallogeny and tectonic evolution 6.6 Summary

115 116 121 121 122 128 131 136 138 142

Paleoproterozoic great oxidation event

143

7.1 Evolution of the atmosphere hydrosphere biosphere system 7.1.1 Earth climate and evolution of life 7.1.2 Great oxygenation events 7.2 Metallogeny related to the Paleoproterozoic GOE 7.2.1 Valency implications for subsequent mineral systems 7.2.2 The great period of formation of iron deposits in banded iron formation systems 7.2.3 Evolution of manganese deposits 7.2.4 Evolution of uranium deposits 7.3 Summary: redox reflections of atmosphere evolution

143 143 145 145 145 146 147 148 149

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Contents

8.

Cambrian explosion of life

151

8.1 Neoproterozoic to Phanerozoic hydrosphere biosphere system evolution 8.2 Contrasting temporal pattern of SEDEX and MVT systems 8.3 Importance of abundant organisms 8.4 Potential importance of hydrocarbons

151 152 154 155

The role of craton and thick lithosphere margins

157

9.1 Introduction 9.2 Longevity of cratons and their margins 9.3 Modification of craton margins and underlying lithosphere 9.3.1 Structural modification 9.4 Metasomatic alteration of mantle lithosphere 9.5 Magmatic deposits derived from metasomatized lithosphere 9.5.1 Carbonatite-related Cu and P deposits 9.5.2 Carbonatite-related REE Nb deposits 9.5.3 Kiruna-type Fe P deposits 9.5.4 Lamproite-associated diamonds 9.6 Magmatic-hydrothermal deposits from metasomatized lithosphere 9.6.1 Iron oxide copper gold systems 9.6.2 Intrusion-related gold deposits 9.6.3 Carlin-type gold systems 9.7 Hydrothermal deposits derived from metasomatized lithosphere 9.7.1 Jiaodong and other Chinese orogenic gold deposits 9.7.2 Other orogenic gold deposits on craton margins 9.8 Magmatic systems related to intrusion via trans-lithosphere structures 9.8.1 Intrusion-related nickel copper PGE systems 9.8.2 Anorthosite-hosted ilmenite deposits 9.9 Hydrothermal deposits related to deformation on craton margins 9.9.1 BIF-hosted iron ores 9.10 Sediment-hosted deposits on craton and thick lithosphere margins 9.10.1 Zambian copper belt-type deposits 9.10.2 SEDEX zinc lead copper systems 9.11 Diversity of mineral systems along craton and thick lithosphere margins 9.12 Summary

157 158 160 160 161 165 165 166 168 168

9.

10. Implications for global exploration 10.1 Introduction 10.2 The role and appropriate scale of conceptual targeting

169 169 172 174 175 175 176 179 179 181 182 182 183 183 185 187 190 193 193 198

Contents

10.3 Most productive time periods for specific mineral systems 10.4 Association with craton and thick lithosphere margins 10.5 Detection of lithosphere scale structures connected to mineral systems 10.6 Summary References Index

ix 200 207 209 210 211 247

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Preface This book is aimed to provide insights into the critical parameters that control Earth evolution, particularly in terms of its thermal state, tectonics, and the atmosphere hydrosphere biosphere system, parameters that also control the heterogeneous metallogeny of the planet. World-class to giant mineral systems, complex products of geodynamic, fertility, architectural, and preservational parameters, are described and interpreted in terms of their close relationship to critical periods of evolving tectonic regimes within the supercontinent cycle and mantle lithosphere evolution. Specific periods of formation of highly anomalous giant mineral systems, such as the Boring Billion and Great Oxidation Event, are discussed in parallel with specific geodynamic environments, such as margins of cratons and anomalously thick lithosphere. The book is aimed to offer a holistic overview of how progressive evolution of the Earth has dictated the nature and global distribution of its mineral systems. The resources of these mineral systems are the foundation of our material-based civilization, and understanding their temporal and spatial evolution provides critical insights into the parameters for conceptual exploration targeting, as discussed in this book. Professor Groves has carried out holistic research over an extended period on mineral deposits/systems and global metallogeny, while Professor Santosh has integrated research on tectonics and geodynamics to understand the evolution of our planet. In the past five years, they have combined their expertise to examine the key relationships between global metallogeny and Earth evolution. This book, which integrates their recent journal publications into a framework of globally important mineral systems, represents the ultimate product of their cooperative research. David Groves is grateful to Suzanne Groves and their family for the unlimited support to pursue his long career in economic geology which has culminated in this textbook. He is indebted to Jun Deng for inviting him in his 70s to participate in research at China University of Geosciences Beijing (CUGB) with him and Qingfei Wang, Liqiang Yang, Liang Zhang, KunFeng Qiu, and other postdoctoral fellows and postgraduate students. This had led to his recent appointment as an honorary professor at CUGB. Importantly, this also resulted in interaction with Professor Santosh to write a series of papers that integrated combined tectonic and mineral deposit knowledge that ultimately led to this textbook. David has also benefited

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Preface

from cooperation with outstanding mentors and colleagues including, but not exclusively (in alphabetical order), Mark Barley, Finn Barratt, Frank Bierlein, Ray Binns, Sam Carey, Mike Dentith, John Dunlop, Hongrui Fan, Steve Gardoll, Rich Goldfarb, Iain Groves, Susan Ho, Jon Hronsky, Rob Kerrich, Mike Lesher, Neal McNaughton, Neil Phillips, John Ridley, Nick Rock, Mike Solomon, Allan Trench, Noreen and Richard Vielreicher, and Roy Woodall. We thank Dr. Chengxue Yang at the China University of Geosciences Beijing for her valuable assistance. David Ian Groves M. Santosh

Chapter 1

Introduction The formation of ore deposits and their broader-scale mineral systems requires the conjunction of several essential parameters including their geodynamic setting in the contemporaneous tectonic regime and their subsequent preservation in the ensuing tectonic regimes affecting their formational site. Therefore it is not surprising that there is a close connection between global tectonic regimes, among other factors such as source of ore components and structural pathways to formational sites, and global metallogeny. Over the past 5 years, the coauthors, D.I. Groves, and M. Santosh, have published several papers in a range of journals concerning this close relationship between metallogeny, tectonics, and other aspects of an evolving Earth. These demonstrate that not only does global metallogeny match well with accepted tectonic and supercontinent models, but it also assists in their refinement because of the conjunction of critical parameters that mineral systems require to be formed and preserved. This book brings together these and other relevant papers within the framework of the minerals system concept to provide a synthesis of the nexus between the evolution of the Earth and its metallogenic provinces. It commences in Chapter 2 with a definition of mineral systems and examines two such systems, the porphyry Cu Au Mo and orogenic gold systems, in some detail as well-documented examples. Chapter 3 then provides a concise synthesis of other mineral systems discussed throughout the book. Chapter 4 discusses the critical role of subduction both directly in the evolution of convergent margins and indirectly in metasomatizing and fertilizing mantle lithosphere as a source of later mineralization. The evolution of mineral systems is then addressed in Chapter 5 in terms of the supercontinent cycle, with Chapter 6 on the Boring Billion which is highly anomalous in terms of its tectonic evolution and its exceptional to unique metallogeny. There follows in Chapters 7 and 8 a discussion on the roles that the Great Oxidation Event and the Cambrian explosion of life had on the evolution and distribution of relevant mineral systems. Chapter 9 examines the critical roles that the margins of cratons and thick lithosphere have on global distribution of mineral systems. The book concludes in Chapter 10 with a synthesis of the important influences that the evolution of tectonics and the

Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-21684-8.00001-0 © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny

atmosphere hydrosphere biosphere systems have on global greenfield exploration for mineral systems and their contained ore deposits. There is deliberately some repetition between chapters such that individual chapters can be read in isolation if required.

Chapter 2

Representative examples of mineral system models Chapter Outline 2.1 Definition of mineral systems 2.2 Example of porphyry Cu Au Mo system 2.2.1 Introduction 2.2.2 Development of a coherent genetic model 2.2.3 A coherent mineral system model 2.2.4 Exploration summary

2.1

3 5 5 6 7 15

2.3 Example of orogenic gold system 2.3.1 Introduction 2.3.2 Development of a holistic genetic model 2.3.3 A coherent mineral system model for orogenic gold deposits 2.3.4 Exploration overview

18 18 19

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Definition of mineral systems

As ore deposit discovery rates have slowed significantly despite increased exploration expenditure (Schodde, 2017), there have been developments in conceptual geological targeting to focus exploration into the most prospective districts within potentially well-endowed greenfield terranes (Hronsky and Groves, 2008). This requires the establishment of superior predictive geological models for sought-after deposit types in greenfield exploration. To facilitate this, research into holistic genetic models has evolved toward hierarchical mineral system models that view mineralization processes progressively from a geodynamic setting through provinceand district- to deposit scale. Initiated by Wyborn et al. (1994) and championed by Knox-Robinson and Wyborn (1997), this mineral systems concept has become prominent since 2010 as a critical tool for genetic models and conceptual targeting (McCuaig et al., 2010; McCuaig and Hronsky, 2014; Huston et al., 2016; Wyman et al., 2016; Deng et al., 2020a; Groves et al., 2022a,b). It has also been applied to the analysis of potential mineral endowment for a variety of mineral commodities (McCafferty et al., 2019; Skirrow et al., 2019; Bruce et al., 2020). As summarized by Kelley et al. (2021), mineral systems models require four main foundation parameters. These are (1) a fertile ore component and Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-21684-8.00003-4 © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny

FIGURE 2.1 Critical elements of a mineral system, with emphasis on the orogenic gold system. Adapted from McCuaig, T.C., Hronsky, J.M.A., 2014. The mineral system concept: the key to exploration targeting. Soc. Econ. Geol. Spec. Pub. 18, 153 175 by Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Muller, D., Zhang, L., Deng, J., Yang, Li-Q, Wang, Q.-F., 2022a. Mineral systems: their advantages in terms of developing holistic genetic models and for target generation in global mineral exploration. Geo. Geo. 1, 1 26. Published with permission from Elsevier.

fluid source; (2) a suitable geodynamic setting with favorable linked mantle lithosphere; (3) critical crustal architecture for ore-fluid migration to a trap site; and (4) appropriate postmineralization tectonic processes to ensure preservation rather than uplift and destruction. The multiplication effect of the self-organized critical components (Hronsky, 2011, 2020) of the mineral system (Fig. 2.1) determines the size and grade of an ore body (Megill, 1988). Despite this increasing emphasis on mineral systems, published economic geology research still involves mainly deposit or smaller-scale studies that involve the application of analytical techniques. Such research tends to emphasize complex genetic models at the microscale that are commonly applied inappropriately to the deposit or district scale and consequently have a minimal application to, and impact on, global mineral exploration. In this chapter, the mineral systems approach is first applied in some detail to porphyry-high sulfidation-skarn systems as an example of a multideposit class and to orogenic gold systems as a single deposit class. Other mineral systems referred to in the book are described in less detail in Chapter 3, Summary mineral systems models for relevant systems.

Representative examples of mineral system models Chapter | 2

2.2 2.2.1

5

Example of porphyry Cu Au Mo system Introduction

Porphyry Cu Au Mo (Seedorff et al., 2005), high-sulfidation Au Ag (Sillitoe and Hedenquist, 2003), and skarn Fe Cu Au Mo Sn W (Meinert et al., 2005) deposits are generally described as distinctive deposit classes in review articles such as the 100th Anniversary Volume of Economic Geology in 2005: see previous references. However, it is their combination in a porphyry-related system (Fig. 2.2) which adds value to both genetic models and aids district-scale mineral exploration (Sillitoe, 2010). Within the system, porphyry and high-sulfidation epithermal deposits commonly form a continuum with skarns. However, skarns may also accompany other hydrothermal systems such as intrusion-related gold deposits (IRGD) and Carlin-type deposits wherever there are reactive carbonate host sequences. Only those skarns spatially related to porphyry-related systems are considered in this chapter.

FIGURE 2.2 Schematic representation of porphyry-related system including skarns. Other skarns related to Carlin-type gold deposits and reduced intrusion-related gold deposits (IRGDs), although included in the figure for completeness, are excluded from the discussion of porphyryrelated systems. Modified from Sillitoe, R.H., 2010. Porphyry copper systems. Econ. Geol. 105, 3 41 by Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Muller, D., Zhang, L., Deng, J., Yang, Li-Q, Wang, Q.-F., 2022a. Mineral systems: their advantages in terms of developing holistic genetic models and for target generation in global mineral exploration. Geo. Geo. 1, 1 26. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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2.2.2

Development of a coherent genetic model

Porphyry-related systems are widely accepted to derive from magmatichydrothermal fluids exsolved from porphyritic granite (used sensu lato throughout the book) bodies that are adjacent to, or lie below, those systems in volcanic, island, and continental arcs in convergent margins (Sillitoe, 2010, 2020). The porphyry systems normally involve an association with low-volume spine-shaped and composite plugs or dykes, ranging from porphyritic diorite to granite in composition. These intrusions crystallized from late-stage injections from multiple magma pulses derived from fractionating upper crustal magma chambers. Porphyry Cu Au 6 Mo and associated skarns and high-sulfidation epithermal systems are typically formed during major intrusive events at paleodepths of about 1 6 km (Seedorff et al., 2008) above large composite plutonic complexes. High temperature and salinity, but low pH, overpressured magmatichydrothermal fluids are exsolved from these intrusions during their latestage crystallization. These overpressured ore fluids cause hydraulic fracturing of both their carapace and country rocks, resulting in fluid phase separation, complex interaction with wall rocks, and zoned hydrothermal alteration with distal Zn, Pb, and Ag mineralization (Heinrich, 2005). Multiple pulses of magmatic-hydrothermal fluid result in several overprinting stages of quartz-sulfide-bearing stockwork veins, which progressively increases metal grades in the resultant deposits. During progressive cooling of the waning hydrothermal system, late-stage fluids shift toward higher pH conditions. These late-stage fluids commonly overprint the early-stage alteration zones, especially along mine-scale faults and other structures (Heinrich, 2005 and references therein). As discussed in more detail below, the initial key stage in the formulation of a mineral system model that had exploration relevance was the evolution from viewing individual porphyry Cu Au Mo deposits as discrete isolated bodies to the integration of their distinct parameters to develop a coherent zoned-alteration model as first documented by Lowell and Guilbert (1970). This was followed by the integration of many porphyry Cu Au Mo deposits with high-sulfidation Au Ag deposits, and some Fe Cu Au Ag skarns, to produce a porphyry-related geological and alteration model based on the conjunction of overlapping parameters, as summarized by Sillitoe (2010, and references therein). More sophisticated modeling of subduction zone geometry and associated structural architecture (Hayes and McCullough, 2018) led to a better understanding of the specific location of porphyry-related systems, while geochemical fingerprinting of fertile porphyry intrusions provided an indication of potential endowment (Loucks, 2014). Hence, it has become possible to develop a single integrated mineral system model for three related mineral deposit classes using the seminal review of Sillitoe (2010) as a basis.

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A coherent mineral system model

The mineral system for porphyry-related deposits is developed in terms of the four critical parameters discussed earlier: namely Fertility, Geodynamics, Architecture, and Preservation. Geodynamic settings are described first to provide context for Fertility factors.

2.2.3.1 Geodynamic factors In terms of Geodynamic parameters, porphyry-related systems are exclusive to subduction-related convergent margin settings, particularly those with an extended and/or complex subduction history (Sillitoe, 1972; Lowell, 1974; Jankovic, 1977; Clark et al., 1982; Waite et al., 1997), and even including continent-continent collision as in the Tethyan belt from Iran to Tibet (Wang et al., 2020c; Deng et al., 2021). The porphyry Cu Au Mo and associated high-sulfidation epithermal Au Ag and skarn Cu Au Fe system is the most prolific mineral system developed during the evolution of convergent margins, most commonly, but not exclusively, during their early stages (Hedenquist et al., 2012). Within these margins, individual clusters of porphyry-related systems are commonly located along specific strikeextensive curvilinear segments of arcs at spacings of 10s to 100s km (Fig. 2.3: Sillitoe and Perello, 2005), especially where they are intersected by high-angle regional structures (Salfity, 1985; Gow and Walshe, 2005). Locations of these multiple deposit-type systems (Sillitoe, 2010, 2020) normally result from the conjunction of flat subduction slab compression (Espurt et al., 2008) and oblique, deep extensional transform or accommodation faults (Wilkinson, 2013; Fox et al., 2015). Thus the Architecture of the systems (Fig. 2.4) is represented by intersecting crustal- to lithosphere-scale fault structures (e.g., Chuquicamata-Radomiro, Tomic, and Escondida clusters, Chile: Matteini et al., 2002; Gow and Walshe, 2005) or pull-apart basins (e.g., Peschanka cluster, Russia: Chitalin et al., 2021). Although the emphasis is placed on the continental arcs of the Andes (Figs. 2.3 and 2.4), other porphyry-related systems in the southwest Pacific and southeast Asia share similar Geodynamic and Architecture parameters (Fig. 2.5) and are abundant in groups of island arcs that collectively contain over 160 early- to middle-Miocene and Pliocene-Pleistocene porphyryrelated Cu Au systems. They are characteristically located in zones of complex subduction geometry resulting from multiple events involving polarity reversals, arc arc and island arc-continent collisions, rifting, and transcurrent faulting (Garwin et al., 2005). As in Andean arcs (Figs. 2.3 and 2.4), porphyry-related Cu Au districts are related to bends and tears in downgoing subduction slabs (Mu¨ller et al., 2002) with high-angle arc-transverse faults across the arcs controlling their location (Fig. 2.5: Corbett and Leach, 1998; Gow and Walshe, 2005).

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FIGURE 2.3 Geodynamic setting of porphyry-related Cu Au Mo systems along the strikeextensive curvilinear Andean continental arcs. Porphyry-related systems formed from Jurassic to early Pliocene as shown by color-coded main copper belts. Modified from Sillitoe, R.H., Perello, J., 2005. Andean copper province: tectonomagmatic settings, deposit types, metallogeny, exploration and discovery. Econ. Geol. 100th Anniv Vol., 845 890 by Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Muller, D., Zhang, L., Deng, J., Yang, Li-Q, Wang, Q.-F., 2022a. Mineral systems: their advantages in terms of developing holistic genetic models and for target generation in global mineral exploration. Geo. Geo. 1, 1 26. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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FIGURE 2.4 Province-district scale Architecture illustrating sites of porphyry-related systems in shallow slab domains at intersections between arc-parallel faults and oblique faults. Adapted from Salfity (1985) and Sun et al. (2015) who argue that large porphyry Cu clusters are closely associated with ridge subduction and/or intersections of deep-seated structures. Subduction of young ridges is the most favorable geologic process for slab melting in the Cenozoic, forming highly oxidized melts with high initial Cu contents. Red lines represent NW-trending lineaments from Salfity (1985): 1, Calama-El Toro; 2, Archibarca; 3, Culampaja. Adapted from Salfity, J.A., 1985. Lineamentos transversales al rumbo andino en el noroeste argentino. IV Congreso Geolo´gico Chileno, Actas 2. Asociacio´n Geolo´gica Argentina, Antofagasta, pp. 119 137 and Sun, W.D., Huang, R.F., Li. H., Hu, Y.B., Zhang, C.C., Sun, S.J., Zhang, L.P., Ding, X., Li, C.Y., Zartman, R.E., Ling, M.X., 2015. Porphyry deposits and oxidized magmas. Ore Geol. Rev. 65, 97 131.

Porphyry-related systems most commonly have a close spatial and genetic relationship to high-level complexes of oxidized and porphyritic calc-alkaline granites, some of which are highly potassic (Mu¨ller and Groves, 2019 and references therein) in both volcanic and continental arcs. The fertile, in places alkaline, intrusions were largely emplaced during periods of mild compression with limited earlier or later volcanism (Mpodozis and Cornejo, 2012).

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FIGURE 2.5 Summary of the main tectonic and structural elements of the Papuan Fold Belt and associated world-class to giant porphyry Cu Au and epithermal Au systems. They occur within the arc-continent collision zone of the Papua-New Guinea segment of the arc systems of the southwest Pacific margin. Deposit locations controlled by high-angle arc-transverse structures identified from offsets in basement-penetrating faults. Adapted from Gow, P.A., Walshe, J.L., 2005. The role of preexisting geologic architecture in the formation of giant porphyry-related Cu 6 Au deposits: examples from New Guinea and Chile. Econ. Geol. 100, 819 833 by Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Muller, D., Zhang, L., Deng, J., Yang, Li-Q, Wang, Q.-F., 2022a. Mineral systems: their advantages in terms of developing holistic genetic models and for target generation in global mineral exploration. Geo. Geo. 1, 1 26. Published with permission from Elsevier.

2.2.3.2 Fertility factors In terms of Fertility parameters, calc-alkaline porphyry-related systems have no specific igneous rock association, with fertile intrusions ranging from diorites through granodiorites to granites. Porphyry-related systems that are hosted by high-K calc-alkaline or shoshonitic intrusions can range from monzodiorites through monzonites to quartz-monzonites and monzogranites, (Mu¨ller and Groves, 2019 and references therein). Compositions of gold-fertile arc-basalt magmas (Loucks, 2014) define the source of the porphyry systems as metasomatized mantle lithosphere that was metal-fertilized via low-degree partial melting of deeper mantle during earlier, probably subduction-related, thermal events (Tatsumi and Eggins, 1995). Such a model implicates a dual subduction association in contrast to other arc settings (Waters et al., 2021). The higher gold contents of more

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alkaline porphyry systems (Mu¨ller and Groves, 2019) support this model, as do the compositions of zircon from fertile porphyry systems (Bao et al., 2018) that implicate sulfur-degassing (Dilles et al., 2015), and anomalously water-rich source magmas (Lu et al., 2016). In subduction-related arc settings, devolatilization and partial melting of the subducted oceanic slab are interpreted to metasomatically enrich the mantle wedge domains in large ion lithophile elements (LILE) and volatiles such as H2O and Cl (Bekaert et al., 2021). Adiabatic decompression melting of these domains is considered to produce uprising basic H2O- (Williams et al.,2018) and LILE-enriched magmas, typically with oxidation states .1 log degree above the fayalite magnetite quartz (FMQ) buffer (Mu¨ller et al., 2001, 2002; Lee et al., 2005; Li and Audetat, 2013), that can form significant magma chambers in the crust. There, ongoing crystal fractionation and the continued replenishment by additional basic mantle melt injections lead to the release of evolved magmatic pulses from the upper part of the chamber (O’Hara and Mathews, 1981; Hattori and Keith, 2001; Ulrich et al., 2001; Halter et al., 2002). These fertile magma pulses, with high whole-rock Sr/Y, V/Sc, La/Yb, Fe2O3/FeO, and Eu/Eu ratios, can form the porphyryrelated systems, typically between 3 and 5 km beneath the paleosurface (Mu¨ller and Groves, 2019 and references therein). Gold-rich porphyry Cu systems are normally hosted by intermediate intrusions such as diorites or monzodiorites, depending on the magma series, whereas porphyry Mo systems are associated with more evolved granites or monzogranites, commonly involving significant crustal contamination (Sillitoe, 1979, 2000; Audetat and Li, 2017; Huang et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2021). Microthermometry studies also suggest average formation depths of 2.1 km for porphyry Cu Au deposits (Sillitoe, 2000) compared to the average depth of 3.7 km for porphyry Cu Mo deposits (Murakami et al., 2009).

2.2.3.3 Architecture parameters Fig. 2.6 illustrates schematically the district-to-deposit scale Architecture of porphyry-related systems. In most cases, a porphyry intrusion cluster that includes the fertile porphyry transects the underlying nonporphyritic host batholith and extends upward into the overlying volcano-sedimentary arc sequences. Volatile degassing of the magmatic system may produce peripheral diatreme-maar complexes and intrusion breccias (Fig. 2.5A). The associated alteration is vertically and laterally zoned, comprising early sodic-calcic alteration typically in the roots of porphyry systems, which is cut by centrally located potassic alteration zones with widespread flanking propylitic alteration assemblages, whose full extent may only be realized through trace element contents of epidote and chlorite (Wilkinson et al., 2020). Sericitic, chloritic, and argillic alteration zones lie above and flanking the core potassic zone, with all overlain by a lithocap within the overlying carapace

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(Continued)

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L

(Fig. 2.6B). Sericite alteration may overprint early-stage potassic alteration assemblages along faults and joints during the waning stages of the cooling hydrothermal system. Hot porphyry Cu Au Mo deposits are centered around the potassic alteration zone with overlying high-sulfidation Cu Au Ag deposits and flanking intermediate-sulfidation Au Ag deposits representing lower temperature deposits. Deposition of high-grade Cu Au ores is favored in iron-rich host rocks due to the reduction of fluids along lithological contacts as at Oyu Tolgoi, Mongolia (Crane and Kavalieris, 2012), with both proximal Cu Au and distal Au Zn Pb skarns developed in carbonate horizons as at Ertsberg, Papua New Guinea (Prendergast et al., 2005). There may also be distal Zn Pb Ag carbonate replacement or vein deposits, with rare associations that include As, Au, Hg, Sb, and W, for example, at Beiya, Yunnan province, China (Fu et al., 2017). This produces a porphyry-related system over many cubic kilometers of the crust with district-scale lateral zonation from Cu Au Mo to Au Ag Zn Pb on the kilometer scale (Halley, 2020). Porphyry Cu Au Mo systems have been considered as natural vertical pumps of hot magmatic-hydrothermal fluids within the upper crust. The zoned alteration and mineralization system (Halley, 2020) represents the cooling of magmatic-hydrothermal fluids from ,700 C to ,250 C, with the evolution from high-T two-phase highly saline fluids to lower-T singlephase, lower salinity fluids (Heinrich, 2005). Uplift and cooling of the giant hydrothermal system lead to telescoping by complex overprinting of early alteration and high-T ores by lower-T alteration and ores (Sillitoe, 1994). Thermochronology research suggests that the hydrothermal systems evolved within periods of ,100,000 years (McInnes et al., 2005; Mercer et al., 2015).

FIGURE 2.6 District-deposit scale Architecture of a porphyry-related system. (A) Anatomy of a telescoped porphyry-related system showing spatial interrelationships of (1) a centrally located porphyry Cu 6 Au 6 Mo deposit in a multiphase composite porphyry stock and its immediate host rocks; (2) peripheral proximal and distal skarn, carbonate-replacement, and sediment-hosted deposits in a carbonate unit and subepithermal veins in noncarbonate rocks; and (3) overlying high- and intermediate-sulfidation epithermal deposits in and adjacent to the lithocap. The legend reflects the temporal sequence of rock types. (B) Generalized alteration-mineralization zoning pattern for telescoped porphyry-related systems, based on the geologic and deposit-type cartoon in (A). Note that shallow alteration-mineralization types consistently overprint deeper ones. Volumes of the different alteration types vary markedly between deposits and sericitic alteration and chlorite-sericite alteration tend to be more abundant in porphyry Cu Mo deposits and porphyry Cu Au deposits, respectively. Where there are strong structural components, alteration-mineralization in the lithocap is more complex than shown. Adapted from Sillitoe, R. H., 2010. Porphyry copper systems. Econ. Geol. 105, 3 41 by Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Muller, D., Zhang, L., Deng, J., Yang, Li-Q, Wang, Q.-F., 2022a. Mineral systems: their advantages in terms of developing holistic genetic models and for target generation in global mineral exploration. Geo. Geo. 1, 1 26. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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2.2.3.4 Preservation constraints Porphyry-related systems normally form at shallow depths in convergent margins early during a transient extensional-compressional phase followed by extreme tectonic shortening and uplift (Mpodozis and Cornejo, 2012) or more rarely in continent continent collision zones with even more rapid uplift (Deng et al., 2021). Thus preservation is a critical factor. Holocene uplift rates in arcs based on geomorphological features can range up to 1 5 km per million years, with thermochronology for several world-class porphyry Cu Au systems (McInnes et al., 2005) suggesting uplift rates of 0.26 0.72 km per million years. This is the reason why porphyry-related systems only rarely extend back beyond the Miocene (Fig. 2.7) with older Upper Jurassic to Cretaceous systems (e.g., Pebble, Alaska: Olson et al., 2017) largely represented by postcollisional arcs and by intra-continental Cu Au or Mo 6 W porphyry-systems (Mao et al., 2013) sited close to the North China and Yangtze craton margins in eastern China and Tibet.

FIGURE 2.7 Distribution of porphyry-related Cu Au systems and epithermal systems with time. Upgraded from Groves, D.I., Condie, K.C., Goldfarb, R.J., Hronsky, J.M.A., Vielreicher, R.M., 2005a. Secular changes in global tectonic processes and their influence on the temporal distribution of gold-bearing mineral deposits. Econ. Geol. 100, 203 224; Groves, D.I., Vielreicher, R.M., Goldfarb, R.J., Condie, K.C., 2005b. Controls on the heterogeneous distribution of mineral deposits through time. In: McDonald, I., Boyce, A.J., Butler, I.B., Herrington, R. J., Polya, D.A. (Eds.), Mineral Deposits and Earth Evolution. Geol. Soc. London Spec. Pub. 248, 71 102.

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FIGURE 2.8 Schematic mineral system model for porphyry-related systems in terms of Geodynamics, Fertility, Province-scale Architecture, District-to-Deposit-scale Architecture, and Preservation. Adapted from Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Muller, D., Zhang, L., Deng, J., Yang, LiQ, Wang, Q.-F., 2022a. Mineral systems: their advantages in terms of developing holistic genetic models and for target generation in global mineral exploration. Geo. Geo. 1, 1 26. Published with permission from Elsevier.

There are rare older porphyry-related systems with subeconomic examples recorded from the Paleoarchean to Mesoarchean greenstones belts in the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia (Barley, 1982). The giant Neoarchean Boddington Cu Au Mo Ag deposit in the southwest Yilgarn Craton, although considered enigmatic (Turner et al., 2020), resembles dioriteassociated porphyry systems in terms of metal association, high-T alteration assemblages derived from high-T high-salinity ore fluids, and strong lateral zonation. It is most likely hosted by a greenschist-facies Neoarchean arc thrust back on to Paleoarchean high-grade metamorphic basement with underlying thick mantle lithosphere, explaining its anomalous preservation. A schematic summary model for the porphyry-related mineral system is presented in Fig. 2.8.

2.2.4

Exploration summary

Exploration criteria for porphyry-related mineral systems are presented by Groves et al. (2022a,b) and are only briefly summarized here using a hierarchical approach from global through province to district and deposit scales.

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At the global scale, due to Preservation constraints, Cenozoic volcanic and continental arcs in convergent margin settings are preferred Geodynamic settings. Mesozoic postcollisional arcs adjacent to stable craton margins are alternative settings. In terms of Fertility, arcs that have fertile porphyry-related systems have magmatic rocks with high Sr and V and anomalously low Sc and Y contents due to long-lived residence of periodically replenished mantlederived magmas near the lithosphere-crust boundary (Loucks, 2014; Cocker et al., 2016). Several studies show that whole-rock La/Yb ratios can be used as proxies for crustal thickness in arc settings (Kay et al., 1994; Haschke et al., 2002; Cabrera, 2011; Profeta et al., 2015). where more fertile intrusions formed by partial melting of relatively deep mantle sources beneath a thickened lower crust where garnet remains as a stable residual phase in the mantle (Haschke et al., 2002; Hollings et al., 2005; Loucks, 2014; Cocker et al., 2016; Jamali, 2017). Importantly, granite stocks or cupolas associated with porphyry Cu Au deposits are generally oxidized and magnetite-bearing (Ishihara and Chappell, 2010; Cao et al., 2018) because oxygen fugacity determines the speciation of volatiles in the upper mantle (Aulbach et al., 2017) and elevated oxidation states are favorable for Cu solubility (Lee et al., 2012; Li et al., 2017). Fertile intrusions normally have both whole-rock Fe2O3/FeO and Eu/Eu ratios of $ 1 (Blevin, 2002; Lee et al., 2017) and whole-rock V/ Sc ratios .12 (Lee et al., 2005; Aulbach et al., 2017). In terms of Architecture, porphyry-related systems are commonly located near the intersections between arc-parallel crustal-scale faults and highly oblique transform or accommodation faults within the defined curvilinear fertile arcs (Figs. 2.4 and 2.5). Typically, porphyry-related stocks are oxidized magnetite-series I-type intrusions defined by positive ’bullseyes’ for Cu Mo systems (Clark, 2014) or ’doughnut’-shaped anomalies for Cu Au systems in magnetic surveys (Clark and Schmidt, 2001; Kwan and Mu¨ller, 2020; Chitalin et al., 2021). The areal extent of porphyry-related systems provides a giant combined alteration and mineralization footprint (Fig. 2.9) that can be identified through a conjunction of detailed field mapping, Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and other remote sensing methods (Pour and Hashim, 2012; Alimohammadi et al., 2015; Portela et al., 2021), and several ground and airborne geophysical surveys. However, there may be difficulty in targeting economic mineralization within this broad envelope because not all the components shown in Fig. 2.6 may be present due to erosion or the presence of young cover sequences. In terms of Preservation, the exposure of lithocaps at the current land surface provides an important indicator that the porphyry-related systems have been uplifted to a suitable level for exploration (Portela et al., 2021).

FIGURE 2.9 Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) image of part of the Atacama Desert, Chile, acquired in 2000, showing the giant Escondida-Zaldivar porphyry Cu Au cluster. Escondida is related geologically to three porphyry bodies intruded along the Chilean West Fissure Fault System. A high-grade supergene cap overlies primary sulfide ore. The top image is a conventional 3 2 1 (near-infrared, red, green) RGB composite. The bottom image displays shortwave infrared bands 4 6 8 (1.65 μm, 2.205 μm, 2.33 μm) in RGB, and highlights the different rock types present on the surface, as well as the changes caused by mining. From NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team.

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2.3 2.3.1

Example of orogenic gold system Introduction

The term orogenic gold was defined to describe a coherent deposit group that formed in convergent margin settings (Fig. 2.10) by Groves et al. (1998), following the pioneering research of Colvine et al. (1984), Bohlke (1988), Groves (1993), and Gebre-Mariam et al. (1995). Essentially, they comprise a group of structurally controlled systems (Kerrich, 1989) that were deposited in broad thermal equilibrium with their crustal host rocks from low-salinity H2O CO2 ore fluids at crustal depths ranging from 2 to potentially .20 km (Groves 1993; Knight et al., 1993; Neumayr et al., 1993; Bloem et al., 1994; Kolb and Meyer, 2002; Groves et al., 2005a; Kolb et al., 2005a,b, 2015). Although this is generally accepted (Goldfarb et al., 2001, 2005, 2014; Bierlein et al., 2006a), there have been numerous models (Goldfarb and Groves, 2015; Groves et al., 2020b: their Fig. 2.2), which can only be resolved in terms of a mineral systems approach (Wyman et al., 2016; Groves et al., 2020b). Goldfarb and Groves (2015), Wyman et al. (2016), Groves et al. (2020b), Herzog et al. (2023), and particularly Goldfarb and Pitcairn (2023) present convincing evidence to show that neither shallow crustal nor magmatichydrothermal models (McDivitt et al., 2022, and references therein) are applicable for most individual orogenic gold deposits, let alone a single

FIGURE 2.10 Convergent margin-orogenic gold model showing a range of tectonic settings for orogenic gold systems within a consistent Geodynamic environment. Also shows sites of porphyry Cu Au and VMS Cu Zn Pb systems. Adapted from Goldfarb, R.J., Groves, D.I., Gardoll S., 2001. Orogenic gold and geologic time: a global synthesis. Ore Geol. Rev. 18, 1 75; Goldfarb, R.J., Baker, T., Dube´, B., Groves, D.I., Hart, C.J.R., Gosselin, P., 2005. Distribution, character, and genesis of gold deposits in metamorphic terranes. Econ. Geol. 100th Anniv. Vol., 407 450 and Groves, D.I., Condie, K.C., Goldfarb, R.J., Hronsky, J.M.A., Vielreicher, R.M., 2005a. Secular changes in global tectonic processes and their influence on the temporal distribution of gold-bearing mineral deposits. Econ. Geol. 100, 203 224 from the initial figure in Groves, D.I., Goldfarb, R.J., Gebre-Mariam, M., Hagemann, S.G., Robert, F., 1998. Orogenic gold deposits—a proposed classification in the context of their crustal distribution and relationship to other gold deposit types. Ore Geol. Rev. 13, 7 27. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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integrated mineral system that incorporates all deposits. This requires that metamorphic models are the only viable universal models for the genesis of orogenic gold systems.

2.3.2

Development of a holistic genetic model

Until about 2015, there had been widespread acceptance of an early model (Phillips and Groves, 1983) for an auriferous fluid source derived from metamorphic devolatilization of largely supracrustal rocks under upper greenschist- to amphibolite-facies conditions within the continental mid-crust. Dominant upward advection of resultant metamorphic low-salinity H2O CO2 (1/ 2 CH4, N2) fluid and metals along complex continental fluid pathways (Ridley and Diamond, 2000) to the higher crustal level of depositional sites of orogenic gold mineralization is advocated in this model (Goldfarb et al., 2005; Phillips and Powell, 2010; Tomkins, 2010; among many others). Deposition of gold in convergent margins occurred consistently during a postpeak metamorphism, late transition in deformation from compression to transpression (rarely trans-tension) in convergent margins (Groves et al., 2000; Vielreicher et al., 2010, 2015), normally during accretion (Goldfarb et al., 1988), with concomitant uplift and lowering of lithostatic pressure (Groves et al., 1987; White et al., 2015). As shown elegantly by Herzog et al. (2023) for the controversial Malartic deposit, gold deposition is commonly on a retrograde metamorphic path, in this case, B25 30 Myr after peak metamorphism. This crustal metamorphic model has the potential to explain those deposits in mesozonal to epizonal orogenic gold deposits (Gebre-Mariam et al.,1995), where peak greenschist-facies metamorphic conditions were broadly synchronous with timing of gold mineralization at least for some deposits. However, it has significant weaknesses as a universal model because gold-rich fluids would need to have been extracted from different volcanic and sedimentary source rocks at different times during Earth evolution (Goldfarb and Groves, 2015). They would also need to be derived in different geodynamic settings where anomalous heat flow and associated regional metamorphism was caused by a variety of crustal- to mantle-related processes (Goldfarb et al., 2005). The weaknesses of the crustal metamorphic model are discussed in detail by Wyman et al. (2016) and Groves et al. (2020a,b) and are only briefly summarized here. A major problem for this model as applied to Precambrian terranes is the occurrence of a significant group of hypozonal (Gebre-Mariam et al., 1995) deposits worldwide that were deposited in mid- to upper-amphibolite facies domains, as demonstrated by Kolb et al. (2015) among others. For these deposits, the fluid source must have been .15 or even .20 km deep, not from devolatilization during upper-greenschist to amphibolite-facies

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metamorphism as proposed in the crustal metamorphic model. In addition, multiple sulfur isotope compositions of Neoarchean orogenic gold deposits in Western Australia show that local supracrustal rocks did not supply significant sulfur for the deposition of gold-related sulfides in them. In contrast, data from Selvaraja et al. (2017) and LaFlamme et al. (2018) imply that this sulfur came from a subcrustal homogenized reservoir that contained recycled mass-independent fractionated sulfur (MIF-S) isotope signatures. Phanerozoic orogenic gold deposits are generally consistent with the crustal metamorphic model because most significant mesozonal to epizonal deposits are recorded from turbidite-dominated greenschist-facies domains (Goldfarb et al., 2005) from which major ore elements could be sourced during amphibolite-facies metamorphism (Pitcairn et al., 2006). However, there are well-documented hypozonal deposits such as the Jurassic Danba hypozonal orogenic gold deposit from the north-western margin of the Yangtze Block, China (Zhao et al., 2019, 2022; Wang et al., 2020b), the late Carboniferous to early Permian orogenic gold deposits in the Massif Central of France (Bouchot et al., 2005), and Upper Devonian turbidite-hosted orogenic gold deposits in Nova Scotia, Canada (Kontak et al., 1990; Ryan and Smith, 1998). Recent research on Chinese orogenic gold deposits, particularly those close to the North China and Yangtze craton margins, has also ruled out crustal metamorphism as a universally viable orogenic gold model (Li and Santosh, 2017; Deng et al., 2020a,b). In the North China Craton, Upper-Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous mantle lithosphere thinning and delamination resulted in asthenosphere upwelling, widespread granite magmatism, and widespread mesozonal to epizonal orogenic gold mineralization (Goldfarb and Santosh, 2014; Yang et al., 2016a,b; Yang and Santosh, 2020) at 120 Ma (Deng et al., 2020c; Zhang et al., 2020b) in the Jiaodong Gold Province which contains .35% ( . 5000 t gold) of China’s gold resource. Deng et al. (2020b) show that the auriferous ore fluids were derived from metasomatized mantle lithosphere on the margin of the North China Craton that was fertilized during Triassic subduction of gold-enriched pyritic sedimentary rocks from the northern margin of the Yangtze Craton. Subsequent Cretaceous upwelling of hot asthenosphere related to complex subduction of the PaleoPacific plate is interpreted to have caused devolatilization of fertilized mantle lithosphere to release auriferous ore fluids. These fluids advected via lithosphere-scale faults and were focused on subsidiary faults and shear zones to form the Jiaodong gold deposits which were preserved due to relatively slow exhumation despite the previous lithosphere delamination (Zhang et al., 2020b). Other Chinese gold deposits on the margins of the North China and Yangtze cratons present more subtle problems for the crustal metamorphic model (Wang et al., 2022). For example, there are significant timing problems for a crustal metamorphic model to form the mesozonal to epizonal orogenic gold deposits in the Triassic Qinling gold province (Chen et al., 2008; Goldfarb and Groves, 2015), because, during regional metamorphism,

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there were no previously unmetamorphosed voluminous source rocks that could have provided auriferous fluids during amphibolite facies metamorphism (Li et al., 2018). Similar constraints apply to the Huangjindong goldfield, hosted in Neoproterozoic slate, in the Jiangnan Orogen, Hunan (Zhang et al., 2020b) and to Upper Oligocene and Lower Miocene orogenic gold deposits in the north north west (NNW)-trending Ailaoshan shear zone between the South China and Indochina Blocks in south-eastern Tibet, as summarized by Wang et al. (2020a, 2022).

2.3.3

A coherent mineral system model for orogenic gold deposits

An orogenic-gold mineral system model that presents a coherent and universally applicable model (Wyman et al., 2016) is set out below in terms of the four key components: Fertility, Geodynamics, Architecture, and Preservation.

2.3.3.1 Fertility Based on the previous discussion, the Fertility parameter of the orogenic gold mineral system must be represented by a subcrustal S-bearing H2O CO2 fluid containing Au and associated metals including Ag, As, Bi, Sb, Te, and W. Unfortunately, there are few unequivocal indications of the precise origin of this fluid or metal source from multiple fluid inclusion or stable and radiogenic isotope studies (Goldfarb and Groves, 2015) because advecting fluids were modified by reactions along the long crustal pathways to gold depositional sites (Ridley and Diamond, 2000). Universal constraints indicate that the original fluid was almost certainly near-neutral and reduced (Goldfarb and Groves, 2015), although S isotope ratios of ore-related sulfides may rarely discriminate between alternative sources (Wang et al., 2020b). Thus the ultimate subcrustal source must be deduced indirectly from parameters such as geodynamic setting and tectonic timing. 2.3.3.2 Geodynamic parameter As noted above, orogenic gold deposits are formed in accretionary or collisional tectonic environments related to subduction (Goldfarb et al., 2001, 2005), indicating that the critical geodynamic parameter is a convergent margin setting. This explains the late- to postmetamorphic timing in host sequences (Vielreicher et al., 2010, 2015; Herzog et al., 2023) coincident with a change in far-field stresses that induced the transition from compression to transpression or transtension that is reflected in the geometry of the orogenic gold orebodies (Groves and Santosh, 2015; Groves et al., 2018). This implicates a fundamental connection to changes in plate motions and stress regimes on a global scale induced by cessation of subduction, perhaps due to collision with a basement block or stalling of the subducting slab (Seno and Kirby, 2014).

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In most convergent margin settings, the only viable subcrustal source of metal-bearing fluid is subducted oceanic crust and its overlying sediment wedge (Goldfarb and Santosh, 2014; Goldfarb and Groves, 2015; Groves and Santosh, 2016; Wyman et al., 2016). Slab devolatilization with the release of S together with Ag, As, Bi, Sb, and Te to the fluid via the breakdown of sedimentary pyrite to pyrrhotite (Large et al., 2009; Steadman et al., 2013) can be accompanied by extensive upward fluidflux along slab-mantle boundaries (Sibson, 2004; Peacock et al., 2011; Katayama et al., 2012) into fore-arc or accretionary terrane margins. Resultant over-pressured ore fluids (Sibson, 2013) can then be injected via injection-driven seismic swarms (Cox, 2016) from the mantle lithosphere to crust in lithosphere- to crustal-scale fault zones to deposit orogenic gold deposits at shallower crustal levels in lower-order structural traps (Hyndman et al., 2015). A schematic model, adapted from the Goldfarb and Santosh (2014) and Groves et al. (2020b) models is presented in Fig. 2.11A. A subduction-related model must be adapted for orogenic gold provinces sited on craton margins as in eastern China. For the well-documented Jiaodong deposits, Goldfarb and Santosh (2014) suggested that the auriferous fluids could be derived indirectly from a mantle lithosphere wedge fertilized and metasomatized by fluids derived from a subduction zone, with Deng et al. (2020a,b) showing that this mantle-lithosphere metasomatism, with possible anomalous enrichment in gold (Saunders et al., 2018), was related to an earlier pregold subduction event. Similar models have been presented for the Ailaoshan gold belt (Wang et al., 2020b), with previous more general models postulated by Bierlein and Pisarevsky (2008), Hronsky et al. (2012), and Wyman et al. (2016), among others. Although an obvious constraint, mechanisms that might allow advection of such deep fluids into the crust without partial melting to produce magmas are explored by Groves et al. (2020a). A schematic model based on Deng et al. (2020a,b) is shown in Fig. 2.11B and C.

2.3.3.3 Architecture parameter For the mineral system models in Fig. 2.11A and B, a lithosphere-crust continuum in structural architecture is required to provide an effective orogenic gold plumbing system (McCuaig and Hronsky, 2014). Lithosphere-scale structures are commonly defined by high concentrations of lamprophyre dykes or felsic-intermediate intrusions with mantle source components (Witt et al., 2013) that indicate fluid conduits with a lithosphere connection (Perring et al., 1987; Rock et al., 1989). The first-order

Representative examples of mineral system models Chapter | 2

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faults or shear zones are most highly gold endowed where they are intersected by high-angle accommodation faults (Groves et al., 2018, 2020a, and references within). Important structural traps related to subsidiary faults and shear zones include tight, thrusted antiforms, intersections between crustal-scale shear zones and high-angle fault corridors, commonly at jogs in the former, irregular sheared margins of small granite intrusions, and triple-point or quadruplepoint junctions between adjacent intrusions (Fig. 2.12), as discussed by Groves et al. (2018). The giant Hemlo orogenic gold system in Ontario, Canada is an excellent example of a control by quadruple-point granite intrusions (Fig. 2.13) in an amphibolite-facies terrane where such controls are most common. Common chemical traps include fractured iron-rich host rocks and carbonaceous sedimentary units (Phillips et al., 1996), particularly for disseminated deposits (Goldfarb and Groves, 2015). Caps to effectively impound fluid flux within permeable trap zones are normally provided by relatively impermeable metasedimentary sequences that overlie morepermeable fractured volcanic sequences in Precambrian greenstone belts (Groves et al., 2003), but more subtle controls are evident in Phanerozoic deposits (Goldfarb et al., 2005).

2.3.3.4 Preservation parameters Preservation is equally important as formation in dictating the distribution of mineral deposits through time (Groves et al., 2005b). Orogenic gold systems are anomalous in that they formed at crustal depths .2 km and mostly .5 km (Groves, 1993; Goldfarb et al., 2005), and have enhanced preservation potential because of their late-orogenic timing after major compression during tectonism (Goldfarb et al., 2001: their Figs. 2.3 and 2.4). Orogenic gold systems on craton margins were preserved because of thick buoyant subcontinental lithosphere keels beneath them (Griffin et al., 1998; Wyman and Kerrich, 2002; Groves et al., 2005b; Griffin et al., 2013) or adjacent to them (Zhang et al., 2020a). Orogenic gold deposits thus formed and were preserved during most orogenic events in Earth history (Fig. 2.14). The global distribution of exhumed high-grade metamorphic roots to Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic orogenic belts is one factor that can explain the dearth of orogenic gold systems (Fig. 2.14) during the Boring Billion between 1.8 and 0.8 Ga (Goldfarb et al., 2001). However, there may be more fundamental controls as discussed in detail in Chapter 6. A schematic summary of the orogenic gold mineral system with two alternative models for the Fertility parameter is shown in Fig. 2.15.

(Continued)

Representative examples of mineral system models Chapter | 2

2.3.4

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Exploration overview

L

Groves et al. (2020a) present an exhaustive review of geological parameters that are most relevant to global to district scale exploration and target generation. Hence only a brief hierarchical synthesis is provided here. In terms of Geodynamics, a convergent margin setting is essential, with ancient convergent margins recognized from a number of geological parameters and their geophysical proxies. For example, a conjunction of arc-type mafic-intermediate-felsic volcanic sequences and thick turbidite sequences are the critical lithostratigraphic proxies for Phanerozoic terranes, together with remnants of accreted Ocean Plate Stratigraphy (Maruyama et al., 1996; Safonova et al., 2008). Precambrian convergent margins comprise more mafic-ultramafic sequences in greenstone belts, but arc-type volcanic rocks and turbidites are also present (Kawai et al., 2009). Metamorphic domains, inevitably of low-P Barrovian type, vary from sub-greenschist to upper amphibolite facies, with dominantly greenschist-facies rocks and extremely rare blueschist-facies domains (Isozaki et al., 2010). Fertility factors are more difficult to recognize although, importantly, most orogenic belts in convergent margins contain orogenic gold districts. In terms of Architecture, strike-extensive faults that extend to the Mohrovicic discontinuity (MOHO) can best be identified as aeromagnetic lineaments that are coincident with deeply sourced intrusions, such as lamprophyre dykes along them, even in poorly explored terranes. Of growing importance are steeply dipping magnetotelluric lineaments that extend beyond the MOHO and may contain zones of anomalous resistivity (Fig. 2.16) that have been termed ’The Fingers of God’ (Heinson et al., 2018; Brand and Thiel, 2019). The wide range of structural and stratigraphic traps related to interconnected lower-order structures can be recognized by repetitive structural geometries derived from both geological and geophysical data as shown in Fig. 2.12. Gravity and aeromagnetic gradients may be particularly diagnostic.

FIGURE 2.11 Schematic representation of subduction-based models for ore-fluid source for orogenic gold deposits globally. (A) Direct subduction model. (B and C) Two-phase subduction model involving a metasomatized and fertilized mantle lithosphere source of fluid and metals. (A) Adapted from Groves, D.I., Zhang, l., Santosh, M., 2020b. Subduction, mantle metasomatism and gold: a dynamic and genetic conjunction. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 132, 1419 1426; (B and C) adapted from Yang, L.Q., Deng, J., Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., He, W.Y., Li, N., Zhang, L., Zhang, R.R., 2022. Metallogenic factories and resultant highly anomalous mineral endowment on the craton margins of China. Geosci. Frontiers. doi.org/10.1016/j.gsk.2021.101339. Published with permission from Elsevier.

FIGURE 2.12 Schematic diagrams showing repetitive structural architecture at fluid sinks or traps for orogenic gold systems: (A) Major jogs on crustal-scale- and subsidiary faults/shear zones intersected by corridors of accommodation faults; (B) ’Locked up’ thrusted anticlinal folds; (C) Irregular contacts on faulted margins of granite intrusions; (D) Triple-and quadruplepoint granite intrusion geometries. From Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Zhang, L., 2020a. A scaleintegrated exploration model for orogenic gold deposits based on a mineral system approach. Geosci. Frontiers 11, 719 738. Published with permission from Elsevier.

FIGURE 2.13 Control of orogenic gold deposits by structural and resultant strain complexities due to quadruple granite intrusion geometry in amphibolite-facies terranes. Example is provided by the giant Hemlo group of deposits in the Superior Province, Ontario, Canada. A schematic cross-section resembles an upward flower structure. Adapted from Muir, T.L., 1997. Precambrian geology of the Hemlo gold deposit area. Ontario Geological Survey, Report 289 and Lin, S.F., Beakhouse, G.P., 2013. Synchronous vertical and horizontal tectonism at late stages of Archean cratonization and genesis of Hemlo gold deposit, Superior craton, Ontario, Canada. Geology 41, 359 362 by Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Muller, D., Zhang, L., Deng, J., Yang, Li-Q, Wang, Q.-F., 2022a. Mineral systems: their advantages in terms of developing holistic genetic models and for target generation in global mineral exploration. Geo. Geo. 1, 1 26. Published with permission from Elsevier.

FIGURE 2.14 Temporal distribution of orogenic gold deposits in terms of crustal evolution and development of supercontinents. Modified after Goldfarb, R.J., Groves, D.I., Gardoll S., 2001. Orogenic gold and geologic time: a global synthesis. Ore Geol. Rev. 18, 1 75; Goldfarb, R.J., Baker, T., Dube´, B., Groves, D.I., Hart, C.J.R., Gosselin, P., 2005. Distribution, character, and genesis of gold deposits in metamorphic terranes. Econ. Geol. 100th Anniv. Vol., 407 450.

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FIGURE 2.15 Schematic self-organizing critical orogenic gold mineral system showing alternate fertility sources that have the same basic architecture parameters. Adapted from Groves, D. I., Santosh, M., Zhang, L., 2020a. A scale-integrated exploration model for orogenic gold deposits based on a mineral system approach. Geosci. Frontiers 11, 719 738 based on Wyman, D.A., Cassidy, K.F., Hollings, P. 2016, Orogenic gold and the mineral systems approach: resolving fact, fiction and fantasy. Ore Geol. Rev. 78, 322 335. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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(Continued)

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Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny

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Target sites within these structural geometries comprising rock sequences with the required rheological and geochemical characteristics to represent traps and caps can then be identified. These should have a multielement geochemical footprint, characteristically Au 1 one or more of As, Bi, Sb, Te, or W, if a significant deposit exists at the target site.

FIGURE 2.16 (A) Magnetotelluric survey from the Gawler Craton IOCG province. (a) Resistivity to 60 km depth. (b) Enlargement of the central area to 20 km depth. High conductivity structure C3 (possible high fluid-flux alteration zone) is sited on Gawler Craton margin at 15 40 km depth (down to top of MOHO). Low resistivity pathways C2 extend from C3 to the surface, pointing to known IOCG deposits. The strongest central pathway points to the giant Olympic Dam deposit. These anomalies have been termed ’The Fingers of God’ (Brand and Thiel, 2019). (B) Magnetotelluric section across the greenstone belts and crustal-scale faults of the Yilgarn Block. (A and B) From Heinson, G., Didana, Y., Soeffky, P., Thiel, S., Wise, T., 2018. The crustal geophysical signature of a world-class magmatic mineral system. Nature Sci. Rep. 8, 10608; (C) from Geological Survey of Western Australia, 2011. Southern Cross Magnetotelluric (MT) Survey. Geol. Surv. West. Aust. website. Image courtesy the Geological Survey and Resource Strategy, Department of Mines, Industry and Safety @ State of Western Australia. Image modified in terms of color codes to match A and B.

Chapter 3

Summary mineral systems models for relevant systems Chapter Outline 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Mineral systems involving mineralization processes in sedimentary basins 3.2.1 Paleoplacer gold (U) system 3.2.2 Unconformity-type uranium systems 3.2.3 Mississippi Valley type Pb Zn Ba system 3.2.4 SEDEX Zn Pb Cu system 3.2.5 Zambian-type Cu Co system 3.2.6 Broken Hill-type Pb Zn Ag system 3.3 Submarine hydrothermal systems 3.3.1 Iron enrichment in banded iron formation systems 3.3.2 Sediment-hosted manganese systems 3.3.3 Volcanogenic massive sulfide Cu Zn Pb (Au Ag) system 3.4 Magmatic hydrothermal systems

3.1

31

36 36 38 39 40 41 42 44 44 45

46 47

3.4.1 Greisen/vein/replacement Sn W system 47 3.4.2 Intrusion-related gold (W) system 48 3.4.3 Distal Carlin-type gold system 49 3.4.4 Kiruna-type Fe P system 52 3.4.5 Iron oxide copper gold system 54 3.5 Magmatic systems with hydrothermal fluid involvement 56 3.5.1 Carbonatite-related Cu P and REE Nb systems 56 3.5.2 Kimberlite/lamproite diamond system 58 3.6 Magmatic systems 60 3.6.1 Lithium pegmatite (Ta, Cs) systems 60 3.6.2 Giant-layered intrusion-hosted PGE Cr Fe Ti V system 62 3.6.3 Mafic intrusion-hosted Ni Cu PGE system 64 3.7 Summary 65

Introduction

Concise descriptions of mineral systems that are utilized throughout this book are presented here, except for porphyry Cu Au Mo systems and orogenic gold systems, which are presented in Chapter 2. Table 3.1 provides a summary of the mineral systems in terms of their four main components: Geodynamics, Fertility, Architecture, and Preservation, although discussion of Preservation for many systems sited close to margins of thick mantle

Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-21684-8.00004-6 © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

31

TABLE 3.1 Concise mineral system factors: geodynamics, architecture, fertility, and preservation factors for systems in Chapters 2 and 3. Mineral systems

Geodynamics

Architecture

Fertility

Preservation

Paleoplacer Au U

Foreland basins

Braided streams on basin margins

Detrital gold or reworked microbial mats

Within craton setting

Unconformityassociated U

Intracratonic rift basins

Unconformities between oxidized strata and reduced Precambrian basement

Acidic, oxidized U-rich basinal brines

Intracratonic setting

MVT Pb Zn Ba

Platformal carbonate basins on thick lithosphere margins

Extensional faults and carbonate dissolution features

Distal base-metal-rich brines driven by topographic flow

Phanerozoic age and margins of thick lithosphere

SEDEX Zn Pb Cu

Rift basins or passive continental margins

Stratiform ore bodies controlled by extensional faults

Basinal fluids that scavenged metals from sedimentary and volcanic rocks

Margins of thick lithosphere

Zambian-type Cu Co

Intracontinental rift basin (cf. African Rift?)

Fault-controlled subbasins. Ore bodies controlled by thrusts, anticlines, and domes

Metamorphic fluids that redistribute metals from basinal sedimentary rocks

Margins of several adjacent cratons

Broken Hilltype Pb Zn Ag

Hot intracontinental rift basin

Overturned strata with stratabound ore bodies

Hypersaline fluids derived from basinal evaporites or distal magmatic-hydrothermal fluid

Intracratonic setting

Orogenic Au

Convergent margin: accretion or collision

Second-order faults and anticlinal zones adjacent to lithosphere-scale shear zones

Controversial but most likely subducted sediments or metasomatized mantle lithosphere

Late orogenic timing with minimal postgold uplift

Fe in BIF

Passive continental margin basins

Compressional structures overprinted by extensional structures

Leaching of silica by brines migrating using basinal and fault architecture

Formation on craton margins

Sedimenthosted Mn

Same as BIFs with younger deposits on shallow basins continental margins

Stratabound to stratiform ores controlled by extensional faults

Oxidation of syn-basinal Mn-rich oxides and carbonates deposited under suboxic conditions

Adjacent to craton margins

VMS Cu Zn Pb (Au, Ag)

Mid-ocean ridges and rifted arcs and back-arcs

Submarine grabens with marginal extensional faults

Convective flow of sea water with leaching of metals from below the graben. Magmatic components in Au-rich VMS?

Accretion into continental margins and burial by later sedimentary strata

Greisen/vein/ replacement Sn W

Far back-arc to intracontinental setting in convergent margins

Roof zones or cupolas above granite plutons, normally with extensional faults

Magmatic-hydrothermal fluids derived from highly fractionated Stype granites

Back-arc to intracontinental setting

Porphyry-skarn Cu Au

Volcanic and continental arcs in convergent margins

Roof zones of porphyritic intrusions with extensional faults

Saline magmatic-hydrothermal fluids derived from hydrous I-type granites

Poor preservational potential due to deposits in zones of rapid uplift

Intrusionrelated Au (W)

Continental shelves in convergent margin settings

Roof zones of S-type granites with extensional faults and lamprophyre dykes

Deep magmatic-hydrothermal H2O CO2 CH4 fluids

On continental margins adjacent to cratons

Carlin-type Au

Postorogenic extension in deformed continental margin carbonate-rich sedimentary basins

Stratabound replacement and fault-controlled ore bodies in previously deformed basins. Thrust caps

Controversioal but probably distal magmatic- hydrothermal fluid plus contribution from C- and metal-rich sedimentary rocks

Continental crust on margin of craton

(Continued )

TABLE 3.1 (Continued) Mineral systems

Geodynamics

Architecture

Fertility

Preservation

Kiruna-type Fe P

Intracratonic (?) setting for Precambrian examples

Subparallel zones of Fe P orebodies several km in length and width. Orebodies commonly elongate

Immiscible Fe P melt from metasomatized mantle lithosphere (?) plus hydrothermal overprint

Intracratonic setting

Iron-oxide copper gold

Intracratonic setting close to craton margins for Precambrian examples

Commonly pipe-like breccia bodies associated with faults or shear zones

Oxidized magmatic-hydrothermal fluids with low silica and sulfur contents from metasomatized mantle lithosphere

Intracratonic setting

Carbonatiterelated REE Nb (Cu P)

Intracratonic setting close to craton margins

Variable: from stratabound to discordant pipes

Carbonatite melts from metasomatized mantle lithosphere with magmatic- hydrothermal overprint for REE ores

On or adjacent to craton margin

Kimberlite/ lamproite diamond

Anorogenic intracontinental setting (kimberlites) or craton margins (lamproites)

Normally pipe-like, carrotshaped pipes within a cluster of several pipes at structural intersections

Kimberlites/lamproites carry diamonds formed in mantle to upper crustal levels

Intracratonic craton margin formation

Lithium (spodumene) pegmatites (Ta)

Late emplacement in orogenic belts, particularly Archean greenstone belts

Flat-lying sills in amphibolitefacies greenstone belts

Highly fractionated melts or fluxes derived from both S- and I-type granites

Cratonization follows shortly after pegmatite emplacement

Giant-layered intrusion PGE Cr Ti V

Intracratonic setting above asthenosphere/mantle upwelling

Thick (several km) subhorizontal layered intrusions, commonly with lobes

Mantle, potentially enriched in metals from the Earth’s core

Intracontinental setting

Mafic intrusionhosted Ni Cu PGE

Anorogenic setting adjacent to craton margins

Variably shaped, commonly complex mafic intrusions with basal and nonbasal ores

Mantle, commonly with contamination by continental sulfur

Near-craton setting

MVT, Mississippi Valley Type; SEDEX, Sedimentary exhalative; REE, Rare earth elements.

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Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny

lithosphere is reserved for Chapter 9. More exhaustive descriptions of deposit types are provided by textbooks on mineral or ore deposits such as Ridley (2013).

3.2 Mineral systems involving mineralization processes in sedimentary basins 3.2.1

Paleoplacer gold (U) system

The two giant Precambrian paleoplacer systems of the Witwatersrand and Tarkwa Bains of South Africa and Ghana, respectively, are important in their own right but also in that they reflect a change in the oxidation state of the Precambrian atmosphere hydrosphere system, as discussed in Chapter 8. The Witwatersrand Goldfield is the world’s largest gold (1U) province in terms of past production and current resources, although its status has gradually declined due to discoveries of giant deposits elsewhere, the most recent largely in China. It has been interpreted to be a hydrothermal replacement deposit (Law and Phillips, 2005) but lacks the strong structural architecture of orogenic gold systems, has no auriferous quartz veins, and has thin extraordinarily laterally extensive reefs (Fig. 3.1) relative to widespread alteration. Evidence overwhelmingly favors a modified paleoplacer system (Frimmel, 2003; Frimmel et al., 2005) formed in the Geodynamic setting of a foreland basin related to collision between the Witwatersrand and Kimberley crustal blocks, components of the Kaapvaal Craton. Most of the gold, together with pyrite, uraninite, and bitumen, was deposited under reduced atmospheric conditions on degradational surfaces of conglomerates in fluvial sedimentary systems formed in an Architecture of braided streams that drained now eroded hinterland sources. Most reefs formed between 2.9 and 2.84 Ga although the Ventersdorp Contact Reef (Fig. 3.1) formed at 2714 Ma just before the eruption of the Ventersdorp lavas at 2.71 Ga, which covered and allowed Preservation of the reefs in the Witwatersrand Basin (Frimmel et al., 2005). Local remobilization of gold and uranium occurred during regional metamorphism in the basin and the Vredefort meteorite impact, leading to hydrothermal microscopic textures that have fueled genetic controversy. The Fertility factor is still uncertain with a detrital origin for both gold and uraninite most favored in the literature (Frimmel et al., 2005). However, biogenic syngenetic gold is increasingly hypothesized (Frimmel and Nwaila, 2020) involving intense gold flux off the Archean land surface with early microbes trapping the gold in fluvial and possibly shallow marine environments with subsequent sedimentary reworking of gold-rich microbial mats the source of the Witwatersrand reefs and carbon leaders. The presence of bitumen nodules and hydrocarbons in fluid inclusions (England et al., 2001) also suggests a role for hydrocarbons at least during gold remobilization.

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FIGURE 3.1 Simplified lithostratigraphic units of the Central Rand Group of the Witwatersrand Basin, the site of the giant Witwatersrand goldfields showing the remarkable lateral continuity of principal gold reef stratigraphic positions. Simplified after Tucker, R., Viljoen, R., Viljoen, M., 2016. A review of the Witwatersrand Basin-the world’s greatest goldfield. Episodes 39 (2), 104 133.

Frimmel et al. (2005) also refer to potential Paleoproterozoic analogs at Jacobina and Moeda in the Quadrilatero Ferrifero of Brazil and the deposits in the Roraima Group in the Guyana Shield. However, it is the giant Tarkwaian paleoplacers of Ghana (Sestini, 1973), which are the most significant ( . 40 Moz gold). Formed at ca. 2.1 Ga (Pigois et al., 2003), these paleoplacers comprise hematite and magnetite, with no uraninite, because they postdated the Great Oxidation Event, discussed in Chapter 7. Their precise source is unclear but almost certainly related to widespread orogenic gold events from 2200 to 2060 Ma (Massurel et al., 2022). Placers and paleoplacers, including the Klondike in the Yukon, central California, Nome, Alaska, Tapjos, Brazil, and Adola belt, Ethiopia, only became abundant again in a Geodynamic setting of foreland basins flanked by uplifting orogenic belts in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic (Garnett and Bassett, 2005), their presence sparking the major gold rushes to North America and beyond in the 19th century.

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3.2.2

Unconformity-type uranium systems

Unconformity-type uranium systems (Bruce et al., 2020) comprise predominantly uraninite but may also have significant Au and Ni and minor Ag, As, Co, Mo, and Se. They occur in Geodynamic environments where late Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic sandstones unconformably overlie Archean to early Paleoproterozoic metamorphosed basement rocks. The uranium deposits are normally sited at, or just below, the unconformity where it is intersected by a structural Architecture defined by faults that extend into graphitic schists in the basement rocks (Fig. 3.2). Several episodes of uranium mineralization (Skirrow et al., 2016) are interpreted to have been driven by regional thermal gradients with Fertility provided by slightly acidic, 150 C 300 C oxidized uriniferous basinal diagenetic brines which deposited the uranium ores where fluids intersected the redox boundary with the reduced carbon-bearing basement rocks (Cuney, 2005). The resultant tubular to cigar-shaped orebodies (Fig. 3.2) are associated with extensive zones of wall rock alteration including chloritization, argillization, silicification, and carbonate alteration, which broaden exploration targets. The largest unconformity-type uranium systems are located in the Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan, Canada and the McArthur Basin/

FIGURE 3.2 Two endmember examples of the deposits within the unconformity-related uranium mineral system in the Athabasca Basin, Canada. (A) Cigar Lake showing flat-lying uranium ore mainly in the unconformity assemblage with minor ore in the basement and in perched ores in the sedimentary succession. (B) Eagle Point showing predominantly altered basementhosted uranium ore with minor hangingwall ore zones. MFF 5 Manitou Falls Formation. Modified after Jefferson, C.W., Thomas, D.J., Gandhi, S.S., Ramaekers, P., Delaney, G., Brisbin, D., Cutts, C., Quirt, D., Portella, P., Olson, R.A., 2007. Unconformity-associated uranium deposits of the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan and Alberta. In: Goodfellow W.D. (Ed.), Mineral Deposits of Canada: A Synthesis of Major Deposit-types, District Metallogeny, the Evolution of Geological Provinces, and Exploration Models. Geol. Assoc. Canada Min. Dep. Div. Spec. Pub. 5, pp. 273 305.

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Alligator River province in the Northern Territory, Australia (Bruce et al., 2020). These currently represent the largest U resources globally excluding those of Olympic Dam. The Athabasca deposits including the largest McArthur River and highest-grade Cigar Lake deposits (Fig. 3.2A) formed at ca. 1.59 Ga (Alexandre et al., 2007). Within the McArthur River Basin in Australia, the deposits including Ranger and Jabiluka formed at ca. 1.69 Ga (Huston et al., 2016). In terms of Preservation, the Athabasca Basin straddles the boundary between thick buoyant Archean and Paleoproterozoic lithosphere in the complex Canadian Shield (Jefferson et al., 2007) and the McArthur Basin sits within thick buoyant lithosphere in northern Australia as described by Hoggard et al. (2020) and discussed further in Chapter 9, The role of craton and thick lithosphere margins.

3.2.3

Mississippi Valley type Pb Zn Ba system

Essential minerals for Mississippi Valley type (MVT) base-metal deposits (Leach et al., 2005, 2010a) are coarse-grained galena and sphalerite with accessory barite and/or fluorite that form epigenetic rhythmic replacement, less commonly vein-like deposits, in platformal carbonate sequences. They are controlled by an Architecture comprising a conjunction of extensional faults and carbonate dissolution features, including karsts and collapse breccias, and hence MVT deposits have a wide range of morphologies. The Irish-type deposits of the Irish Midlands (Wilkinson, 2003) are considered a subset of the MVT group of deposits by Leach et al. (2005). In terms of Fertility, Leach et al. (2010b) demonstrate that they formed from base-metalrich brines that were driven, at least partly through topographically driven fluid flow, from distant convergent margin orogenic belts that had a hydrological connection to the basins containing the carbonate sequences that host the MVT deposits. An example of a basinal flow model that also includes sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) deposits (described below) is given in Fig. 3.3A based on Emsbo (2009) and an example of a series of MVT ores controlled by an extensional fault system is presented in Fig. 3.3C. Although isolated MVT deposits formed as early as the Paleoproterozoic, the major MVT provinces formed mainly in North America and Europe after the development of extensive carbonate platforms that became established in the Devonian. In terms of Geodynamics, the most important periods of MVT mineralization, including the supergiant Tri State Province of the United States, were during the Devonian to Permian assembly of Pangea and during the accretion of microplates between the Cretaceous to Tertiary along the western margin of North America and between Africa and Eurasia (Leach et al., 2005). Preservation factors for both MVT and SEDEX (see below) deposits are discussed in Chapter 9.

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FIGURE 3.3 Geodynamic model and cross-sections of MVT Pb Zn Ag and SEDEX Pb Zn Cu deposits. (A) Simplified schematic province-scale model for a variety of sedimenthosted Pb Zn deposits. Other authors have models that are variations on a similar scheme. (B) Generalized cross-section of the McArthur River SEDEX Zn Pb Ag deposit. (C) Generalized cross-section of the Toussit-Bou Beker MVT Pb Cu Zn deposit, Morocco. (A) Modified from Emsbo, P., 2009. Geologic criteria for the assessment of sedimentary exhalative (Sedex) Zn Pb Ag deposits. USGS Open-File Rpt. 2009-1209, 21pp.; (B) adapted from Large, R.H., Bull, S.W., McGoldrick, P.J., Walters, S., Derrick, G.M., Carr, G.R. 2005. Stratiform and stratabound Zn Pb Ag deposits in Proterozoic sedimentary basins, Northern Australia. 100th Anniv, Vol. Econ. Geol. 931 964; (C) modified after Leach, D.L., Bradley, D.C., Huston, D, Pisarevsky, S.A., Taylor, R.D., Gardoll, S.J. 2010a. Sediment-hosted lead-zinc deposits in Earth history. Econ. Geol. 105, 593 625 and Leach, D.L., Taylor, R.D., Fey, D.L., Diehl, S.F., Saltus, R.W., 2010b. A deposit model for Mississippi Valley Type lead-zinc ores. USGS Sci. Invest. Rpt. 2010-5700-A.

3.2.4

SEDEX Zn Pb Cu system

SEDEX deposits comprise a major component of the group of sedimenthosted stratiform to stratabound Pb Zn ( 6 Cu) deposits that also include the MVT Pb Zn deposits described above (Leach et al., 2005). In addition to Pb, Zn, and Cu, they and the MVT deposits also contain Se, Cd, and In as

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trace to minor elements that are used in solar panels as so-called renewable energy sources (Groves et al., 2022a,b). The SEDEX deposits have relatively simple pyrite sphalerite galena mineralogy in laterally zoned, laminated, bedding-parallel sulfide layers within organic-rich shales and siltstones. They have a large range of geometries with very variable thicknesses and geometric aspect ratios. Some may have complex feeder zones beneath the stratabound ore bodies (Goodfellow et al., 1993). In terms of Architecture, the deposits are commonly situated adjacent to syn-sedimentary normal and strike-slip faults (Fig. 3.3B). They are exhaustively described by both Leach et al. (2005) and Large et al. (2005). The majority of SEDEX deposits formed in Mesoproterozoic failed rift Geodynamic settings with fewer in passive margin settings. In terms of Fertility, there is consensus that basin-scale hydrothermal circulation (Fig. 3.3A) scavenged major amounts of Pb from arkosic sandstones and/or felsic volcanic rocks, as well as Cu and Zn from mafic rocks to form giant deposits such as HYC, Century, and Mt Isa in northern Australia and Sullivan, Red Dog, and Howard’s Pass in western Canada and Alaska. These metals are considered to have been extracted from source rocks and transported by moderate temperature (,250 C) and moderate to high salinity (10 30 wt.% NaCl) brines that were oxidized, thus limiting their maximum age to the Great Oxidation Event at 2.4 Ga. (Leach et al., 2010a,b). The basinal ore fluids were sourced from evaporites at low latitudes and remained buffered as they passed through voluminous oxidized terrestrial sediments (Fig. 3.3A). Advection of metal-charged fluids along basin-margin extensional faults focused them into oxidation reduction interfaces, such as distal-facies organic-rich shales, where metal sulfides precipitated to form the giant SEDEX deposits.

3.2.5

Zambian-type Cu Co system

Sediment-hosted (stratiform) copper deposits grouped here as Zambian-type Cu (Co) systems comprise disseminated to veinlet-style Cu Fe (Co) sulfide ore bodies in shallow-marine dolomitic and siliciclastic sedimentary rocks (Hitzman et al., 2005). Although common, only four basins contain giant to supergiant ( . 24 Mt Cu) deposits. These are the Paleoproterozoic Kodaro Udokan Basin in Russia, the largely Neoproterozoic Katangan System in central Africa, the Carboniferous basin that hosts the Dzezkazgan deposit in Kazakhstan, and the Permian basin, which hosts the Kupferschiefer orebodies in central Europe (Hitzman et al., 2005). The Zambian Copperbelt of the Katangan System has achieved the most prominence as it is arguably the most mineralized Neoproterozoic to early Cambrian basin globally, producing .1000 Mt of copper, in addition to significant Co, important now for the manufacture of solar panels (McGowan et al., 2003). As the Zambian Copperbelt (Fig. 3.5), which extends from Zambia into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on the southern end of the Congo or Kasi Craton,

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is the most described global example with comprehensive reviews and reference lists by Selley et al. (2005), Hitzman et al. (2012) and Porter (2015), it is briefly discussed here as an example of the deposit type. In terms of Geodynamic setting, the deposits occur in an intracontinental hydrocarbon-bearing rift basin comprising early oxidized rift-facies clastic rocks, deposited in an Architecture of restricted fault-controlled subbasins, with the thin reduced argillites of the Copperbelt Orebody Member near the center of the unit. A later sag-phase sequence comprises mixed carbonate and clastic rocks with a thick evaporate unit. Subsequent sedimentary units are essentially sequences of carbonate rocks, evaporates, and reduced argillites or shales. Most major copper deposits are hosted by the reduced Copperbelt Orebody Member, but others occur at the first reduced unit overlying an oxidized clastic sedimentary sequence that separates it from the basement. The ores with complex textures contain several pyrite generations together with disseminations and veinlets of Cu Co sulfides. Timing of mineralization appears variable across the basin (Hitzman et al., 2012), with Porter (2015) suggesting that various episodes of mineralization may have extended over about 200 million years. Much of the mineralization is controlled by structural Architecture, with thrust-antiformal structures and diapiric dome margins being important (Fig. 3.4). Early genetic models favored a largely syn-sedimentary to diagenetic origin involving oxidation reduction reactions, with Fertility provided by oxidized brines that deposited metals in reduced units to produce stratiform ore bodies (Selley et al., 2005). While such models still persist and may account for some initial Cu Co enrichment, a consensus is building toward an epigenetic model involving tectonically induced movement of brines during basin inversion to specific structural sites within the basin (McGowan et al., 2003, 2005; Hitzman et al., 2012; Porter, 2015). Isotope dating by Perello et al. (2022) shows that the Cu Co orebodies formed during deformation and metamorphism under the Geodynamic regime of the Lufilian Orogeny within the Kungan Orogen between 530 and 517 Ma.

3.2.6

Broken Hill-type Pb Zn Ag system

There is some controversy if Broken Hill-type (BHT) Pb Zn Ag systems should be considered part of the SEDEX group or considered a separate mineral system (Leach et al., 2005). Although the ages of some deposits are uncertain, both Broken Hill (1.65 Ga) and Cannington (ca. 1.675 Ga) formed at around the same time as the northern Australian SEDEX deposits. Like SEDEX deposits, they are also stratiform to stratabound, zoned Pb Zn Ag systems but are inevitably coarser grained with an incredibly complex mineralogy due to greater element mobility during the ubiquitous amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism that affected them. Their median Ag and Pb contents are also 3 and 1.5 times, respectively, greater than those of SEDEX

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FIGURE 3.4 Cross-section through the Chingola C orebody within the NE-vergent, recumbent, Chingola anticline, Zambian Copperbelt showing complex stratigraphic and structural control. Modified after Porter, T.M., 2014. Nchanga, Chingola, Mimbula, Fitula, Luano. PorterGeo Database based on Roberts et al. (2000).

deposits (Leach et al., 2005). Their sequences of syn-rift immature clastic metasedimentary rocks, with lack of calcareous or graphitic rocks but the presence of minor bimodal metavolcanic units also contrast with the host sequences to SEDEX deposits, as does their significant enrichment in Cu, As, Sb, Au, F, Cl, and rare earth elements (REE) plus K, Rb, Pb, and Mn in stratabound alteration haloes. The supergiant Broken Hill deposit, the largest Pb Zn Ag deposit globally premining has most recently been reviewed by Groves et al. (2008) and Groves and Plimer (2017). The ca. 2.65 Ga orebody is hosted by multiply deformed granulite-facies rocks. The orebody is stratiform and metasediment-hosted, comprising multiple stacked Pb and Zn ore lenses above a discordant siliceous and pyrrhotite-bearing feeder zone (Fig. 3.5). The orebody is structurally overturned, requiring careful reconstruction to reveal its original geometry. The genesis of the Broken Hill deposit has been highly contentious (Groves et al., 2008). In terms of Geodynamics, the deposit was formed in a subbasin with rapid sedimentation, synchronous with high-level bimodal felsic and high Fe Ti tholeiitic basaltic sills. Fertility is related to hypersaline,

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FIGURE 3.5 Schematic reconstruction through the Broken Hill (NSW) lodes and enclosing lithostratigraphy in the Southern Operations based on numerous cross-sections and allowing for stratigraphic inversion and structural complexities. Modified after Groves, I.M., Groves, D.I., Bierlein, F.P., Broome, J., Penhall, J., 2008. Recognition of the hydrothermal feeder to the structurally inverted, giant Broken Hill deposit, New South Wales, Australia. Econ. Geol. 103, 1389 1394 and Groves, I.M., Plimer, I., 2017. Broken Hill Pb Zn Ag deposit. In: Phillips, G. N. (Ed.), Australian Ore Deposits. Australas. Inst. Min. Metall. Melbourne Mono. 32, pp. 641 646.

but nonseawater, ore fluids that were circulated by hydrothermal cells driven by bimodal magmatism with metal leaching from precursor evaporite sequences and/or derived from a distal magmatic source. The deposit is interpreted to have been deposited as a sequence of exhalative chemical precipitates above an Architecture dominated by a feeder pipe into a linear subbasin in a freshwater linear rift zone with a high thermal gradient. From a Geodynamics perspective, it is suggested that the highly anomalous BHT deposits formed in restricted zones of high geothermal gradients and high heat flow where there was asthenosphere uprise. Rapid cessation of rifting due to basin closure under compression could then explain the anomalous Preservation of the BHT deposit, as discussed in Chapters 5, 6, and 9.

3.3 3.3.1

Submarine hydrothermal systems Iron enrichment in banded iron formation systems

Modern mining of iron is largely from enriched low-P ores derived from oxide-facies banded iron formations (BIFs), banded units of alternating quartz and magnetite, in the great BIF basins of Western Australia, Brazil, and Africa (Clout and Simonson, 2005). Major BIF basins formed over a restricted time

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interval from about 2.6 Ga to ca. 2.4 (Duuring et al., 2017), before the Paleoproterozoic Great Oxidation Event, as discussed in more detail in Chapter 7, Paleoproterozoic Great Oxidation Event. In terms of Geodynamic setting, they formed on passive continental margins (Castro, 1994), from ocean water enriched in silica and Fe from submarine volcanic vents (Klein and Beukes, 1992), with Fe transported as Fe21 in the shallow anoxic basins. The BIF basins then underwent Paleoproterozoic thin-skinned compressional deformation to produce a final structural Architecture (Fig. 3.6A), in which later fault reactivation and intrusion of dolerite dykes (Thorne et al., 2017) produced structural geometries that acted as ground preparation for subsequent formation of iron ores. In terms of increasing Fertility, Evans et al. (2013) suggest that silica was removed from the deformed BIF system by high-pH hypersaline brines driven by density- or topographically driven infiltration (Fig. 3.6B). Their Preservation is discussed in Chapter 9.

3.3.2

Sediment-hosted manganese systems

Manganese, like Fe, has several oxidation states, which dictates that Mn deposits have similar Geodynamic, Fertility, Architecture, and Preservation attributes and temporal evolution to Fe deposits, although in contrast to Fe, the younger Mn deposits are potentially more important economically. Precambrian resources mimic those of the BIF-related deposits with manganiferous BIF units in the Paleoproterozoic Transvaal Group of South Africa

FIGURE 3.6 Geology and genesis of BIF-hosted iron ores in the Hamersley Bain, Western Australia. (A) Cross-section through the Southern Ridge deposit of Mt Tom Price showing structures, iron ores, total alteration, and dolerite dykes. Abbreviations in stratigraphic order: MCS, Mt Macrae Shale Member; DG, Dales Gorge Member; WBS, Whaleback Shale Member; JOF, Joffre Member. (B) Genetic model for the formation of iron ores by de-silicification of BIF by a density-driven, hypersaline, high-pH brine on a fragmented craton margin. (A) Adapted and simplified from Thorne, W., Dahlstra, H., Gordon, J., Paine, M., Hagemann, S.G., 2017. Mt Tom Price, Paraburdoo and western Hamersley iron ore deposits. In: Phillips, G.N. (Ed.), Australian Ore Deposits. Australas. Inst. Min. Metall. Melbourne Mono. 32, pp. 363 368; (B) Redrawn from Evans, K.A., McCuaig, T.C., Leach, D., Angerer, T., Hagemann, S.G., 2013. Banded iron formation to iron ore: a record of the evolution of Earth environments? Geology, 41, 99 102.

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(Astrup and Tsikos, 1998) within which major potential ores of manganese carbonate sedimentary rocks interbedded with BIF are also considered to have formed in anoxic basins. As for the BIFs, younger Mn deposits are represented by shallow water black shale or oncolitic/oolitic deposits (Schaefer et al., 2001), with the most important being those of Ukraine, including the giant Oligocene Nikopol ores (Force and Cannon, 1988; Schaefer et al., 2001). Geodynamics and Architecture are represented by the faulted continental marginal basin. The youngest deposits are monolayers of Mn nodules that are currently being deposited on deep water, organic poor, anoxic abyssal plains of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. More information on Mn deposits is provided in Chapter 7.

3.3.3

Volcanogenic massive sulfide Cu Zn Pb (Au Ag) system

Volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) Cu Zn Pb submarine hydrothermal systems (Barrie and Hannington, 1999; Franklin et al., 2005; Leach, 2010) typically formed in extensional Geodynamic settings ranging from midocean ridges to rifted arcs and back-arc basins. They are most commonly preserved by the incorporation of back-arc VMS deposits into accretionary belts in convergent margins (Fig. 3.10): hence their common association with orogenic gold deposits in orogenic belts (Groves et al., 2005b). The deposits largely formed in an Architecture dominated by submarine grabens. Within these, the Fertility factor is represented by the convective hydrothermal flow of seawater, driven by magmatism related to rifting, that leached metals from the lower semiconformable alteration zones of the VMS systems and transported them up deep-penetrating, synvolcanic faults (Brauhart et al., 1998). Sulfides were deposited both as syngenetic deposits at the seafloor or as submarine diagenetic or replacement deposits with highly variable 3D geometries (Fig. 3.7) as emphasized by several authors including Large et al. (2001). Synvolcanic sills are implicated in some cases as the thermal engines driving convective fluid flux, with some deposits interpreted to have a magmatic-hydrothermal input (Franklin et al., 2005). The deposits occur throughout most of geological time with the earliest significant deposits recorded from the eastern Pilbara Craton at ca. 3.24 Ga (Brauhart et al., 1998) with other Mesoarchean deposits in the Murchison greenstone belt of South Africa (Schwartz-Schampers et al., 2010) and at Golden Grove in the Murchison Province of the Yilgarn Craton (Gellie et al., 2017). Neoarchean deposits include those in the Abitibi belt of Canada, where numerous world-class to giant deposits including Horne and Kidd Creek were formed (Franklin et al., 2005). Paleoproterozoic VMS deposits occur in the Flin Flon to Trout Lake region of Canada (Syme and Bailes, 1993) and near Bergslagen in Sweden (Beunk and Kuipers, 2012). VMS deposits occurred intermittently throughout most of the Phanerozoic (Franklin et al., 2005), with important provinces in western Tasmania,

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FIGURE 3.7 Schematic representation of a gold-rich VMS mineral system showing the variety of deposit styles within the system. Gold may be introduced by magmatic input into a convective circulation system dominated by hot seawater. Modified after Dube´, B., Gosselin, P., Hannington, M., Galley, A., 2007. Gold-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits. Geol. Assoc. Canada Min. Dep. Spec. Pub. 5, pp. 75 94 based on Hannington, M.D., Poulsen, K.H., Thompson, J.F.H., Sillitoe, R.H., 1999. Volcanogenic gold in massive sulfide environment. Rev. Econ. Geol. 8, 325 356.

Kazakhstan, the Urals, Spain, British Columbia, Turkey, and Japan (Groves et al., 2005a,b: their Fig. 3.6). Significant Cambro-Ordovician VMS deposits are also present in Newfoundland (Piercy, 2007). Gold-rich VMS Cu Zn Au Ag systems, first emphasized for Horne and Bousquet Laronde in the Abitibi belt of Canada (Mercier-Langevin et al. 2011), range from submarine porphyry to high-sulfidation epithermal to exhalative VMS deposits (Dube´ et al., 2014) that are forming today in seamounts such as the Conical and Brothers Seamounts (de Ronde et al., 2011) in backarc basins. They are a highly diverse group in terms of age, metal ratios, and deposit geometries (Dube´ et al., 2014), with an emerging group of deposits discovered in the western Arabian Nubian Shield (Trench and Groves, 2015).

3.4 3.4.1

Magmatic hydrothermal systems

Greisen/vein/replacement Sn W system ˇ ´ et al. (2005). Within Granite-related mineral systems are reviewed by Cerny this group, the Geodynamic settings of tin and tungsten deposits are typically continental arcs inboard of the porphyry-skarn Cu Au Mo systems. The largest resources of W are in reduced tungsten skarns (Meinert et al., 2005).

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FIGURE 3.8 Variety of tin deposit types, including veins, stockworks, breccias, and greisens as illustrated from the classical mineral system in Cornwall, England. Modified after Hosking, K. F.G., 1969. The nature of the primary tin ores of the south-west of England. Internat. Tin. Council Tech, Conf. Tin. OCLC 7703981566.

In terms of Architecture, many vein or greisen deposits of cassiterite and/or wolframite are sited in the roof zones of cupolas of highly fractionated Stype or ilmenite-series granites in southern China, Bolivia, and Peru in the Andes, Cornwall in the United Kingdom (Fig. 3.8), the Erzgebirge of Germany and Czech Republic, and northeastern Tasmania (Lehmann, 2021). They are commonly surrounded by extensive alluvial deposits, largely of cassiterite (Taylor, 1979), particularly in southeast Asia with major world alluvial tin production from Malaysia. Two of the world’s largest and most anomalous primary tin deposits are related to Devonian granites in northwestern Tasmania where carbonate units were replaced by Fe sulfides at Mount Bischoff (Groves et al., 1972; Halley and Walshe, 1995) and Renison (formerly Renison Bell: Patterson et al., 1981). Fertility in the tin systems is provided by high temperature, high salinity B and F enriched magmatic-hydrothermal fluids derived from relatively small, highly fractionated tin granites. The incompatible behavior of Sn and W in these systems is controlled by the low oxidation state of the fractionating magma, in contrast to the high oxidation state of Cu Au porphyry intrusions, as summarized in Chapter 2. It is proposed that the Sn and W systems are the ultimate result of subduction-related intracrustal melting during mantle upwelling in the back-arc in convergent margins, as summarized by Lehmann (2021).

3.4.2

Intrusion-related gold (W) system

Thompson et al. (1999) and Lang et al. (2000) originally considered that intrusion-related Au Bi Te W deposits (IRGDs) were widespread

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globally, but they now appear to be a much more restricted group (Goldfarb and Groves, 2015). Several of the deposits ascribed to this group are orogenic gold deposits, which have similar low-salinity H2O CO2 CH4 ore fluids, whereas others represent other gold deposit groups (Goldfarb et al., 2005; Goldfarb and Groves, 2015). The enigmatic, giant Neoproterozoic Telfer gold deposit in Western Australia (Rowins et al., 1997) is a probable member of the IRGD group and the Paleoproterozoic Morila deposit of Mali (McFarlane et al., 2011) is a potential member. Globally, the only significant cluster of unequivocal IRGDs occurs in the Tombstone Tungsten belt of Alaska and Yukon. The IRGD systems lie on the eastern side of the Tintina gold province, in a province previously known for its granite-related tungsten skarn and alluvial deposits. In this part of the northern Cordillera, the Geodynamic system involved extensive midCretaceous postcollisional plutonism following the accretion of exotic terranes to the continental margin. The most craton-ward of the resulting plutonic belts comprises small isolated 97 90 Ma Fertile intrusive centers, with diverse, reduced potassic granites, as exemplified at Scheelite Dome, located in central Yukon (Mair et al., 2011). The giant deposit of this group is Fort Knox, which is hosted in the roof zone of a granite granodiorite stock or cupola (McCoy et al., 1997). Quartz feldspar quartz veins, including nearvertical sheeted veins, have limited wall rock alteration, attesting to equilibrium between ore fluid and the granite granodiorite host rocks. The unequivocal IRGDs differ from orogenic gold deposits in that they occur exclusively in continental shelf sedimentary sequences that include reduced shales and reactive carbonate rocks. Their Architecture is displayed by their zonation in terms of deposit style and their ore mineralogy and geochemistry (Fig. 3.9) and their wall rock alteration at temperatures of .500 C to ,300 C, surrounding the causative central intrusion and extensional faults (Hart et al., 2002). The orientation and timing of veins indicate a mild extensional setting related to orogenic collapse (Groves et al., 2020b) that involved the onset of extension and asthenosphere upwelling. They represent zoned magmatic-hydrothermal deposits that were deposited around Fertile cupola-like protrusions through the exsolution of H2O CO2 CH4 fluids at crustal depths below about 5 km. The related hybrid magmas were generated by the partial melting of the metasomatized lithosphere, which had been fertilized during prior subduction (Mair et al., 2011). Their Preservation is discussed in Chapter 9.

3.4.3

Distal Carlin-type gold system

The younger, 42 36 Ma, classic Carlin gold province of Nevada (Cline et al., 2005; Muntean et al., 2011) lies to the south of the Tintina IRGD province described above. The gold province is one of the largest globally, making the United States a global gold producer, with four stratabound replacement and fault-controlled deposits (including Post and Goldstrike: Fig. 3.10) containing

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FIGURE 3.9 Schematic intrusion-related gold (IRGD) mineral system based on IRGD deposits including Fort Knox in the Tintina province, Alaska. Classic alteration zones shown with respect to deposit styles and metal associations from the fertile intrusion to distal alteration zones. Modified after Hart, C.J.R., McCoy, D., Goldfarb, R.J., Smith, M., Roberts, P., Hulstein, R., Bakke, A.A., Bundtzen, T.K., 2002. Geology, exploration and discovery in the Tintina gold province, Alaska and Yukon. Soc. Econ. Geol. Spec. Pub. 9, pp. 241 274.

more than 10 Moz gold (Cline et al., 2005). At the district scale (Emsbo et al., 2006; Groves et al., 2016), the deposits lie along the Carlin, Battle MountainEureka, Getchell, and Jerritt Canyon trends that reflect the underlying crustal, and even lithospheric, Architecture of the faulted North American craton margin (Grauch et al., 2003). The distinctive trends are interpreted to reflect linear antiformal or horst-like zones caused by step-like structures in the basement and overlying sedimentary sequences during pregold compressional deformation (Wijns et al., 2004). These host rock sequences comprise highly reactive abundant dolomite and limestone units that were deposited in the Geodynamic setting of a middle Paleozoic continental platform above the fragmented and subsiding craton margin. Early Fertility was provided by anomalous levels of syngenetic gold and other metals, such as Ba and Zn, that accumulate in typically subeconomic quantities in specific rock units (Emsbo et al., 1999, 2006) before the main Tertiary hydrothermal event. These permeable and reactive gold-enriched sequences were capped and sealed by relatively impermeable oceanic rocks emplaced during earlier eastward-directed thrusting related to compressional deformation. Subsequent formation of the Carlin-type gold ores was via fluid infiltration along both extensional faults related to late orogenic collapse and permeable carbonate horizons.

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FIGURE 3.10 Giant deposits of the Carlin-type mineral system in Nevada. Giant gold deposits of the Blue Star-Goldstrike subdistrict of the Carlin trend, Nevada. Map shows orebodies and Goldstrike stock projected to the surface to illustrate the complexity and close spatial relationship. Below, the west east cross-section across the open pit shows the strong development of Carlin-type ore in a horst with regionally most prospective stratigraphic units confined between hornfels below and the Roberts Mountain Thrust above. The unusual geometry of the Jurassic intrusive rocks is due to the obliquity of the section. Modified after Bettles, K., 2002. Exploration and geology, 1962 2002, at the Goldstrike property, Carlin trend, Nevada. SEG Spec. Pub. 9, pp. 275 298.

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Gold depositional processes largely formed disseminated gold ores with exclusively ’invisible’ gold in As-rich rims to fine-grain hydrothermal pyrite and marcasite without associated quartz veins (Cline, 2001; Muntean et al., 2009). Abundant organic carbon in all the Carlin-type deposits (Hofstra and Cline, 2000) implicates the involvement of hydrocarbons in the ore system with the widespread framboidal pyrite at Carlin resembling that in halos produced by sulfate-reducing bacteria around North Sea oil and gas reservoirs (Rosnes et al., 1991). Although the precise source of the ore fluids is debated, the driving force for hydrothermal circulation is suggested to have been a similar hybrid magmatic system, derived by partial melting of Fertilized underlying mantle lithosphere below the craton margin, to that generating the IRGDs (Muntean et al., 2011). The discovery of the poorly described Carlin-like Rackla gold deposit (Lasley, 2018), northeast of the Tintina province, raises the potential for the IRGDs to represent a deeper equivalent of the Carlin-type deposits that are rarely preserved due to destruction during continued extension with block rotation, roll-over, and emplacement of regularly spaced metamorphic core complexes. Carlin-type gold deposits appear to be rare elsewhere in the world. However, slightly deeper Carlin-type deposits, with similar trends related to underlying lithosphere structures on craton margins, are recorded from the Youjiang Basin in China (Wang and Groves, 2018), where a more distal hybrid magmatic input is implicated. Carlin-type deposits are also recorded from the southwestern Kyrgyz Republic (Kirwin et al., 2017).

3.4.4

Kiruna-type Fe P system

Kiruna-type Fe P systems represent a highly anomalous group of magnetite apatite deposits. They are named after the historically long-mined giant late-Paleoproterozoic Kiruna deposit in the Geodynamic setting of the Norrbotten Craton of northern Sweden which also contains the world-class Malmberget deposit and the smaller Gruvberget deposit also mined for phosphate (Porter, 2020). Other Kiruna-type deposits include those of the Mesoproterozoic Southeast Missouri Iron Province that include Pea Ridge (Fe with associated REE) and the Benson Mines (Porter, 2003). Tertiary deposits, including El Laco (Xie et al., 2019), lie within an anomalous extensional tectonic region (Groves et al., 2010) within the Andean Arc. The host rocks to Kiruna-type iron ores are normally felsic alkaline volcanic rocks. In the Norrbotten Region (Fig. 3.11), the Kiruna and Malmberget deposits are highly elongated (Carlon, 2000: their Fig. 3.6) and highly deformed (Bauer et al., 2016) disaggregated tabular lenses of magnetite hematite apatite amphibole up to more than 1 km long that lie in an Architecture dominated by subparallel elongate zones several kilometers in both length and width (Fig. 3.11). Complex contacts are marked by veins and breccias and there are magnetite-bearing gabbros in the mineralized zone.

FIGURE 3.11 Geology of the Kiruna area with the Kiirunavaara, Luossavara, and the Per Geijer Fe P ores (Nukutus, Henry, Rektorn, and Haukivaara). Modified after Martinsson, O., Nordstrand, J., Rutanen, H., Scott, A., 2013. In Martinsson, O., Wanhainen, C. (Eds.), Fe oxide and Cu Au deposits in the northern Norrbotten ore district. Geol. Surv. Sweden, Excursion Guidebook SWE5, pp. 44 53.

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The ovoid tabular Mesoproterozoic Pea Ridge magnetite hematite deposit in the Southern Missouri Iron Province (Aleinikoff et al., 2016) is hosted in K- and silica-altered felsic volcanic rocks and bounded by magnetite-bearing trachyte intrusions. The F-LREE-Th U enriched orebody, which varies from massive magnetite to complex breccias in altered rhyolite, is cut by several REE-rich breccia pipes. The stratabound Tertiary El Laco magnetite deposit is hosted by felsic volcanic rocks, mainly andesites, which are hydrothermally altered to diopside, K-feldspar, magnetite, scapolite, fluorapatite, and quartz (Xie et al., 2019). Kiruna-type iron ores have been grouped with iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) deposits (described below) as summarized by Williams et al. (2005). However, they are tabular, strata-parallel deposits restricted to felsic volcanic host rocks relative to the extreme diversity of host rocks and to near-vertical breccia pipes of the IOCG deposits. They normally also lack significant Cu and Au grades and exhibit silicification in contrast to the silica poor IOCG deposits. There has been considerable controversy concerning their genesis, but most authors propose a primarily magmatic origin (Jonsson et al., 2013; Troll et al., 2019; Xie et al., 2019), involving crystallization from a Fertile immiscible Fe P melt with overprinting by magmatic-hydrothermal and possibly lower-temperature hydrothermal alteration in the shallow volcanic environment. The strong P and light rare earth elements (LREE) enrichment, together with anomalous F, Th, and U, is similar to the element associations in the carbonatite-related deposits discussed below.

3.4.5

Iron oxide copper gold system

The IOCG group of deposits, initially defined following the discovery of the giant Olympic Dam Cu U Au deposit, are magmatic-hydrothermal deposits with economic Cu 6 Au 6 U grades, structural control, and commonly with breccias. They comprise abundant low- Ti iron oxides or iron silicates intimately associated with Fe Cu sulfides, have LREE enrichment and low- S sulfides (pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, bornite, chalcocite), and lack quartz veins or silicification (Groves et al., 2010). Archean examples include Salobo, Cristalino, Sossego, and Igarape Bahia-Alemao in the Carajas Province of Brazil ( . 2000 Mt at B1 g/t Au and 0.35% Cu) on the eastern margin of the northern Amazon Craton (Grainger et al., 2008). Mesoproterozoic examples include the giant Olympic Dam deposit (total resource 10,400 Mt at 0.32 g/t Au, 0.77% Cu with additional Ag and U, after mining of 3.8 Mt Cu and 1.9 Moz Au, and significant U: Ehrig et al., 2017), the adjacent world-class Prominent Hill and Carrapateena deposits, and Ernest Henry at Cloncurry (Lilly et al., 2017). Younger examples include the Neoproterozoic world-class Khetri deposit in India (Knight et al., 2002) and the giant Cretaceous Candelaria (Marschik and Fontbote´ 2001; Contreras et al., 2018) and Manto Verde deposits in the tectonically anomalous Coastal Cordillera of Chile (Williams et al., 2005; Groves et al., 2010).

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The deposits show a clear temporal, but not spatial, relationship to causative highly anomalous, commonly alkaline to subalkaline, mixed mafic (ultramafic) to felsic intrusions. The Architecture of the largest Olympic Dam IOCG deposit (Ehrig et al., 2017) is arguably a maar above a hosting breccia pipe (Fig. 3.12) intruded by a multitude of lamprophyre and other mafic ultramafic intrusions (Huang et al., 2016) that represent the Fertile mantle magmatism ultimately responsible for the IOCG system. In conjunction with the giant size of the deposits, breccias, and surrounding alteration zones, the occurrence of a pipe and possible maar (Fig. 3.12) at Olympic Dam, highly saline ore fluids, and both stable and radiogenic isotope data indicate the release of deep, high energy, volatile-rich magmatic fluids through devolatilization of causative metasomatized mantle-derived magmas (Groves et al., 2010). In terms of Geodynamics, the world-class to giant Precambrian IOCG deposits are situated in anorogenic settings close to the margins of Archean or Paleoproterozoic cratons or other lithospheric boundaries. Magmatism and associated hydrothermal activity were most likely driven by asthenosphere upwelling and mantle plumes. Low-degree partial melting of metasomatized

FIGURE 3.12 Conceptual section across the giant Olympic Dam deposit showing the proposed IOCG mineral system. Note that the presence of a maar is contentious. Modified after Haynes, D.W., Cross, K.C., Bills, R.T., Reed, M.H., 1995. Olympic Dam ore genesis; a fluid-mixing model. Econ. Geol. 90(2), 281 307 based on more recent data from Ehrig, K., Kamenetsky, V. S., McPhie, J., Cook, N.J., Ciobanu, C.L. 2017. Olympic Dam iron oxide Cu U Au Ag deposit. In: Phillips, G.N. (Ed.), Australian Ore Deposits. Australas. Inst. Min. Metall. Melbourne Mono. 32, pp. 601 610.

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early Precambrian subcontinental lithospheric mantle, fertilized during earlier back-arc subduction, is considered to have produced basic to ultrabasic melts which then melted overlying continental crust and mixed with resultant felsic melts. There was subsequent devolatilization of highly volatile, high-salinity, Fe, Cu, Au, and REE-enriched, but S-deficient, magmatic-hydrothermal fluids that were rapidly advected under high fluid pressures to form giant breccia pipes at higher crustal levels (Oliver et al., 2006). Phanerozoic IOCG deposits including Candelaria (Contreras et al., 2018) occur in extensional to transtensional zones in the Coastal Cordillera which are also the site of mantle-derived mafic to felsic intrusions that are anomalous in an Andean context, as summarized by Groves et al. (2010). The timing of mineralization at ca. 115 Ma follows the ca. 120 Ma giant Cretaceous mantle plume in the Pacific (Bierlein and Pisarevsky, 2008), indicating that special conditions, probably detached slabs of metasomatized mantle lithosphere, are required in convergent margin settings to generate world-class IOCG deposits. It appears most likely that the formation and preservation of giant IOCG deposits was largely a Precambrian phenomenon related to the heightened activity of mantle plumes that impacted buoyant metasomatized subcontinental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) at that stage in Earth’s history, with Phanerozoic IOCG deposits forming only rarely in tectonic settings where conditions similar to those in the Precambrian were replicated.

3.5 3.5.1

Magmatic systems with hydrothermal fluid involvement Carbonatite-related Cu P and REE Nb systems

The ca. 2060 Ma (Eriksson, 1984) Phalabowra or Palabora deposit (Groves and Vielreicher, 2001) is the only large alkaline complex to host a major copper-bearing carbonatite with additional potential resources of REE, F, and S. In terms of Geodynamics, the complex was emplaced into an anorogenic setting close to the eastern margin of the Kaapvaal Craton. In terms of Architecture, the giant copper orebody occurs within a transgressive nearvertical carbonatite, surrounded progressively by concentric layers of banded carbonatite, phoscorite, and pegmatoidal pyroxenite, known as the Loolekop pipe. It is surrounded in turn by an approximately 7 3 3 km complex comprising a series of micaceous and pegmatoidal pyroxenites, with minor serpentinized dunite (Fig. 3.13). The ore comprises about 25% 30% magnetite with disseminated chalcopyrite and bornite, with minor chalcocite and cubanite. In terms of Fertility, Giebel et al. (2017) propose a complex multistage history for REE mineralization that reflects an interplay of magmatic differentiation, destabilization of early magmatic minerals during subsequent evolutionary stages of the carbonatite system, and late-stage fluid-induced remobilization and

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FIGURE 3.13 Generalized geological map of the Palabora Complex showing the main carbonatite and pyroxenite complexes. Modified after Giebel, R.J., Gauert, C.D.K., Marks, M.A. W., Gelu, C., Markl, G., 2017. Multi-stage formation of REE minerals in the Palabora carbonatite complex, South Africa. Am. Mineral. 102, 1218 1233.

reprecipitation of precursor REE minerals. The Loolekop carbonatite thus appears to have both magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal components. The Palabora complex is also a giant phosphate vermiculite deposit (Fourie and De Jager, 1986), with an estimated total resource of .2000 Mt of .6.5% P2O5, comprising two main ore bodies within the complexly zoned Northern and unzoned Southern Pyroxenites (Fig. 3.13), with ores zones in apatite-rich phlogopite-pyroxenite bodies. There is also some phosphate associated with carbonatite and phoscorite in the Loolekop pipe. Progressively more volatile-rich magmas are interpreted to have been emplaced during the evolution of the mineralized pyroxenites, with metasomatic replacement resulting in the extreme heterogeneity recorded at all scales (Fourie and De Jager, 1986). There are also world-class phosphate deposits in zoned carbonatite complexes including Khibiny on the margin of the Kola Craton, Russia and Araxa, Rochina, and Tapira on the margin of the Sao Francisco Craton, Brazil (Da Rocha et al., 1992).

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Carbonatite-related REE (Nb) deposits (Wang et al., 2020f) are more widespread, particularly in China (Xie et al., 2019). The Bayan Obo REE Nb Fe deposit, located in Inner Mongolia, China, hosts the largest REE resource globally, with additional Nb and Fe resources (Hao et al. 2002). Almost all resources in the giant deposit lie within an Architecture of a broadly E-Wtrending stratabound ore-hosting dolomite unit, whose origin is controversial with geochronological studies showing that the ages of both the ore-hosting dolomite and local carbonatite have a similar range of B1.4 1.2 Ga (Campbell et al. 2014; Fan et al. 2014), confirming that the ore-hosting dolomite is a carbonatite (Xie et al., 2016, 2019, and references therein). In terms of Geodynamics, the host Mesoproterozoic Bayan Obo Group, comprising a series of terrigenous clastic volcanic sedimentary rocks that overlie Archean and Paleoproterozoic basement rocks (Fan et al. 2010; Zhong et al., 2015), formed in a rift basin on the fragmented margin of the North China Craton during the breakup of the Columbia Supercontinent (Zhai, 2010). From a Fertility perspective, the stratabound ore-hosting dolomite is considered to have been initially generated from magnesio-ferro-carbonatite melts derived from partial melting of metasomatized mantle lithosphere (Yang et al., 2019). It subsequently experienced magmatic-hydrothermal alteration by calico carbonatitic fluids and carbonatite-derived aqueous fluids that are interpreted to have caused extensive F and REE metasomatism of the previously emplaced intrusive magnesio-ferro-carbonatite bodies during the late evolution of the Bayan Obo carbonatite complex (Yang et al., 2019). This complex, multistage evolution of the ore-hosting dolomite is almost certainly responsible for the uniqueness, high grade, and giant size of the Bayan Obo REE deposit. The giant Oligocene Maoniuping REE Nb deposit in the Mianning Dechang REE belt of Western Sichuan Province is another important Chinese carbonatite-related REE system with similar processes invoked for its genesis (Xie et al., 2015). The giant Silurian Miaoya deposit in the South Qinling Orogen is another Chinese example (Ying et al., 2023). The world-class Mesoproterozoic Mountain Pass REE carbonatite is one of a series of alkaline intrusions derived from metasomatized mantle lithosphere that lie on a 130 km long narrow belt typified by ultrapotassic rocks of lamproite affinity on the southern margin of the enveloping North American Craton (Castor, 2008). The Paleoproterozoic zoned carbonatite complex at Khibiny on the margin of the Kola Craton, Russia, as well as being a phosphate source, also represents a significant REE resource. Other, smaller carbonatite-related Nb REE deposits include the Paleoproterozoic Montviel deposit (Nadeau et al., 2015), the PetrayanVara deposit (Kozlov et al. 2020), and the Araxa deposit (Traversa et al., 2001).

3.5.2

Kimberlite/lamproite diamond system

All economic diamond deposits are associated with kimberlites and, less commonly, lamproites, together with alluvial deposits that are derived from

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them. This section is essentially a brief review of kimberlites from Gurney et al. (2005) with slightly more details on lamproites as they are more extensively discussed in the subsequent chapters. In terms of Fertility, the diamonds themselves formed episodically from ca. 3.5 Ga, with all diamond deposits exhibiting two or more generations of diamonds. The first major diamond-forming event at ca. 3.5 3.2 Ga appears to have been triggered by a global metasomatic episode related to the ingress of subduction-related CO2-rich fluids into the mantle lithosphere below the continental crust (Helmstaedt et al., 2011). Subsequent episodes of diamond formation involved Geodynamic events such as craton accretion, subduction, slab melting, and magmatic and metasomatic modification of mantle lithosphere. The Geodynamic setting for extraction of the diamonds and transport to the upper crust was thus normally an intracratonic one. Kimberlites, the normal transporters of diamonds are anomalous ultrabasic rocks with exceptionally high concentrations of incompatible elements and volatiles. Their hybrid nature and subsequent modification by both mantle and crustal enclaves plus various fluids makes a petrogenic model difficult to formulate but most evidence supports derivation from variously modified mantle lithosphere (Nowell et al., 2003). In terms of Architecture, the kimberlites appear to have exploited regional deep lithosphere to crustal fault structures and been emplaced at intersections of conjugate structures (White et al., 1995). Multiple generations of thin dykes or dyke swarms were emplaced until they reached the upper crust where they commonly formed carrot-shaped breccia pipes (Fig. 3.14) These are related to the high volatility of the magmas as they approached the surface, with near-surface geometries dependent on the number of individual intrusions, presence or absence of cap rocks, and degree of modification by groundwaters (Jakubec, 2008). Diamond grades and quality vary between deposits. Although diamonds formed in the mantle as early as ca. 3.5 Ga, the great majority of diamond deposits are associated with kimberlites that intruded into Archean cratons from ca. 542 Ma onward (Gurney et al., 2005). However, some diamonds were emplaced earlier between ca. 1200 and 1140 Ma, including the Premier deposit in South Africa (source of the 3106 carat Cullinan Diamond), and the Argyle and Majhgawan deposits in Australia and India, respectively (Gurney et al., 2005). Both Argyle and Majhgawan are hosted by lamproites, volumetrically minor, volatile-rich, ultrapotassic mantle-derived subvolcanic or volcanic rocks with high K and extreme enrichments in incompatible elements that intrude into various non-Archean rock sequences globally, but normally contain no significant diamond concentrations. Although Majhgawan is relatively small, the ca. 1.15 Ga Argyle (AK1) deposit (Jaques et al., 1984, 1986) has been the world’s major producer of diamonds, largely brown but including the highly prized pink diamonds for which Argyle is internationally renowned (Boxer et al., 2017). The olivine lamproite pipe forms a complex of coalesced and overlapping diatremes of largely lapilli tuffs, each with its own carrot-shaped feeder zone. The

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FIGURE 3.14 Schematic cross-section through a diamondiferous kimberlite pipe based on numerous pipes interpreted to form at different crustal levels in southern Africa. Derived from data in Field, M., Stiefenhofer, J., Robey, J., Kurszlaukis, S., 2008. Kimberlite-hosted diamond deposits of southern Africa: a review. Ore Geol. Rev. 34, 33 75 and references therein.

lamproite is interpreted to have formed by very small degrees of partial melting of metasomatized and fertilized mantle lithosphere adjacent to the craton margin, rather than below the craton in the case of kimberlites.

3.6 3.6.1

Magmatic systems Lithium pegmatite (Ta, Cs) systems

In recent years, exploration programs for Lithium Cesium Tantalum (LCT) pegmatites (Bradley et al., 2010) have been accelerated to meet increasing demand in this expanding world of technical innovation (Dessemond et al., 2019). Although many of the world’s largest lithium pegmatite deposits have only been recently discovered, it has become clear that, except in exceptional cases, spodumene (LiAlSi2O6) is the dominant economic lithium mineral (Groves et al., 2022b).

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Most economic LCT spodumene pegmatites globally are Archean in age with many within the greenstone belts of Western Australia (Phelps-Barber ˇ ny et al., 2022). In contrast to many near-vertical pegmatite swarms (Cer´ et al., 2005), they are normally subhorizontal to gently dipping (Fig. 3.15) and, in terms of Geodynamics, were emplaced late during regional compression or transpression and regional amphibolite facies metamorphism (Groves et al., 2022b). Their broadly syn-deformational emplacement can explain both the complex shape and complex zoning of the Architecture of the

FIGURE 3.15 Geological and mineralogical characteristics of Kenticha pegmatite, Ethiopia (A) cross-section through the Kenticha pegmatite deposit, Ethiopia, highlighting the flat dip, nonplanar shape (complex in plan), and strong vertical mineralogical zonation. (B) Field photograph showing the flat-lying Kenticha pegmatite. (C) Subvertical coarse-grained spodumene crystals in the Kenticha pegmatite. From Groves, D.I., Zhang, L., Groves, I.M., Sener, A.K., 2022b. Spodumene: the key lithium mineral in giant lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatites. Acta Petrol. Sin. 38, 1 8. based on Tadesse, S., Zerihun, D., 1996. Composition, fractionation trend and zoning accretion of the columbite-tantalite group of minerals in the Kenticha rare-metal field (Adola, southern Ethiopia). J. African Earth Sci. 23(3), 411 431 and Ku¨ster, D., Romer, R. L., Tolessa, D., Zerihun, D., Bheemalingeswara, K., Melcher, F., Oberthur, T., 2009. The Kenticha rare-element pegmatite, Ethiopia: Internal differentiation, U Pb age and Ta mineralization. Miner. Deposita 44 (7), 723 750. Published with permission from Acta Geological Sinica.

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pegmatites such as for the giant Greenbushes pegmatite from the Yilgarn Block (Partington, 2017), and the giant Pilgangoora pegmatite from the Pilbara Block (Sweetapple et al., 2017), both in Western Australia. The flat dips of the pegmatites suggest emplacement in dilation zones with minimum principal stress, sigma 3, subvertical, which would favor emplacement of multiple pulses of lithium-rich melt. The syn-amphibolite-facies metamorphic conditions would have allowed greater time for vertical differentiation of multiple Fertile volatile-rich melt influxes with a consequent increase in both thickness and critical element enrichment in the resultant pegmatite body, and importantly, expand the opportunity for large crystals of spodumene (Fig. 3.15C) to crystallize within the critical P-T window of regional metamorphism. Groves et al. (2022b): their Fig. 3.7 present a model based on multiple melt injections during dilation to explain how some spodumene pegmatites, for example, Pilgangoora (Sweetapple et al., 2017), have significant Li2O throughout the thickness of the pegmatite. In terms of Fertility, the granitic parents to the spodumene pegmatites are unclear. Proterozoic and Phanerozoic pegmatites are suggested to originate from an S-type peraluminous parental magma derived from the anatexis of juvenile accretionary sedimentary rocks during compressional orogenic events (London, 2018). However, within the Archean Yilgarn and Pilbara cratons, pegmatites are spatially associated with fractionated I-type granites, with rare elements suggested to be sourced from the progressive partial melting of trondhjemite tonalite granodiorite and fluids transported through regional shear zones (Sweetapple and Collins, 2002).

3.6.2

Giant-layered intrusion-hosted PGE Cr Fe Ti V system

Giant-layered intrusions such as the Bushveld Complex of the Kaapvaal Craton of South Africa (areal extent of B65,000 km: Cawthorne et al., 2005), which normally have a differentiated Architecture from ultramafic through mafic to more Fe-rich felsic layers from the base to top host the premier PGE, Cr, Ti, and V resources globally. Chromite occurs toward the base, PGE reefs toward the middle, and vanadiferous and titaniferous magnetite toward the top (Fig. 3.16), all in incredibly laterally continuous layers with remarkably consistent grades in strike extensive lobes of the intrusions (Cawthorn et al., 2005; Jenkins et al., 2021). Rare PGE-rich layers such as the Platreef and Flatreef of the Bushveld Complex (Maier et al., 2021) are offset from the main intrusion. Formation of the giant-layered intrusions requires a hot Earth that promotes intrusion of an anomalously large volume of Fertile basic magma into an anorogenic Geodynamic setting where continental crust is underlain by thick buoyant mantle lithosphere to support the additional mass of subsiding dense basic magma and its crystalline products (Maier et al., 2013). It is, therefore to be expected that all these PGE Cr Fe Ti V systems,

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FIGURE 3.16 Stratigraphic column depicting the three major components of the giant-layered Bushveld Complex and their contained Cr, PGE, Fe, V, and Ti mineralized layers. The Rustenburg Layered Suite is subdivided into zones, each with distinctive lithologies and unique marker layers. Chromitite layers are restricted to the Lower Critical Zone (LCZ) and Upper Critical Zone (UCZ). Modified after Scoon, R., Costin, G., 2018. Chemistry, morphology, and origin of magmatic-reaction chromite stringers associated with anorthosite in the upper critical zone at Winnaarshoek, eastern limb of the Bushveld Complex. J. Petrol. 59 (8), 1551 1578.

including, from oldest to youngest, Lac des Isles, Stillwater, Great Dyke, Kami, and Bushveld, are of Neoarchean to early Paleoproterozoic age (Cawthorne et al., 2005). Santosh and Groves (2022) suggest that the hotter Archean mantle generated a long-term double-layered convection system, which was disrupted by episodic mantle overturns, with the largest in the early Neoarchean potentially producing a more Fertile mantle enriched in metals from the Earth’s core from which the source magmas of the giantlayered intrusions originated.

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3.6.3

Mafic intrusion-hosted Ni Cu PGE system

Magmatic Ni Cu systems contain between 10% and 100% sulfides, normally pyrrhotite, pentlandite, and chalcopyrite, and with low PGEs (Arndt et al., 2005). The earliest such systems are largely individually small komatiite-associated volcanic to subvolcanic Ni-rich deposits (Lesher, 1989; Barnes, 2006) that are largely confined to basal thick komatiite flows, less commonly subvolcanic sills, that have caused ground melting of substrates containing sulfide-bearing metasedimentary units (Fig. 3.17). The largest groups of deposits are in Western Australia, including the Kambalda and Leinster camps, where collectively they are globally important nickel resources (Barnes et al., 2017). They are not described further because of their restriction to the early hot Precambrian Earth. The world-class to giant Ni Cu PGE deposits in large mafic ultramafic intrusions have a complex intrusive Architecture such that disseminated to massive sulfides may occur near the base, the top, or within the bodies (Fig. 3.18). As for komatiite-associated deposits, they contain between 10% and 100% pyrrhotite, pentlandite, and chalcopyrite, and with low PGEs apart from the giant Mesozoic Noril’sk systems with exceptional grades of up to 50 g/t PGEs (Naldrett, 2004). The deposits are hosted by a wide variety of mafic ultramafic rocks, mostly derived from Fertile melts derived from mantle peridotite (Naldrett, 2004; Barnes and Lightfoot, 2005), These exhibit less differentiation than the giant-layered intrusions that host the

FIGURE 3.17 Schematic section through a trough caused by ground melting by a thick basal komatiite flow at Kambalda Western Australia. The komattite-associated Ni Cu PGE sulfide ores are shown together with interspinifex sulfides and ocellites that represent immiscible silicates derived from melting of interflow sedimentary rocks originally below the troughs. Based on Lesher, C.M., Burnham, O.M., 2001. Multicomponent elemental and isotopic mixing in Ni Cu (PGE) ores at Kambalda, Western Australia. Can. Mineral. 39, 421 446 courtesy C.M. Lesher November 2022.

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FIGURE 3.18 Mafic intrusion hosted Ni Cu PGE deposits. Schematic section of complex pathways of most basic magma intrusions with Ni Cu PGE sulfide deposits formed in irregularities at magma margins. This contrasts with the relative simplicity of ore deposits in large layered intrusions (Fig. 3.16) and with the giant Sudbury intrusion. Modified after Maier, W.D., Groves, D.I., 2011. Temporal and spatial controls on the formation of magmatic PGE and Ni Cu deposits. Miner. Deposita. 46, 841 858.

PGE Cr Fe Ti V associations described earlier. Although some such as Sudbury are giants (Naldrett et al., 1987), the host intrusions such as Voisey’s Bay and Jinchuan are also more irregular and much smaller, mostly 100 s m, rarely a few kilometers in diameter, comprising dykes, sills, and chonoliths normally interpreted as feeder conduits to large volumes of magma (Naldrett, 1999) that is contaminated by continental sulfur (Ripley et al., 2003). In terms of Geodynamic setting, most of the world’s worldclass to giant Ni Cu deposits are related to asthenosphere upwelling and are located adjacent to the margins of cratons (Begg et al., 2010; Maier and Groves, 2011), as discussed in more detail in Chapter 9.

3.7

Summary

As noted in the Introduction, the descriptions of the mineral systems are concise, with emphasis on their main characteristics and references that include exhaustive reviews. Summaries of the four components of a mineral system: Geodynamics, Fertility, Architecture, and Preservation, are presented in Table 3.1.

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Chapter 4

The critical role of subduction Chapter Outline 4.1 Introduction 67 4.2 Systems with direct associations to subduction in convergent margins 68 4.2.1 Introduction 68 4.2.2 Porphyry-high sulfidation-skarn Cu Au 6 Mo systems in arcs 70 4.2.3 Granite-related tin and tungsten deposits in continental backarcs 71 4.2.4 Volcanogenic massive sulfide Cu Zn Pb systems in arcs 72 4.2.5 Epithermal Au Ag systems in back-arc basins 72 4.2.6 Preservation potential 72 4.3 Orogenic gold systems in transpressional settings 73 4.4 Indirect association with latesubduction orogenic collapse or rifting 73 4.4.1 Introduction 73

4.1

4.4.2 Intrusion-related gold systems 74 4.4.3 Carlin-type gold systems 75 4.5 Indirect association with subductionrelated metasomatized lithosphere 75 4.5.1 Introduction 75 4.5.2 The Jiaodong orogenic gold system 76 4.6 Indirect association with magmatic systems derived from subductionrelated lithosphere metasomatism 77 4.6.1 Introduction 77 4.6.2 Magmatic copper, iron, niobium, phosphate, rare earth elements (REE), and diamond deposits 79 4.6.3 Magmatic-hydrothermal Cu Au systems 81 4.7 Summary 82

Introduction

Since the Bronze Age (c. 3300 BCE) humans have utilized natural resources, including mineral deposits, to shape evolving civilizations. The fact that the Earth’s crust is compositionally heterogeneous has allowed this, particularly because the greatest heterogeneities are represented by mineral systems whose element concentrations can be tens to thousands of times enriched relative to the mean crust. This heterogeneity is driven by recycling mechanisms within the Earth’s crust, lithosphere, and mantle. In the early Earth, designated an unstable stagnant-lid planet (Be´dard, 2018), recycling was largely driven by mantle plumes, arguably rooted at the core mantle boundary,

Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-21684-8.00005-8 © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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where mantle overturns resulted in a heterogeneous upper mantle/primitive lithosphere from which intrusion of derived melts produced the primitive crust. The timing of the development of plate tectonics involving oceanic plate subduction and associated metamorphism is controversial, but it is generally agreed that it was in the Mesoarchean (Palin and Santosh, 2021), at the latest by 3.12 Ga. Importantly, sanukitoid bodies were emplaced in what is now the Pilbara Craton by about 2.95 Ga (Smithies et al., 2007), there was Mesoarchean high-pressure and ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) metamorphism associated with subduction collision (Yu et al., 2021) and also the formation of accretionary melanges and tectonic erosion in subduction-related convergent margins (Gao and Santosh, 2020). Porphyry Cu Mo (Barley, 1982) and volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) systems (Brauhart et al., 1998) in the east Pilbara Craton are at least consistent with the presence of convergent margins at ca. 3.4 Ga, although others interpret the host greenstones within an oceanic plateau setting (Huston et al., 2007; van Kranendonk et al., 2007). However, such a setting appears unrealistic (Goldfarb et al., 2005) for Mesoarchean orogenic gold deposits both in the east Pilbara (Zegers et al., 2002) and Barberton Greenstone Belt (Dziggel et al., 2010). With the establishment of plate tectonics, subduction of oceanic crust and both mantle and continental lithosphere, plus overlying metal- and volatile-rich marine sediment wedges, became the major engine room for element recycling on Earth. This was achieved through volcanism, melting of mantle lithosphere and crust, and magma emplacement, with resultant high thermal gradients that drove various types of hydrothermal activity around convergent margins. In this brief review, mineral systems (described in Chapter 2: Representative examples of mineral system models and Chapter 3: Summary mineral systems models for relevant systems) that formed either directly or indirectly through subduction are described and discussed with emphasis on the critical subduction-related processes that resulted in their anomalous element enrichments.

4.2 Systems with direct associations to subduction in convergent margins 4.2.1

Introduction

The most obvious Cenozoic example of the distribution of major mineral systems in convergent margins is provided by the so-called Ring of Fire around the margin of the Pacific Ocean (Fig. 4.1) from which much of our knowledge of tectonic and metallogenic evolution in convergent margins is derived. The variety of mineral systems in such convergent margins is discussed below in terms of the chronological order of tectonic cycles in the evolution of those margins, as described, for example, by

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FIGURE 4.1 Schematic map of the rim of the Pacific Ocean—the so-called Ring of Fireshowing volcanic and continental arcs and back-arcs that host syn-subduction porphyry-skarn Cu Au systems and Sn W vein and skarn systems plus both syn- and postsubduction epithermal Au Ag systems. From Groves et al. (2021) as adapted from the WestCoastPlacer website with additions from Taylor (1979), Meinert et al. (2005), and Lehmann (2021). Published with permission from Elsevier.

Collins and Richards (2008), Huston et al. (2012, 2016), and Groves et al. (2020a). This evolution normally involves early-stage arc formation and crustal extension to form back-arc basins, commonly related to the roll-back of the subducting plate. Subsequent crustal shortening during either arc/terrane accretion or continent continent collision is commonly associated with shallower subduction in Phanerozoic convergent margins. Early thrustfolding events are followed by continued shortening, upright folding, and thrust reactivation and steepening, with subsequent oblique slip along major faults or shear zones as the plate convergence angle changes. This is followed by orogenic collapse with increasing extension, asthenosphere uprise, and associated voluminous magmatism (von Huene, 1984; Pirajno, 2016; Chen and Wu, 2020). Finally, larger continents or supercontinents develop as the orogenic belts become accreted to craton margins (Nance et al., 2014). Subduction-related processes associated with this orogenic history are the driving force for the formation of mineral systems and either their preservation or their erosion during tectonic-related exhumation. Preservation may be as important as the formation of mineral systems (Groves et al., 2005b).

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Graphic representations of the tectonic setting and sequence of formation of the variety of mineral systems described in the following sections are presented in Figs. 4.2 and 4.3.

4.2.2

Porphyry-high sulfidation-skarn Cu Au 6 Mo systems in arcs

The most prominent mineral system that formed due to early convergence is the porphyry Cu Au Mo and associated high-sulfidation epithermal Au Ag and skarn Cu Au Fe system (Deng et al., 2021). Exhaustive descriptions and references are available in Hedenquist et al. (2012), and these systems are discussed in detail in Chapter 2. Most are formed in volcanic and continental arcs (Figs. 4.2 and 4.3). However, there is an important group of porphyry systems related to continent continent collision in the Tethyan belt from Iran to Tibet (Wang et al., 2020a). These systems of interrelated deposits (Sillitoe, 1972, 2010) normally result from a conjunction of flat-subduction slab compression and oblique, deep extensional accommodation faults (Wilkinson, 2013; Fox et al., 2015). Compositions of goldfertile arc-basalt magmas (Loucks, 2014) identify the source of the porphyry systems as gold-enriched metasomatized mantle lithosphere fertilized via low-degree partial melting of the deeper mantle during earlier, possibly subduction-related, thermal events (Tatsumi and Eggins, 1995), potentially implicating a dual subduction association. In combination, the higher gold contents of more alkaline porphyry systems (Mu¨ller and Groves, 2019) plus zircon compositions from fertile porphyry systems (Bao et al., 2018), which implicate anomalously water-rich source magmas (Lu et al., 2016) that degas sulfur (Dilles et al., 2015), support such a magmatic model.

FIGURE 4.2 Schematic section showing subduction along convergent margin settings. Formation of porphyry high-sulfidation skarn systems in oceanic arcs (e.g., Panguna, Ladolam) and continental arcs (e.g., Chuquicamata, El Salvador) during mild compression, and later formation of low-sulfidation epithermal Au Ag and gold-rich VMS deposits in oceanic back-arcs (e.g., Ladolam, Conical Sea Mount) and low-sulfidation epithermal deposit in continental rifts (e.g., Cripple Crack) during superimposed extension. Modified after Groves, D.I., Vielreicher, R.M., Goldfarb, R.J., Condie, K.C., 2005b. Controls on the heterogeneous distribution of mineral deposits through time. In: McDonald, I., Boyce, A.J., Butler, I.B., Herrington, R. J., Polya, D.A. (Eds.), Mineral Deposits and Earth Evolution. Geol. Soc. London Spec. Pub. 248, 71 102 by Groves, D.I., Zhang, l., Santosh, M., 2020b. Subduction, mantle metasomatism and gold: a dynamic and genetic conjunction. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull. 132, 1419 1426. Published with permission from Geological Society of America.

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FIGURE 4.3 Schematic representation of direct subduction-related mineral systems in convergent margins in terms of timing, geodynamic setting, stress field, and depth of formation. High crustal level deposits are normally rapidly eroded due to terrane exhumation, but submarine VMS and deep crustal orogenic gold systems are preserved from the Mesoarchean. From Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Zhang, L., Deng, J., Yang, L., and Wang, Q., 2021. Subduction: the recycling engine room for global metallogeny. Ore Geol. Rev. 104130. doi:10.1016/j.oregeorev.2021.104130. Published with permission from Elsevier.

4.2.3 Granite-related tin and tungsten deposits in continental back-arcs ˇ ´ et al. (2005). Within Granite-related mineral systems are reviewed by Cerny this group, tin and tungsten deposits are typically located in continental arcs inboard of the porphyry-skarn Cu Au Mo systems (Fig. 4.1). Many magmatic-hydrothermal vein or greisen deposits of cassiterite and/or wolframite are sited in the roof zones of cupolas of highly fractionated ilmeniteseries granites with their low oxidation states allowing Sn and W to be enriched in the magmas and transported in high-T high magmatic-hydrothermal salinity fluids, as summarized by Lehmann (2021). Tungsten, and in places tin, can also occur in high-grade tungsten skarns inboard of the more common Fe Cu Au skarns. These skarns are normally related to coarse-grained, equigranular granite batholiths surrounded by large high-T contact metamorphic aureoles in carbonate-bearing marginal basins (Meinert et al., 2005). The largest group of tungsten skarns are the more reduced but oxidized examples also occur (Meinert et al., 2005). The magma sources for the Sn W deposits are considered by Lehmann (2021) to result from large-scale intracrustal melting during mantle upwelling

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in the continental back-arc, possibly due to the roll-back of the flatsubduction slab responsible for the Cu Au porphyry systems on the oceanward side.

4.2.4

Volcanogenic massive sulfide Cu Zn Pb systems in arcs

VMS systems represent a diverse group of Cu Zn Pb deposit types that formed during extension in oceanic arcs, oceanic back-arcs, and epicontinental arcs and were later accreted to convergent margins (Franklin et al., 2005). The deposits largely formed in submarine grabens where the convective hydrothermal flow of seawater leached metals from the lower semiconformable alteration zones of the VMS systems and transported them up deeppenetrating, synvolcanic faults (Brauhart et al., 1998) to be deposited as syngenetic deposits at the seafloor or diagenetic or replacement deposits below them. The thermal engines driving convective fluid flux have been postulated to be synvolcanic sills (Franklin et al., 2005). Gold-rich VMS Cu Zn Au Ag systems, ranging from submarine porphyry to high-sulfidation epithermal to exhalative VMS deposits (Dube´ et al., 2014), are forming today in seamounts such as the Conical and Brothers Seamounts (de Ronde et al., 2011) in back-arc basins. The gold-rich VMS systems range in age from Neoarchean to Cenozoic and are a highly diverse group in terms of metal ratios and deposit geometries (Dube´ et al., 2014).

4.2.5

Epithermal Au Ag systems in back-arc basins

Epithermal systems that differ from those associated with porphyry Cu Au systems are developed where rifting is superimposed on the active convergent margin, through processes such as slab roll-back or under-plate delamination (Richards, 2009). Shallow, postsubduction, alkalic, low-sulfidation epithermal Au Ag deposits, such as Cripple Creek, may develop in continental back-arcs. Other epithermal Au Ag deposits, such as Ladolam-Lihir (Blackwell et al., 2014) and Emperor, occur in oceanic back-arcs settings like those of the modern gold-rich VMS Cu Zn Au Ag systems described above.

4.2.6

Preservation potential

Continued convergence following the development of the early-stage synsubduction mineral systems in convergent margins led to the development of accretionary orogens or to continent continent collisional orogens in extreme cases. The progressive compressional deformation and associated major uplift eroded many of the older porphyry-related and epithermal systems that had formed in the now rapidly uplifting volcanic and continental arcs (Hall and Smyth, 2008). This meant that the systems had a relatively

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short preservation window, with selective preservation of Cenozoic systems (Groves et al., 2005b). On the other hand, the submarine gold-rich VMS deposits, which were buried below turbidite sequences derived from the volcanic arcs, although metamorphosed and highly deformed (Dube´ et al., 2014), were preserved despite the low combined strength of their component sulfide-rich bodies and extensive micaceous alteration zones.

4.3

Orogenic gold systems in transpressional settings

Orogenic gold deposition in every subduction-related event in Earth history coincides with late-kinematic oblique-slip reactivation of earlier-formed faults and shear zones under supralithostatic fluid pressures (Cox et al., 1991) in fore-arc to back-arc settings of convergent margins (Goldfarb et al., 2001). This is most likely related to plate lock-up, a change in plate motion, or initiation of slab roll-back, which could be interrelated processes (Goldfarb et al., 2001, 2005). Numerous genetic models have been invoked to explain the formation of orogenic gold deposits (Goldfarb and Groves, 2015), with the most widely accepted model invoking crustal metamorphic fluids (Phillips and Powell, 2010; Tomkins, 2010). However, Groves et al. (2020b), following the logical arguments of Wyman et al. (2016), demonstrate that a subcrustal fluid source is required if global orogenic gold deposits represent a single coherent mineral system. For most deposits globally, it is suggested that ore fluids were either derived directly from the downgoing subduction slab and overlying sediment wedge (Fig. 11A: Groves et al., 2020b) or from devolatilization of mantle lithosphere that was metasomatized and fertilized during an earlier subduction event (Fig. 11B C: Yang et al., 2022). The latter would place the orogenic gold system with other mineral systems as discussed in Section 4.5. This model also explains the association between gold deposits and subparallel lithosphere-scale shear zones, commonly hosting mantle-sourced lamprophyres (Rock et al., 1989; Wyman and Kerrich, 1989), in several gold provinces and the common B35 km spacing (depth to Mohorovicic discontinuity (MOHO)) between world-class deposits (Doutre et al., 2015). The lithosphere-scale faults represent the fundamental ore fluid conduits in most orogenic gold provinces.

4.4 Indirect association with late-subduction orogenic collapse or rifting 4.4.1

Introduction

Following late transpression and formation of orogenic gold systems, initiation of the orogenic collapse was accompanied by the onset of extension and

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asthenosphere upwelling, with the generation of intrusion-related gold systems (IRGS) and Carlin-type systems in far back-arc environments adjacent to lithospheric blocks, commonly fragmented craton margins (Fig. 4.3). The host sequences for both systems are deformed and metamorphosed continental shelf strata that include both clastic sedimentary rocks, including reduced carbonaceous units, and permeable and reactive carbonate units.

4.4.2

Intrusion-related gold systems

Globally rare IRGSs, with the typical example being Fort Knox in the Tintina province (Lang et al., 2000; Hart et al., 2002), represent zoned magmatic-hydrothermal deposits that formed around cupola-like protrusions of nonporphyritic, ilmenite-series reduced granite intrusions via exsolution of H2O CO2 CH4 fluids at crustal depths ,5 km (Fig. 4.3). The mineral systems are commonly zoned from high-T W Bi through Cu W to Au and out to low-T Ag Sb Pb Zn. The sources of the magmatic-hydrothermal systems are interpreted to be hybrid magmas generated by partial melting of metasomatized lithosphere, fertilized during prior subduction, to form lamprophyre melts that ponded below the MOHO. These, in turn, initiated crustal melting with metal and volatile transfer across chemical gradients between the two magma types, leading ultimately to gold deposition in nearvertical extensional vein arrays or localized skarns through fluids liberated from the hybrid felsic magmas (Fig. 4.4: Mair et al., 2011).

FIGURE 4.4 Schematic models showing generation of intrusion-related and Carlin-type gold deposits on craton margins during development of hybrid magmatic system related to melting of previously metasomatized and fertilized mantle and mantle lithosphere. The vertical scale of continent is exaggerated to show setting of gold deposits. Based on Mair et al. (2011) and Muntean et al. (2011) by Groves et al. (2020b). Published with permission from Geological Society of America.

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4.4.3

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Carlin-type gold systems

To the south of the classic Tintina IRGS province of Alaska and Yukon, the younger classic Carlin gold province of Nevada (Cline et al., 2005) shares the western margin of the North America Craton. Auriferous arsenian pyrite represents the gold ore in replacement bodies and extension veins within reactive dolomitic units that were affected by extensional reactivation of the earlier compressional structural architecture. The driving force for hydrothermal circulation is interpreted to be a hybrid magmatic system, derived from partial melting of subduction-related fertilized lithosphere, a similar hybrid magmatic system (Fig. 4.4) to that proposed for the IRGSs (Muntean et al., 2011). The discovery of the Carlin-like Rackla deposit (Lasley, 2018), northeast of the Tintina IRGD province, raises the possibility that the IRGSs represent deeper equivalents of the Carlin-type deposits (Fig. 4.4) that are rare in the geological record due to the destruction during continued extensional block rotation, roll-over, and eventual emplacement of metamorphic core complexes. Slightly deeper Carlin-type deposits are recorded from the northern segment of the Youjiang Basin in China (Wang and Groves, 2018; Yang et al., 2020) where a more distal hybrid magmatic input is also inferred, although evidence is equivocal. A similar genetic model that invokes the exsolution of magmatichydrothermal fluids from hybrid magmas has been invoked for the giant Bingham Canyon porphyry Cu Au deposit in Utah (Cunningham et al., 2004) that lies at a lithosphere triple junction to the east of the equivalent age Carlin province in Colorado. Similar postsubduction high-K porphyry Cu Au systems are recorded at Cadia in New South Wales, Australia (Crawford et al., 2007; Cooke et al., 2007). The Tertiary Cripple Creek riftrelated epithermal Au Ag deposit, that occurs within a complex diatreme of alkaline and lamprophyre intrusions in Nevada, is also interpreted to have a similar origin involving melts derived from subduction-related fertilized lithosphere (Richards, 2009).

4.5 Indirect association with subduction-related metasomatized lithosphere 4.5.1

Introduction

There are only rare mineral systems formed from hydrothermal fluids and metals with no direct magmatic connection that are derived directly through devolatilization of subduction-related fertilized lithosphere. The earliest unequivocal examples appear to be Triassic to Jurassic orogenic gold deposits in eastern China that formed in response to subduction- and collision-related tectonic regimes related to the closure of the Paleo-Pacific Plate (Goldfarb et al., 2019).

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Post-collisional Upper Jurassic, largely mesozonal orogenic gold deposits formed both on the northern margin of the North China Craton (NCC) and on the southern margin in the Kunlun-Qinling Orogen where they were derived from metasomatized mantle lithosphere that was fertilized by both subducted oceanic sediments and altered oceanic crust (Zhao et al., 2021). Widespread orogenic gold deposits were also deposited on the southern margin of the NCC and both western margins and eastern margins of the Yangtze Craton (Goldfarb et al., 2019). The source of auriferous fluids for these deposits is equivocal, but there is strong evidence that the subworldclass Danba hypozonal deposit on the north-western flank of the Yangtze Craton formed from fluids derived from metasomatized mantle lithosphere (Zhao et al., 2019; Wang et al., 2020b). These are important findings as they lend support to models that suggest that metasomatized mantle lithosphere is the ultimate source of all orogenic gold deposits (Hronsky et al., 2012). The Jiaodong gold province is highlighted in the following section as evidence for a metasomatized mantle lithosphere that is unequivocal (Goldfarb and Santosh, 2014).

4.5.2

The Jiaodong orogenic gold system

The most important gold event in the NCC was related to mantle lithosphere thinning and delamination in the Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous due to the complex history and geometry of subduction related to the convergence of the Paleo-Pacific Plate. As reviewed by Deng et al. (2020a,b), this resulted in asthenosphere upwelling, widespread large granite magmatism, and widespread mesozonal-to-epizonal orogenic gold mineralization at 120 Ma (Yang et al., 2016a,b, 2017; Deng et al., 2020c; Zhang et al., 2020a). Remarkably, the Jiaodong Gold Province (Fig. 4.5) covers only 0.2% of China’s land surface yet contains 16 world-class to giant gold deposits with .35% ( . 5000 t gold) of China’s gold resource. As reviewed by Deng et al. (2020a,b), the auriferous ore fluids that were advected up lithosphere-scale craton-margin faults were derived from devolatilization of metasomatized mantle lithosphere that was fertilized by volatiles and gold (Saunders et al., 2018) during earlier subduction on the NCC margin (Fig. 4.6). The Jiaodong gold deposits were preserved due to relatively slow exhumation despite the previous lithosphere delamination (Zhang et al., 2020b). The Jiaodong event signaled the end of major orogenic gold mineralization in eastern China except for the anomalously young Eocene mesozonal-toepizonal mineralization in the Ailaoshan Orogenic Belt on the southwestern margin of the Yangtze Craton. Wang et al. (2020c, 2022) similarly invoke the devolatilization of fertilized mantle lithosphere for the generation of auriferous ore fluids for this gold province.

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FIGURE 4.5 (A) Simplified geological map of the Jiaodong Peninsula, showing the major orogenic gold deposits. (B) Index map showing the location of the Jiaodong Peninsula. CAOB Central Asian Orogenic Belt, NCC North China Craton, QQKOB Qingling Qilian Kunlong Orogenic Belt, TM Tarim Craton, YC Yangtze Craton. (B) From Deng, J., Wang, Q.F., Santosh, M., Liu, X.F., Liang, Y.Y., Zhao, R., Yang, L. 2020b. Remobilization of metasomatized mantle lithosphere: a new model for the Jiaodong gold province, eastern China. Miner. Deposita 55, 257 254. Published with permission from Elsevier.

4.6 Indirect association with magmatic systems derived from subduction-related lithosphere metasomatism 4.6.1

Introduction

In convergent margins, the closure of oceanic plates inevitably involved continent continent collision between Precambrian cratons or blocks of thick mantle lithosphere. These represent the older and most stable components of the combined continental crust and lithosphere and aid the preservation of deposits adjacent to them as discussed in Chapter 9. Widespread metasomatic alteration of mantle lithosphere has also been widely recognized on craton margins (O’Reilly and Griffin, 1996, 2013). The causative processes include fertilization during subduction (Hughes et al., 2015) as discussed above. Where oceanic crust and the overlying sediment wedge are subducted below craton margins, their devolatilization can result in extensive upward fluid flux either along slab mantle boundaries (Peacock et al., 2011) into fore-arc or accreting terrane margins, or into the mantle lithosphere (Hronsky et al., 2012; Goldfarb and Santosh, 2014; Wyman et al., 2016). Metasomatic fluid release by devolatilization of the oceanic slab occurs when the base of the fore-arc mantle wedge becomes fully hydrated (Katayama et al., 2012). Its overlying pyrite-bearing oceanic sediment wedge would then release metals such as Ag, As, Au, Bi, Cu, Sb, and Te housed in sedimentary pyrite, together with S, via the breakdown of pyrite to pyrrhotite

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FIGURE 4.6 Cartoon illustrating the geodynamic setting of the Jiaodong gold deposits in relation to the emplacement of granites and mafic dykes. (A) In the Triassic, gold-enriched pyritic sedimentary rocks on the northern margin of the Yangtze Craton were subducted into the mantle lithosphere beneath the North China Craton, resulting in both high Au contents and positive δ34S values of sulfur in the mantle lithosphere below the North China Craton. (B) In the Jurassic, with the subduction of the Paleo-Pacific plate, water, and other volatiles were released from the slab and overlying sediment wedge, further hydrating the mantle lithosphere, and generating arc-like basic magma. Asthenosphere upwelling caused devolatilization of metasomatized and fertilized mantle lithosphere to release auriferous H2O CO2 fluids. From Deng, J., Wang, Q.F., Santosh, M., Liu, X.F., Liang, Y.Y., Zhao, R., Yang, L. 2020b. Remobilization of metasomatized mantle lithosphere: a new model for the Jiaodong gold province, eastern China. Miner. Deposita 55, 257 254. Published with permission from Elsevier.

(Steadman et al., 2013) to the fluid and fertilize the mantle lithosphere. Slab devolatilization is thus an incredibly effective process for metasomatism and fertilization of mantle lithosphere beneath craton margins during each subduction event that affected them.

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4.6.2 Magmatic copper, iron, niobium, phosphate, rare earth elements (REE), and diamond deposits A wide variety of anomalous magmatic mineral systems formed around the margins of cratons and thick lithosphere blocks due to the unique metasomatized and fertilized character of the mantle lithosphere along these boundaries. Based on an exhaustive review by Groves and Santosh (2021), presented in Chapter 9, they are only briefly described here. Fig. 4.7 provides a schematic view of their position with respect to craton margins, and Fig. 4.8 illustrates their common giant proportions. The variety of magmatic mineral deposits derived from metasomatized mantle lithosphere includes carbonatite-related Cu P deposits such as in the Paleoproterozoic Palabora Complex (Fig. 29, Fig. 4.8B), on the margin of the Kaapvaal Craton (Vielreicher et al., 2000; Groves and Vielreicher, 2001) and carbonatite-related REE ( 6 Nb) deposits such as the giant Mesoproterozoic Bayan Obo deposit (Fig. 4.8D) on the margin of the North China Craton (Fan et al., 2014; Yang et al., 2011). Similar deposits to Bayan Obo occur at Mountain Pass on the margin of the North American Craton (Castor, 2008). The REE-enriched carbonatites associated with the Cummins Range Carbonatite Complex at the southern margin of the Kimberley Craton, Western Australia (Spandler et al., 2020) are particularly

FIGURE 4.7 Schematic section through a craton margin showing the normal relative positions of giant magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal that formed via processes related to melting of metasomatized and fertilized subcontinental mantle lithosphere modified during previous subduction events. From Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Zhang, L., Deng, J., Yang, L., and Wang, Q., 2021. Subduction: the recycling engine room for global metallogeny. Ore Geol. Rev. 104130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2021.104130. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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FIGURE 4.8 Series of simplified plans illustrating the giant scale of several mineral systems related to magmatism from melting of metasomatized and fertilized mantle lithosphere modified during previous subduction events. (A) Argyle diamond pipe, eastern Kimberley Block, Western Australia. (B) Palabora alkaline intrusion system containing carbonatite-hosted Cu deposit and pegmatoid-hosted apatite deposits, with S, REE, and vermiculite by-products, eastern margin of Kaapvaal Craton, South Africa. (C) Olympic Dam IOCG system, Gawler Craton, South Australia. (D) Bayan Obo REE deposit, northern margin of the North China Craton, China. Positions relative to craton margin are shown in Fig. 4.7. REE, Rare earth elements. (A) Simplified from Boxer, G.L., Jaques, A.L., Rayner, N.J., 2017. Argyle (AK1) diamond deposit. In: Phillips, G.N. (Ed.), Australian Ore Deposits. Australas. Inst. Min. Metall. Melbourne Mono. 32, 527 531; (B) modified after Giebel, R.J., Gauert, C.D.K., Marks, M.A. W., Gelu, C., Markl, G., 2017. Multi-stage formation of REE minerals in the Palabora carbonatite complex. South Africa. Am. Miner. 102, 1218 1233; (C) modified after Ehrig, K., Kamenetsky, V.S., McPhie, J., Cook, N.J., Ciobanu, C.L., 2017. Olympic dam iron oxide Cu U Au Ag deposit. In: Phillips, G.N. (Ed.), Australian Ore Deposits. Australas. Inst. Min. Metall. Melbourne Mono. 32, 601 610; (D) modified after Yang, K.F., Fan, H.R, Pirajno, F., Li, X., 2019. The Bayan Obo (China) giant REE accumulation conundrum elucidated by intense magmatic differentiation of carbonatite. Geology 47, 1198 1202.

important from a genetic viewpoint as three periods of Proterozoic alkaline activity spanning 800 million years suggest that there was the melting of the same underlying metasomatized mantle lithosphere whenever there was an extension on the craton margin. As discussed above, giant Paleoproterozoic Kiruna-type magnetite-apatite deposits are associated with alkaline intrusions derived from metasomatized

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mantle lithosphere on the margin of the Norbotten Craton (Bauer et al., 2016), with similar Mesoproterozoic deposits at Pea Ridge on the margin of the North American Craton (Aleinikoff et al., 2016). In addition, Neoproterozoic lamproite-associated diamond deposits, famous for their rare pink diamonds (Boxer et al., 2017), are sited at Argyle (Fig. 4.8A) on the margin of the Kimberley Block in Western Australia.

4.6.3

Magmatic-hydrothermal Cu Au systems

There are also magmatic-hydrothermal systems formed from hybrid melts derived from metasomatized mantle lithosphere and crustal melting on craton margins following supercontinent assembly and during initiation of rifting. The most widespread and economically important systems globally are the group of largely Archean to Mesoproterozoic iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) deposits (Groves et al., 2010) in breccia pipes (Oliver et al., 2006), with major clusters at Carajas on the Southern Amazon Craton margin and in South Australia on the Gawler Craton margin, that include the breccia dominated giant Olympic Dam deposit (Ehrig et al., 2017; Fig. 28, Fig. 4.8C). A schematic genetic model is shown in Fig. 4.9. Although controversial, some postcollisional porphyry-skarn Cu Au W systems, for example those of eastern Tibet within 200 km of the western margin of the Yangtze Craton,

FIGURE 4.9 Schematic model showing formation of IOCG deposits on craton margin with postsupercontinent-assembly asthenosphere mantle upwelling/plume generating fertile hybrid magmas and associated Cu Au mineralized breccias. The vertical scale of continent is exaggerated to show gold deposit environment. Adapted from Groves, D.I., Bierlein, F.P, Meinert L.A., Hitzman, M.W., 2010. Iron-oxide copper-gold (IOCG) deposits through Earth history: implications for origin, lithospheric setting, and distinction from other epigenetic iron oxide deposits. Econ. Geol. 105, 641 654 by Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Deng, J., Wang, Q.F., Yang, L.Q., Zhang, L., 2020b. A holistic model for the origin of orogenic gold deposits and its implications for exploration. Miner. Deposita 275 292. Published with permission from Geological Society of America.

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have also been grouped with other magmatic-hydrothermal systems related to reactivation of subduction-modified metasomatized lithosphere (Richards, 2009).

4.7

Summary

The development of a form of plate tectonics in the Mesoarchean allowed subduction to progressively become the dominant process in recycling metals from the upper mantle or mantle lithosphere into the crust where mineral deposits could form and be mined as the basis for evolving civilizations. The most direct evidence of this recycling process is in post-Mesozoic convergent margins. There, volcanic to continental arc porphyry-high-sulfidation epithermal-skarn Cu Au Ag 6 Mo systems and landward Sn W systems developed from subduction-related magmatic-hydrothermal fluids. In addition, both syn-subduction and postsubduction epithermal systems formed due to high thermal gradients. Some, but not all, orogenic gold deposits were probably formed directly from fluids released from downgoing subduction slabs and overlying metal-rich sediment wedges. Copper Zn Pb and Aurich VMS systems formed in a variety of largely back-arc settings and were accreted at the convergent margin. More indirect associations are related to the ability of subduction zones to cause structural damage and to metasomatize and fertilize subcontinental mantle lithosphere (SCLM) along margins of cratons or anomalously thick lithosphere. Subsequent late- to postsubduction orogenic collapse led to asthenosphere upwelling, generation of hybrid magmas, and formation of proximal magmatichydrothermal IRGDs and more distal hydrothermal Carlin-type gold deposits in carbonate-bearing marginal basins on the craton margins. During subsequent orogenic events, previously metasomatized and fertilized mantle lithosphere underwent partial melting to form lamprophyres and devolatilization to release hydrothermal fluids that deposited many of the orogenic gold deposits in eastern China and probably elsewhere. Reactivation of the metasomatized lithosphere also resulted in the development of volatile- and flux-rich postsubduction hybrid or alkaline magmas that generated giant magmatic Kiruna-type Fe P, carbonatite-related REE-Nb or Cu P, and lamproite-related diamond mineral systems, together with magmatic-hydrothermal IOCG systems near craton margins. As discussed in Chapter 9, subduction modified, and later rifted, craton margins and their marginal basins became the sites of formation of Zambian Copper Belt-type deposits and translithosphere fault zones focussed intrusion of giant Ni Cu mafic-ultramafic bodies along the craton margins. Thus subduction acts as the recycling engine room or factory responsible for many of the global giant Precambrian to Cenozoic mineral systems that are currently exploited. Without subduction, the diversity of mineable mineral systems on planet Earth would not have developed.

Chapter 5

Mineral systems, tectonics, and the supercontinent cycle Chapter Outline 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Evolution of the early Earth 5.2.1 Early Earth tectonics 5.2.2 Mantle overturns 5.2.3 Early plate tectonics 5.2.4 Formation of cratons 5.2.5 Heterogeneous Precambrian metallogeny of Archean cratons 5.2.6 Unique Archean to Paleoproterozoic mineral systems 5.3 Supercontinent cycles 5.3.1 Assembly and dispersal of supercontinents 5.3.2 Supercontinents through Earth history

5.1

83 84 84 85 87 89

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94 96 96

5.4 Mineral systems and their relationship to the supercontinent system 99 5.4.1 Critical parameters of mineral systems 99 5.4.2 Mineral systems formed in convergent margin environments 100 5.4.3 Magmatic and magmatichydrothermal systems formed near craton margins 105 5.5 Mineral deposits as sensitive indicators of Earth evolution 109 5.5.1 Coupled metallogenic and supercontinent cycles 109 5.6 Summary 113

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Introduction

Several researchers have sought to explain the heterogeneous distribution of individual or groups of mineral deposits through time in terms of the tectonic evolution of the Earth (Meyer, 1981, 1988; Sawkins, 1984; Barley and Groves, 1992; Kerrich et al., 2000; Groves et al., 2005a,b; various papers in Hedenquist et al., 2005). As discussed in Chapters 2 and 3, rather than considering mineral deposits, there has been increasing attention on the concept of mineral systems (Wyborn et al., 1994; Knox-Robinson and Wyborn 1997) as a more systematic and holistic approach for defining the critical parameters that control their distribution (McCuaig and Hronsky, 2014; Huston et al., 2016; Wyman et al., 2016; Deng et al., 2020a; Groves et al., 2020b, 2022a,b; Kelley et al., 2021; Santosh and Groves, 2022).

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As noted in Chapters 2 and 3, the mineral systems concept that involves four parameters, Geodynamics, Fertility, Architecture, and Preservation, is useful in reflecting Earth’s evolution as specific conjunctions of their critical parameters are required to form and preserve different mineral deposit classes. Preservation is a key constraint (Groves et al., 2005b) as only those systems that are preserved can act as useful markers of evolutionary processes on Earth. Mineral deposits that have the potential to be preserved are those that: (1) form in basins on the continental crust or within such crust with thick buoyant subcontinental mantle lithosphere (commonly termed subcontinental lithospheric mantle or SCLM) due to its intrinsic isopycnic density Griffin et al., 2003; O’Reilly and Griffin, 2010; Vasanthi and Santosh, 2021); (2) those that form in the deep crust; and (3) those that form in oceanic back-arcs with rapid burial by thick sedimentary sequences. In contrast, those that form in actively uplifting volcanic arcs or transitory rift zones are likely to be eroded and thus only reflect processes in the late Phanerozoic history of an evolved Earth. Early Precambrian mineral systems in which the mantle is an important Fertility parameter may be used to better understand the early thermal history of the Earth (De Wit and Thiart, 2005) provided deposits can be preserved on thick buoyant mantle lithosphere. Many of the processes by which mineral systems are formed and preserved are related to the supercontinent cycle. This reflects the growth of continental crust and the configuration of the continents and oceans during their amalgamation and dispersion during global tectonic events that define the Geodynamic environments in which specific mineral systems develop. In this chapter, the evolution of the Earth and its mineral systems are discussed primarily in terms of the supercontinent cycle and the tectonic evolution of the Earth’s crust and mantle. Evolution of the atmosphere hydrosphere biosphere system, which became more important in a more evolved Earth, is discussed in terms of the Great Oxidation Event in Chapter 8 and the Cambrian explosion of life in Chapter 9. The background for the evolution of global metallogenic provinces from the Archean to early Paleoproterozoic is provided next in terms of the nature of tectonics on a hotter early Precambrian Earth. This includes: (1) the nature of the mantle and episodic mantle overturns; (2) the evolution of plate tectonics; and (3) the formation of cratons with their thick buoyant mantle lithosphere. This is followed by a discussion of the supercontinent cycle.

5.2 5.2.1

Evolution of the early Earth Early Earth tectonics

During the Archean, Earth’s mantle was hotter than it is today (Bickle, 1978; Condie and Benn, 2006), with higher concentrations of radiogenic isotopes indicating that radioactive heat production was two to three times higher

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than at present (Pollack, 1997). Thus the 150K 200K higher mantle potential temperatures relative to those of the modern mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB)-source mantle, generated a double-layered convection system (Fig. 5.1A and B). The Archean globe is considered to have comprised many smaller (B700 km diameter) lithospheric plates, compared to the Phanerozoic Earth with fewer but larger (B3000 km diameter) plates. Thus the early Earth is likely to have been represented by a multitude of plate boundaries with multiple subduction systems (Santosh et al., 2010). Island arcs dominated the largely oceanic realm and arc arc collision led to the growth of primitive continents. The subducted slabs were subjected to greater degrees of partial melting due to higher mantle temperatures and, consequently, generated tonalite trondhjemite granodiorite (TTG) suite of rocks that included granite (sensu lato throughout) batholiths, as well as greenstone belts (Rino et al., 2004). The restite possibly accumulated at the base of the upper mantle to eventually descend to the core mantle boundary. The formation of large continents was inhibited by the limited amount of continental crust and the less-extensive plate boundaries. As discussed in the following section, the upper mantle is considered to have been separated from the lower mantle with no major exchange of materials during the longlived double-layered mantle convection that normally operated in the Archean.

5.2.2

Mantle overturns

There is a consensus that the early Earth stable mantle convection system was punctuated by episodic hotter mantle overturn events. For example, O’Neill et al. (2013) and Be´dard (2018) considered that the early Earth was a stagnant-lid crust system (Fig. 5.1C) punctuated by periodic overturn/resurfacing events, with Be´dard (2018) proposing that the Archean mantle might have overturned several times with protracted (B100 Myr) overturn phases, alternating with stagnant lid intervals of 300 500 Myr. The periodic overturn system would have stalled once heat production and heat loss became balanced through the secular decay of mantle radioactive isotopes. Previous models attributed superplumes, large scale mantle upwellings, to the avalanching of subducted slabs (Condie, 1988), but overturns are now interpreted to result in larger-scale and longer-lived mantle upwellings (Be´dard, 2018). Rino et al. (2004) speculated on the existence of two major mantle overturn events at 2.8 2.5 and 1.9 2.3 Ga with these events providing a potential explanation for the episodic growth of continents. Kump et al. (2001) proposed that the major mantle overturn event was at 2.7 Ga, which would be within the first event of Rino et al. (2004). Similarly, Komiya et al. (2002) considered that there was a catastrophic mantle overturn at 2.8 2.7 Ga following the refrigeration of the upper mantle by subduction, as well as heating by radiogenic elements in the lower mantle.

FIGURE 5.1 (A) and (B) Schematic plate tectonic sketch showing Archean double-layered mantle convection and modern whole mantle convection. (C) Double-layered mantle convection in the Archean in between major overturn events. (A,B) After Santosh, M., Maruyama, S., Komiya, T., Yamamoto, S., 2010. Orogens in the evolving Earth: from surface continents to ‘lost continents’ at the core mantle boundary. Geol. Soc. London Spec. Pub. 338 (1), 77 116; (C) from Be´dard, J.H., 2018. Stagnant lids and mantle overturns: implications for Archaean tectonics, magma genesis, crustal growth, mantle evolution, and the start of plate tectonics. Geosci. Front. 9 (1), 19 49. From Groves et al. (2021), published with permission from Elsevier. See text for discussion.

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Irrespective of the controversy over the timing and number of overturn events, it is generally considered that the major mantle overturn event occurred in the Neoarchean at some time in the period 2.8 2.5 Ga.

5.2.3

Early plate tectonics

The initiation of plate tectonics and the formation of continental crust are key issues as these are fundamental processes that controlled the evolution of the Earth, its mineral resources, and life (see Palin and Santosh, 2021 for a review). The general scarcity or absence of ophiolites, Franciscan-type me´langes, and blueschist facies rocks were considered as key markers for an absence of Precambrian plate tectonics (Hamilton, 1988). These are now negated (Komiya et al., 1999; Smithies et al., 2007; Santosh et al., 2017), although how and when plate tectonics was initiated is one of the most controversial subjects in geoscience (Smithies et al., 2007; Condie et al., 2006; Stern, 2008; Maruyama et al., 2013; Santosh et al., 2017; O’Neill and Roberts, 2018; Palin and Santosh, 2021). Maruyama et al. (2018) speculated that during Hadean or Eoarchean plate tectonics, successive ridge propagations rifted the primordial potassium rare earth element and phosphorous (KREEP) (K-REE-P) crust, generating lacustrine hydrothermal systems saturated in P and other nutrients, that evolved into oceans where primordial life had the potential to survive. According to Maruyama et al. (2018), a crude form of Hadean plate tectonics was initiated by the generation of slab-pull force through eclogitization of the thick KREEP lower crust (B100 km thick) together with anorthositic upper crust (21 km thick) as triggered by meteorite bombardment (Fig. 5.2A and B). The primordial continents are considered to have been elevated by the development of trench lines along continental margins and mantle upwelling by plumes that generated topographic highs. Subsequently, plate tectonics functioned as a geochemical cleaner of the Archean and Proterozoic toxic oceans. In terms of metallogeny, this primitive form of plate tectonics would have played a key role in transporting metals to the trench and recycling them into the continental crust as mineral deposits in convergent margins through a combination of magmatic, metasomatic, metamorphic, and hydrothermal processes. Although orogenic belts as old as 4.0 Ga have been documented (Wilde et al., 2001; Iizuka et al., 2010), thick sedimentary successions are rare until about 2.7 Ga after the early continents were built, uplifted, weathered, and eroded. The early Archean world was dominated by .3.5 Ga intraoceanic arcs such as those of Isua in West Greenland, east Pilbara in Western Australia, Barberton in South Africa, and elsewhere (Maruyama et al., 2013). No evidence of Hadean rocks remains on the Earth, except for the 4.4 4.0 Ga zircon grains in younger sedimentary rocks (Wilde et al., 2001). However, the mineral inclusions in the Hadean zircons indicate derivation

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from granitic protoliths, which implicates the operation of plate tectonics in the early Earth since both water and plate tectonic processes are key elements in the formation of granitic crust. One of the critical products of convergent margin processes and subduction tectonics is accreted Ocean Plate Stratigraphy (OPS), where a partial or complete lithological assemblage represents the tectonic evolution of an oceanic plate from its birth at a midocean ridge to its destruction at a subduction zone. This is illustrated by OPS in accretionary complexes in the AsiaPacific regions (Isozaki et al., 2010; Safonova and Santosh, 2014). Remnants of OPS have also been recorded from several Archean terranes (Komiya et al., 1999; Kusky et al., 2013; Gao et al., 2021). Fig. 5.2C illustrates the timing of critical events in the Earth from Hadean to Recent as compiled by Palin and Santosh (2021), where the oldest crust formation dates to at least 4.0 Ga. Several studies attest to: (1) modern-style subduction; (2) accretionary orogenesis and arc building; and (3) ultra-high temperature to high pressure (eclogite facies) metamorphism of downgoing oceanic slab and trench sediments during the Mesoarchean, thus attesting to active plate tectonics by that time (Palin and Santosh, 2021, and references therein; Yu et al., 2021). This development of at least a modified form of plate tectonics in the early Earth is important from a metallogenic viewpoint as it is consistent with the appearance of pre-Mesoarchean mineral systems, albeit rare, that typify Cenozoic convergent margins, as discussed below.

5.2.4

Formation of cratons

L

The acceptance of pre-Mesoarchean plate tectonics allows comparison of the early Earth to the modern Western Pacific, comprising mostly island arcs in a dominantly oceanic regime. It is interpreted that Archean arc arc collision, particularly parallel collision of arcs, generated composite arcs, or arc bundles, and assembled them to form primitive continents (Santosh et al., 2009c). These embryonic Archean continents later grew vertically through prolonged and multiple processes including emplacement of magmas related to slab FIGURE 5.2 (A) A speculative model on the initiation of plate tectonics during the Hadean by generation of slab pull force through eclogitization of thick KREEP lower crust (approx. 100 km) together with anorthositic upper crust (21 km thick) through meteorite bombardment. Consequent development of trench lines along the continental margin and mantle upwelling by plumes generated topographic highs that elevated the primordial continents. (B) The dense eclogite generated slab pull force that initiated the crude form of plate tectonics at ca. 4.2 Ga. (C) A summary of the major events in Earth history through time. (A,B) After Maruyama, S., Santosh, M., Azuma, S., 2018. Initiation of plate tectonics in the Hadean: eclogitization triggered by the ABEL Bombardment. Geosci. Front., 9 (4), 1033 1048; (C) after Palin, R.M., Santosh, M., 2021. Plate tectonics: what, where, why, and when? Gondwana Res. 100, 3 24. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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melting and melt mantle interaction, and laterally through accretion. Typical cratons on the modern Earth are ancient continental nuclei, particularly those that are older than 2.0 Ga, and are underlain by thick (up to 250 300 km) mantle lithosphere (Fig. 5.3A: Grand, 1994). Most global Archean cratons are underlain by a cool and thick mantle lithosphere (Fig. 5.3B), comprising mostly highly refractory harzburgites and lherzolites (Santosh et al., 2009a; Herzberg et al., 2010). Jordan (1975) proposed the term ’tectosphere’ for the highly depleted and relatively low-density upper mantle layer, with tomographic images beneath Archean cratons clearly showing high-velocity roots extending to at least 200 km and up to 300 km depth. The tectosphere, which refers to the rigid continental/cratonic keel that supports the continental crust, plays a key role in amalgamating wandering continents and assembling them into supercontinents (Santosh et al., 2009a). Among several models that have been proposed to explain the building of the craton keel, Wyman et al. (2002) suggest it was through the accumulation of restite of mantle magmas or capture of thick plume crust by migrating arcs and its imbrication with arc crust. Subduction accretion of oceanic or continental lithosphere is considered to lead to lithosphere stacking (Aulbach, 2012) with the stacked oceanic lithosphere generating a layered eclogite 1 harzburgite structure, which resembles that of the layered subcontinental mantle structure imaged from geophysical studies (Fig. 5.4A; Santosh, 2013). Chen et al. (2009) imaged a thick lithosphere ( . 200 km) root in the western part of the North China Craton (NCC), whereas the lithosphere root becomes considerably thinner (60 100 km) toward the eastern part (Fig. 5.4B). Santosh (2010a) suggested that the layered nature and stacking of contrasting velocity domains represent the stacking of thick Archean/ Paleoproterozoic oceanic crust. A similar scenario of a thick continental root with seismic anisotropic layering has been recorded beneath Archean cratons

FIGURE 5.3 (A) S-wave tomographic image showing the distribution of tectosphere (craton root) beneath some of the major Archean cratons (Grand, 2002). (B) Occurrence of high-velocity anomaly under cratons older than 2.0 Ga and downward thinning of tectosphere. (B) After Santosh, M., Maruyama, S., Omori, S., 2009a. A fluid factory in solid Earth. Lithosphere 1, 29 33. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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FIGURE 5.4 (A) Subduction-accretion generating stacked oceanic lithosphere with layered structure in building craton roots. (B) Migrated S-receiver function image for the North China Craton showing layered structure and lithosphere asthenosphere boundary with a substantial craton destruction and thinning toward the eastern part. (C) A part of the Ps migrated section of the Dharwar Craton showing the lithosphere asthenosphere boundary. There is a marked similarity in the topology of the subcontinental mantle down to 250 km beneath the two cratons. (A) Figure courtesy: S. Maruyama. (B) Modified from Chen, L., Cheng, C., Wei, Z., 2009. Seismic evidence for significant lateral variations in lithospheric thickness beneath the central and western North China Craton. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 286, 171 183; (C) modified from Ramesh, D. S., Bianchi, M.B., Das Sharma, S., 2010. Images of possible fossil collision structures beneath the Eastern Ghats belt, India, from P and S receiver functions. Lithosphere 2, 84 92.

elsewhere, including the Dharwar Craton in India (Fig. 5.4C; Ramesh et al., 2010). Thus the stacking of subducted oceanic lithosphere could have served as an important mechanism to build lithosphere keels beneath ancient continents. The NCC is arguably the best example of the destruction of the tectosphere, with substantial erosion of the craton keel. The subduction of the Pacific Plate from the east caused extensive mechanical erosion followed by thermal and chemical erosion by rising magmas that destroyed and modified the composition and architecture of the mantle lithosphere beneath the NCC (Santosh, 2010a). Similar examples of craton destruction have been reported from other parts of the world (Vasanthi and Santosh, 2022). Such craton destruction and consequent asthenosphere upwelling resulted in devolatilization processes that were fundamental to the formation of some of the giant orogenic gold systems such as those of the Jiaodong Peninsula in the NCC (Groves and Santosh, 2021) as discussed in Section 4.4.2.

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5.2.5

Heterogeneous Precambrian metallogeny of Archean cratons

As discussed above, tectonics of the early hotter Earth is interpreted to have involved mantle overturns that potentially accessed the metal-rich core and provided the driving force for the formation of subcircular .1000 km diameter Archean cratons. It is evident from studies of large igneous provinces or LIPs (Prokoph et al., 2004; Lesher, 2019) that associated metal-rich ore deposits are heterogeneously distributed (Pirajno, 2004). All other LIPsassociated deposits pale into insignificance relative to the giant platinum group elements (PGE) Ni Cu deposits of Noril’sk-Talnakh, the world’s largest Pd repository, in the giant Siberian LIPs (Barnes et al., 2020). It is important to examine if the Archean mantle events directly resulted in the formation of metallic mineral systems and/or fertilized the mantle below early-formed cratons with metals as the source for future mineralization events. De Wit and Thiart (2005), the pioneers in this field, set out to establish the ’metallogenic fingerprints’ of Archean cratons, which they believed were the most important hosts to mineral systems, particularly in terms of those metals that are more abundant in the mantle than in the continental crust. They used statistical analysis of the number of reported mineral deposits of specific metals to derive their conclusions, but with a bias related to lack of consideration of the global importance of those deposits. However, their data clearly indicate a heterogeneous distribution of metallic mineral systems within the cratons as for the LIPs (Pirajno, 2004). A semiquantitative graphical representation of the relative importance of mineral systems of specific elements of both Archean and early Proterozoic age that are located within the cratons or their fragmented margins is shown in Fig. 5.5. Those elements in mineral systems with a clear, normally magmatic, mantle connection are specifically highlighted to illustrate major differences between the cratons represented in Fig. 5.5. The southern African cratons uniquely have greatly enhanced metals (Ti, V, Cr, Ni, Cu, PGE) that are enriched in the core and were derived from the mantle-related magmatic activity. In the Zimbabwe Craton, Archean mineral systems related to these metals include the deposits of The Great Dyke, whereas the early Proterozoic Bushveld Complex (Fig. 3.16) provided the giant enrichments of these metals in the Kaapvaal Craton of South Africa. The giant Mesoarchean Neoarchean Witwatersrand goldfields (Fig. 3.1) that represent the greatest gold province on Earth are also unique to the Kaapvaal Craton. The contrast in metal endowment for the Pilbara Craton, apart from iron ores related to giant Paleoproterozoic banded iron formation (BIF) successions (Fig. 3.6), is marked and casts doubt on suggestions that the Pilbara and Kaapvaal cratons formed part of a Vaalbara supercontinent at ca. 3500 Ma (Nelson et al., 1999; de Kock et al., 2009). Diamonds that formed in the Archean in the thick mantle lithosphere below the cratons are abundant in some of the giant kimberlite fields on the Kaapvaal Craton (Fig. 30) but are

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FIGURE 5.5 Illustration of heterogeneous Archean and early Proterozoic metal enrichments in mineral systems within and on the margins of relatively well-exposed Archean cratons with limited cover sequences: Kaapvaal, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania cratons of Africa; Amazon and Sao Francisco cratons of Brazil, Yilgarn and Pilbara cratons of Western Australia; Superior Province of Canada; Dharwar Craton of India; and Fennoscandian Shield. Elements are ordered in terms of atomic number. Metals subjectively subdivided as in mineral systems of global or local significance with mantle involvement shown. Major sources of information from Hedenquist et al. (Eds., 2005) and Groves et al. (2005b) and supplemented with reviews for South Africa in Wilson and Anhaeusser (1998), for Zimbabwe in Mugumbate (2015); for Tanzania in Minnitt (2019); for Brazil in Dardenne and Schobbenhaus (2003); for Western Australia in Phillips (Ed., 2017b); for Superior Province in Percival (2007); for the Dharwar Craton in Mishra (2015); and for the Fennoscandian Shield in Eilu (2012).

totally absent from the Pilbara Craton. The metallogenic fingerprints (de Wit and Thiart, 2005) of the two cratons could not be more different. The Tanzania Craton contrasts markedly in metallogenic footprint to the southern African cratons with world-class to giant Neoarchean orogenic gold deposits representing its major metal endowment, in contrast to the smaller Mesoarchean and Neoarchean orogenic gold deposits of the Kaapvaal and Zimbabwe cratons, respectively (Goldfarb et al., 2017). The Fennoscandian Shield, similarly to the southern African cratons, is enriched in mineral systems with mantle-derived elements, but deposits almost exclusively formed in the Paleoproterozoic, with only minor highly deformed and metamorphosed deposits in Archean host sequences (Eilu, 2012). The Yilgarn Craton and Superior Province have rather similar Archean metallogenic footprints that are dominated by Neoarchean orogenic gold deposits (Goldfarb et al., 2017). However, the Superior Province is endowed with world-class to giant volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) Cu Zn Au systems, in contrast to the Yilgarn Craton, which hosts abundant komatiite NI Cu mineral systems that formed earlier in the ca. 2.7 Ma greenstone belts. Both cratons have Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic magmatic

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Ni Cu PGE deposits, but they are both more abundant and much larger in the Superior Province (Goodfellow, 2007) than in the Yilgarn Craton (Phillips, 2017a). The Amazon and Sao Francisco cratons of Brazil also have contrasting metallogenic fingerprints apart from their giant Paleoproterozoic BIF-related Fe ( 6 Mn) ore provinces (Dardenne and Schobbenhaus, 2003). Whereas there are giant Neoarchean iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) mineral systems in the Amazon Craton, the Sao Francisco Craton is host to world-class Neoarchean orogenic gold systems like those of the Yilgarn and Tanzania cratons and the Superior Province. Mantle-derived magmatic Cr, Ni, Cu, and PGE deposits are present but small compared to those of other cratons. The Dharwar Craton has a rather muted metallogenic fingerprint apart from its Archean Fe and Mn deposits, plus relatively restricted, but nonetheless world class, orogenic gold systems, and its Proterozoic copper systems (Mishra et al., 2018).

5.2.6

Unique Archean to Paleoproterozoic mineral systems

Although there are rare Mesozoic komatiites on Gorgona Island because of anomalous mantle plume activity (Arndt et al., 1997), komatiites are mainly confined to the hotter Archean Earth because they form from high-degree mantle partial melts (Arndt et al., 2002). Thus komatiite-hosted Ni Cu deposits, comprising massive, matrix, and disseminated sulfide ores (Fig. 3.17), normally with low PGEs, are largely restricted to Archean greenstone belts (Barnes, 2006), where the exceedingly high temperatures of the eruption have resulted in ground melting (Lesher, 1989; Frost and Groves, 1989). However, there are also deposits, including Raglan, in the Paleoproterozoic Cape Smith belt of Canada (Fig. 5.6). Although there are Ni Cu PGE deposits hosted by mafic ultramafic intrusions in Archean greenstone belts, including the newly discovered Pd-rich Julimar deposit in Western Australia (https://chalicegold.com/project/julimar-nickel-copperPGE-project), most of these deposits are younger than about 2.0 Ga (Arndt et al., 2005; Cawthorn et al., 2005). Fig. 5.6 clearly shows the temporal difference between the largely post2.0 Ga giant mafic intrusion-hosted Ni Cu PGE deposits and the pre-2.0 Ga giant layered intrusion-hosted PGE, Cr, and V deposits. This appears counterintuitive because the latter involved intrusion of enormous volumes of dense basic magma into magma chambers (Cawthorn et al., 2005) that were up to one third of the total thickness of the crust at a time when buoyant mantle lithosphere appears to be limited (Condie, 2004). It is suggested that these giant PGE Cr V systems provide an important parameter for the recognition of fragments of the earliest supercontinent Ur (Rogers and Santosh, 2003) whose timing is shown in Fig. 5.6. For example, the ca. 2.06 Ga Bushveld Complex coexists in the Kaapvaal Craton with some of the oldest preserved 3.5 3.4 Ga

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FIGURE 5.6 Distribution of komatiite-associated Ni Cu, mafic ultramafic intrusion-hosted Ni Cu PGE, and layered magic intrusion-hosted PGE, Cr, and V systems in terms of the supercontinent cycle. As the deposits are multicommodity, the deposits are classified into world-class to giant, giant, and supergiant categories for simplicity of presentation. World-class and giant are used in the sense of Singer (1995) throughout. Supergiant refers to the largest deposit or deposit cluster in its mineral system globally. Data mainly derived from Naldrett (1999), Arndt et al. (2005), and Cawthorn et al. (2005).

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komatiite-bearing greenstone belts (Robin-Popieul et al., 2012) and the world’s largest kimberlite-related diamond province (Field et al., 2008). The ca. 2.55 Ga Great Dyke resides in the adjacent equally old Zimbabwe Craton (Kusky, 1998), which also has diamond fields. The Stillwater Complex, sited in the Wyoming Craton or Hearne Domain of the ’North American Craton’ appears analogous with adjacent gneissic units representing some of the oldest rocks on Earth (Chamberlain and Mueller, 2019), and hosting a rare significant USA diamond field (Hausel., 1998). The B2.8 Ga giant Ti V-bearing Windimurra intrusion of the Murchison Province of the Yilgarn Craton, equivalent to a largely unexposed Bushveld Complex (Ivanic et al., 2017), lies only B200 km south of the Narryer Gneiss Complex with some of the world’s most ancient rocks and detrital zircons.

5.3 5.3.1

Supercontinent cycles Assembly and dispersal of supercontinents

Continental blocks were episodically assembled into large landmasses called supercontinents via multiple episodes of convergence, accretion, and final collision. Rogers and Santosh (2003, 2004) defined supercontinents as the maximum closely packed assembly of the majority of crustal fragments on the globe at a specific time. The periodic assembly, tectonic evolution, and dispersal of supercontinents are defined as a supercontinent cycle (Nance et al., 2014). Successive supercontinent cycles have had a significant impact on various Earth components including its geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere (Murphy and Nance, 2003; Rogers and Santosh, 2003, 2004; Meert and Lieberman, 2008; Santosh, 2010b; Young, 2013; Nance et al., 2014), as well as on its mineral systems (Pirajno and Santosh, 2015). As noted above, plate tectonics, particularly subduction, plays a key role in assembling continental fragments and generating mineral systems. Maruyama et al. (2007) demonstrated that double-sided subduction is a key factor to juxtapose large continents, using the Western Pacific as an example and suggested that this region is the frontier of the future supercontinent Amasia. Based on their Y-shaped topology, Santosh et al. (2009a) identified two major subduction zones on the globe: the Circum-Pacific subduction zone and the Tethyan subduction zone. They proposed that the process of formation of supercontinents is controlled by super downwelling that develops through the action of double-sided subduction (Fig. 5.7A). The triangular regions with Y-shaped topology are suggested to selectively refrigerate the underlying mantle, through subduction of oceanic lithosphere, and thus promote stronger downwelling. This process is proposed to eventually result in the runaway growth of super-downwelling, pulling together the continental fragments on the surface into a tight assembly. Numeral modeling based on mobile deformable continents, which include oceanic plates, indicates that

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FIGURE 5.7 (A) The concept of Y-shaped triple junction and ’super-downwelling’ through subduction that pulls together multiple continental fragments into a supercontinent assembly. (B) Cartoon illustrating superplume rising from the core mantle boundary and leading to disruption of supercontinents. (A) From Santosh, M., Maruyama, S., Omori, S., 2009a. A fluid factory in solid Earth. Lithosphere 1, 29 33; (B) after Santosh, M., Maruyama, S., Sato, K., 2009b. Anatomy of a Cambrian suture in Gondwana: Pacific-type orogeny in southern India? Gondwana Res. 16, 321 341. Published with permission from Elsevier.

supercontinent assembly induces an increase in a temperature beneath the large landmass due to thermal insulation. This thermal insulation would result in a global-scale reorganization of mantle flow to generate degree-one convection, where upwelling in one hemisphere is balanced by downwelling in the other, thus explaining the periodicity of supercontinent cycles (Yoshida and Santosh, 2011). Once assembled, supercontinents would act as thermal blankets over the mantle, eventually leading to their breakup. During

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the process of continent assembly through multiple subduction systems, the subducted oceanic lithosphere is projected to either migrate down to the deep mantle or accumulate horizontally as stagnant slabs in the mantle transition zone. These stagnant slabs should then sink into the deep mantle and accumulate as slab graveyards at the core mantle boundary (Maruyama et al., 2007). Their recycling at the core mantle boundary contributes potential thermal energy to generate superplumes, which rise eventually to form hot spots and fragment the supercontinents (Santosh, 2010b, and references therein). Plumes and even superplumes may also form from mantle transition zones. Not only do superplumes cause breakup of large continent assemblies, but they also act as gigantic pipe-like conduits that transfer metals and volatiles from the core to the mantle, then through the crust and into the atmosphere (Fig. 5.7B). There is no specific timeframe for supercontinent cycles. Stochastic models demonstrate that mantle convection is a major factor in dictating the amalgamation of supercontinents (Zhang et al., 2009). Consequently, supercontinents can be assembled in about 250 Myr if the lithosphere and lower mantle are stronger than the upper mantle, thus enabling a highly convecting mantle. However, the assembly time is protracted where mantle flow is intrinsically restricted. The rates of migration of continents to assemble a supercontinent depend on factors such as mantle temperature anomalies and polar motion. Double-sided or multiple subduction zones could promote the rapid assembly of continents into supercontinents (Maruyama et al., 2007; Santosh et al., 2009a). Unfortunately, there is no clear consensus between the timescales and processes of supercontinent assemblies as proposed from geological parameters and those associated with mantle dynamics (Santosh et al., 2009a; Nance et al., 2014). Based on a global synthesis of the formation of cratons and orogenic belts, Rogers and Santosh (2003, 2004) traced the oldest supercontinent assemblies of Ur (ca. 3.0 Ga), ’Arctica’ (ca. 2.5 Ga) and ’Atlantica’ (ca. 2.0 Ga), which remained coherent until the breakup of Pangea. Introducing the concept of ’maximum close packing,’ they proposed that most of the Earth’s continental blocks were assembled into single closely packed assemblies at least three times during the Proterozoic. Rogers and Santosh (2002) also proposed and coined the term Columbia for the Earth’s first coherent supercontinent that was assembled during the Paleoproterozoic. There have been diverse models and proposals on the supercontinents that shaped the Earth during the past three billion years, and from the oldest to the youngest these are now generally accepted as follows: Ur (3.0 Ga), Kenorland (2.7 25 Ga), Columbia (1.9 1.8 Ga), Rodinia (1.1 Ga), Gondwana (0.54 Ga), and Pangea (0.25 Ga). Several other configurations such as Valbaara (3.2 Ga) and Pannotia (0.7 Ga), among others, have also been postulated, although there is little convincing evidence for their existence (Nance et al., 2014), as also discussed above for Valbaara because of the contrasting early metallogenesis of the Kaapvaal and Pilbara cratons.

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FIGURE 5.8 Age ranges of the assembly, outgrowth, and disruption of the major supercontinents in Earth history as followed in this textbook. Adapted from Santosh, M., Groves, D.I., 2022. Global metallogeny in relation to secular evolution of the Earth and supercontinent cycles. Gondwana Res. 107, 395 422. Published with permission from Elsevier.

5.3.2

Supercontinents through Earth history

In this chapter, based on a balanced synthesis of diverse temporal models of Earth history, the following classification of the major supercontinents and their approximate timescales of assembly and breakup are adopted (Fig. 5.8). and portrayed on relevant figures that show the temporal distribution of different mineral systems. Ur: assembly during 3.1 3.0 Ga; breakup during 2.95 2.5 Ga (peak at 2.8 Ga). Kenorland: assembly during 2.7 2.4 Ga (peak at 2.6 2.5 Ga). Columbia: assembly during 2.0 1.8 Ga; long-lived subduction-related orogeny along the margins during 1.5 1.35 Ga; final breakup at 1.3 1.2 Ga. Rodinia: assembly during 1.1 1.0 Ga; breakup at ca. 750 Ma. Gondwana: assembly during 600 500 Ma. Pangea: lifetime 300 180 Ma.

5.4 Mineral systems and their relationship to the supercontinent system 5.4.1

Critical parameters of mineral systems

As discussed above, the mineral systems concept involves four parameters, Geodynamics, Fertility, Architecture, and Preservation (Fig. 1), with Geodynamics and Preservation the key parameters in charting Earth’s evolution. Geodynamics reflects the tectonic setting and evolution of Earth’s terranes, but Preservation is the key constraint (Groves et al., 2005b). As

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indicated above, it is only those mineral systems that form in basins on the continental crust or within continental crust with thick buoyant mantle lithosphere due to its intrinsic isopycnic density, those that form at deep crustal levels, and/or those that form in oceanic basins with rapid sediment burial that can be preserved and thus be useful markers of Earth’s evolutionary processes. By contrast, those that form in actively uplifting volcanic arcs or transitory rift zones are likely to be eroded and thus only reflect processes in an evolved, generally Mesozoic to Cenozoic Earth. Other mineral systems may be restricted to specific times in Earth history when there is a rare conjunction of anomalous tectonic, thermal, and preservation conditions. In the subsequent discussion, both those mineral systems that were developed throughout Earth history and those that formed at specific times are discussed in the context of the supercontinent cycle, with Chapter 6 specifically dedicated to the so-called ’Boring Billion’ (Brasier and Lindsay, 1998). The tectonic processes on the early Earth are still contentious as discussed above. However, as some of the mineral systems, for example, orogenic gold and VMS systems, in known Phanerozoic to Quaternary subduction-related tectonic settings extend back to the Paleoarchean in similar host rocks and interpreted tectonic settings, Paleoarchean subduction is likely. Thus the model discussed above and summarized by Windley et al. (2021) in which plate tectonics, albeit modified by mantle activity, extended back to at least the Eoarchean is followed here.

5.4.2

Mineral systems formed in convergent margin environments

In modern convergent margins, the most common mineral systems are porphyry Cu Au Mo, epithermal Au Ag, VMS Cu Zn Pb, and orogenic Au systems (Groves et al., 2021, and references therein). Of these, the epithermal systems normally form at very high crustal levels in rapidly uplifting arcs, such that they are mostly of Cenozoic age and rarely preserved beyond the Cretaceous (Simmons et al., 2005). Thus they are unlikely to reflect the supercontinent cycle as they largely postdate the breakup of Gondwana and Pangea. Porphyry-skarn Cu Au Mo systems form at slightly deeper crustal levels in the same arc systems and have a similar peak Cretaceous to Cenozoic timing but better preservation into the Paleozoic and even rarely into the Precambrian (Sillitoe, 2010). Thus they have the potential to reflect the supercontinent cycle. VMS Cu Zn Pb deposits, which formed in back-arc basins throughout Earth history, were commonly preserved under rapidly deposited sediment sequences and later added to accretionary orogens. As such, they are well represented throughout Earth history (Franklin et al., 2005) and are therefore useful tectonic markers. Orogenic gold deposits mostly formed at deep crustal levels late in the evolution of orogenic belts under mild transpression

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and are hence arguably the best mineral system in terms of preservation throughout the geological record (Goldfarb et al., 2007). As such, they are the first mineral system discussed next.

5.4.2.1 Orogenic gold systems The major characteristics of orogenic gold systems are presented in Section 2.3 and Figs. 2.10 2.15. As summarized by Goldfarb et al. (2001), Goldfarb et al. (2005), and Groves et al. (2010) and shown in Fig. 5.9C, the earliest, sparse orogenic gold deposits formed in convergent margin settings in the eastern Pilbara Craton and the Barberton Mountainland of the Kaapvaal Craton at 3.4 3.1 Ga (Zegers et al., 2002), just before the assembly of Ur. There was then a major period of orogenic gold metallogeny between 2.75 and 2.55 Ga with a strong peak at 2.65 Ga in greenstone belts in Western Australia, eastern Canada, Tanzania, DRC, and Zimbabwe. This coincided broadly with the assembly of Kenorland as expected from the convergent margin settings of the orogenic gold systems. The next major peak was between about B2160 and 2030 Ga in the Birimian greenstone belts of West Africa (Goldfarb et al., 2017), broadly coincident with the assembly of Columbia (Fig. 5.9C). The enigmatic solitary giant ca. 1.74 Ga Homestake deposit (Morelli et al., 2010), in Dakota is discussed in Chapter 6. There was then a B1000-million-year hiatus in the formation of abundant orogenic gold deposits during the Boring Billion from the breakup of Columbia to the assembly of Rodinia. This period broadly coincided with a decline in mantle plume activity and the evolution of thinner less-buoyant mantle lithosphere (Griffin et al., 2009), suggesting that the lack of deposits may in part represent a preservation effect rather than a lack of orogenic gold metallogeny. This is supported to some degree by the widespread high-grade metamorphism of the Grenvillian orogenic belts that preceded assembly of Rodinia (Meert and Powell, 2001). Their uplift and erosion would normally have removed all but the rare hypozonal orogenic gold deposits that may have formed in the deep crust. The occurrence of small (,1 moz Au) orogenic gold deposits in rare greenschist domains in the Grenvillian Sunsas belt of the Amazon Craton (Geraldes et al., 1997) lends some support to this model, although more important geodynamic factors were also at play, as discussed in Chapter 6. Before the final breakup of Rodinia, the orogenic gold systems of Siberia, including the giant Olympiada deposit (Gibsher et al., 2019), were followed by the Neoproterozoic greenstone-hosted deposits of the Arabian Nubian Shield (Johnson et al., 2017) that were assembled into Gondwana. The temporally spaced orogenic gold distributions of the Precambrian were replaced by more episodic Paleozoic distributions related to the complex tectonic evolution of Gondwana and Pangea with globally distributed systems, including those in Australasia, southern central Europe, and central Asia, forming largely along the margins of Gondwana and around the closing Paleo-Tethys Ocean (Goldfarb et al., 2001: their Fig. 7). Mesozoic breakup of Pangea and

FIGURE 5.9 Temporal distribution of significant mineral systems formed throughout Earth history in subduction-related convergent margin settings in terms of the supercontinent cycle. (A) porphyry Cu Au systems with distribution strongly negatively affected by preservation in rapidly uplifting volcanic arcs. Boddington is a major exception due to the preservation of the host arc system on ancient gneiss terrane with thick lithosphere: mainly from Groves et al. (2005b) with upgraded data for Boddington from Porter (2017a,b). (B) VMS Cu Zn Pb systems: updated from Groves et al. (2005b). (C) Orogenic gold systems updated from Goldfarb et al. (2005), mainly with data from Western Australia (Phillips Ed., 2017b) and eastern China (Goldfarb et al., 2019) as globally significant gold producers. All histograms of deposit sizes should be considered indicative rather than definitive as it is impossible to obtain accurate resource data for several countries from published references and these data will change each subsequent year: most data updated in 2018. Adapted from Santosh, M., Groves, D.I., 2022. Global metallogeny in relation to secular evolution of the Earth and supercontinent cycles. Gondwana Res. 107, 395 422. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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development of the Paleo-Pacific and Pacific Oceans created an array of complex circum-Pacific subduction zones with associated convergent margins in which many great orogenic gold belts formed in North America, Russian Far East, and northeastern China (Goldfarb et al., 2001, 2005, 2019). Delamination of the mantle lithosphere in the North China Craton created additional complexity with the consequent rapid formation of the Lower Cretaceous giant Jiaodong orogenic gold province (Fig. 39: Goldfarb and Santosh, 2014; Deng et al., 2020c; Zhang et al., 2020a,b). The youngest economically significant orogenic gold systems are those that formed on the Tibetan Plateau during the Cenozoic collision between India and Eurasia. They formed successively in a normal collision zone, then an oblique collision zone, and then finally in the Himalayan zone. They therefore reflect periodic episodes of gold mineralization broadly synchronous with multistage decline in convergence rates between the India and Eurasia Plates, as significantly controlled by lithosphere-scale mantle flow (Hou et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2022). Post-Pangea orogenic gold metallogeny in China (Goldfarb et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2022) thus appears to represent the most complex sequence of gold events in an evolving geodynamic setting globally.

5.4.2.2 Volcanogenic massive sulfide systems VMS Cu Zn Pb systems are described in Section 3.3.3 and shown schematically in Fig. 3.7. They are submarine hydrothermal systems that typically form in extensional settings ranging from mid-ocean ridges to rifted arcs and back-arc basins (Barrie and Hannington, 1999; Franklin et al., 2005; Leach, 2010). They are normally preserved by incorporation into accretionary belts in convergent margins and hence are commonly spatially associated with orogenic gold deposits, with their temporal distribution (Fig. 5.9B) broadly reflecting that of orogenic gold systems. The earliest significant VMS deposits are recorded from the eastern Pilbara Craton at ca. 3.24 Ga (Brauhart et al., 1998) just before the assembly of Ur. Other Mesoarchean VMS deposits formed in the Murchison greenstone belt of South Africa at ca. 2.97 Ga (Schwartz-Schampers et al., 2010) and at Golden Grove in the Murchison Province of the Yilgarn Craton (Gellie et al., 2017). As for orogenic gold deposits, there was a maximum in VMS mineralization at ca. 2.7 Ga during the assembly of Kenorland. The premier VMS province is in the Abitibi Belt of Ontario and Quebec in Canada, where numerous worldclass to giant deposits including Horne and Kidd Creek were formed (Franklin et al., 2005), many of them anomalously enriched in gold (Mercier-Langevin et al., 2011). Unlike the orogenic gold systems that peaked at ca. 2.0 Ga during the assembly of Columbia, Paleoproterozoic VMS deposits in the Flin Flon region of Manitoba, Canada formed at ca. 1.88 Ga (Syme and Bailes, 1993), closer to the time of formation of the anomalous Homestake orogenic gold deposit.

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There was then the .1-billion-year hiatus of the Boring Billion before the formation of abundant Paleozoic VMS deposits in Kazakhstan, the Urals, Spain, and Tasmania (Groves et al., 2005a, and references therein), mainly associated with the assembly of Gondwana and Pangea and the evolution of Paleo-Tethys and Tethys. Deposits then formed in British Columbian arcs in the Mesozoic (Peter et al., 2014), close to the time of the breakup of Gondwana and Pangea, and subsequently in Japanese arcs (Wang et al., 2021), which host the most recent world-class deposits globally.

5.4.2.3 Porphyry Cu Au Mo systems Porphyry Cu Au Mo deposits (Section 2.2: Figs.2.2 2.9) form part of a mineral system that also involves high-sulfidation Au Ag deposits and skarn Fe Cu Au Mo Sn W deposits. These systems were deposited from magmatic-hydrothermal fluids derived from porphyry bodies that lie adjacent to, or below, the ore deposits in volcanic, island, and continental arcs in convergent margins (Sillitoe, 2010, 2020). They are most abundant around the circum-Pacific in complex subduction settings in the continental arcs of the Andes, and in the island arcs of southeast Asia and the southwest Pacific (Garwin et al., 2005). Some also formed during postcollisional extension in the Tibetan Orogen (Hou et al., 2009). They are part of calcalkaline water-rich and oxidized porphyry-related systems of variable composition (Mu¨ller and Groves, 2019 and references therein) whose source is interpreted to be Au-enriched metasomatized mantle lithosphere fertilized via low-degree partial melting of deeper mantle during earlier, possibly subduction-related, thermal events (Tatsumi and Eggins, 1995; Loucks, 2014). High-K and alkaline porphyries are particularly gold rich (Mu¨ller and Groves, 2019). Unlike orogenic gold systems that generally formed at .5 m depth during the waning phase of compression and tectonic shortening, porphyry-related systems normally formed between 3 and 5 km beneath the paleo-surface (Seedorff et al., 2005; Mu¨ller and Groves, 2019). They also formed much earlier during an early transient extensionalcompressional phase followed by extreme tectonic shortening and uplift (Mpodozis and Cornejo, 2012). As calculations by McInnes et al. (2005) for several world-class porphyry Cu Au systems using thermochronology suggest uplift rates of 0.26 0.72 km per million years, porphyry-related systems are rare before the Cenozoic with a high proportion being postMiocene (Fig. 5.9A). In terms of the supercontinent cycle, these young porphyry systems form part of a global network of convergence that will generate the assembly of a new supercontinent, Amasia (Mitchell et al., 2012). The oldest, well-documented Mo-rich porphyry-related systems (Barley, 1982) occur in the same Paleoarchean to Mesoarchean greenstones belts in the Pilbara

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Craton, Western Australia as the oldest orogenic gold deposits and predate Ur but are subeconomic and not shown in Fig. 5.9A. The large peak, broadly coincident with the assembly of Kenorland, represents the giant Au-rich Boddington Au Cu Mo Ag deposit hosted within an isolated, low metamorphic grade greenstone belt lying on high-grade gneisses in the southwest Yilgarn Craton (Porter, 2017b). Although it is considered enigmatic (Turner et al., 2020), it resembles diorite-associated porphyry systems in terms of metal association, high-T alteration assemblages derived from high-T high-salinity ore fluids, and strong lateral zonation. It is interpreted here that it was preserved because it was a porphyry deposit hosted by a Neoarchean arc that was thrust back on to Paleoarchean metamorphic basement with thick buoyant mantle lithosphere during subduction below the eastern Yilgarn Block. There are only minor porphyry provinces related to the assembly of Columbia and Rodinia, followed by an approximately 2-billion-year gap until the next recorded major porphyry province. The earliest post-Rodinia porphyry systems, including the giant Oyu Tolgoi quartz-monzonite porphyry Cu Au Mo system, with its high-grade Hugo Dummett deposit, developed in the long-lived Kazakh-Mongol arc in the late Devonian (Porter, 2016b) broadly coincident with the early evolution of the Paleo Tethys Ocean (Fig. 5.9A). Goldfarb et al. (2014) suggest that they formed in a near-shore oceanic arc along the margins of closing oceanic basins with juvenile intra-oceanic arc-related basalts and pyroclastic rocks recorded by Porter (2016b). Upper Jurassic to Cretaceous examples, broadly coincident with the breakup of Gondwana and Pangea, include those in postcollisional arcs such as Pebble, Alaska (Olson et al., 2017) and in postcollisional or intra-continental settings such as the Cu Au or Mo 6 W porphyry-systems sited close to the North China and Yangtze craton margins in eastern China and Tibet (Mao et al., 2013). The latter include Mo porphyry-skarn systems such as Jiguanshan, Jinduicheng, and Shapinggou (Zhang et al., 2019) in the largest Mo province globally with .3 mt Mo metal (Bao et al., 2014; Chen et al., 2017).

5.4.3 Magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal systems formed near craton margins The three major magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal systems that formed near craton margins over a significant period of the supercontinent cycle (Groves and Santosh, 2021), are mafic intrusion-hosted Ni Cu PGE deposits (Fig. 5.6), IOCG deposits, and Kiruna-type Fe P deposits (Fig. 5.10). Unlike the convergent margin mineral systems described above that relate to the assembly of at least the Precambrian supercontinents, these systems formed after assembly of the supercontinents except for anomalous Mesozoic deposits in the Andes.

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FIGURE 5.10 Temporal distribution of iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) systems (top figure) and comparison to Kiruna-type iron oxide P systems (middle and bottom figures) in relation to the supercontinent cycle. Derived from Groves et al. (2010) with updates for Olympic Dam (Ehrig et al., 2017) and Carajas (Xavier et al., 2012). From Santosh and Groves (2022). Published with permission from Elsevier.

5.4.3.1 Mafic intrusion-hosted Ni Cu PGE systems Nickel Cu PGE systems are classified in terms of their deposit style (Arndt et al., 2005) or their host mafic ultramafic intrusions (Barnes and Lightfoot, 2005). In terms of tectonic settings, they can be simply subdivided into three main groups: (1) komatiite-associated Ni Cu deposits (Fig. 3.7); (2) giant PGE deposits in giant layered intrusions, such as the Bushveld and Stillwater Complexes, as discussed above (Fig. 3.16); and (3) Ni Cu-(PGE) deposits that generally form in magma conduits in smaller mafic ultramafic intrusions (Fig. 3.18). It is the Ni Cu (PGE) deposits that are considered first.

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Magmatic Ni Cu (PGE) systems are described in Section 3.6.3 and shown schematically in Fig. 3.18. Their complex massive to disseminated pyrrhotite pentlandite chalcopyrite ores are hosted by a wide variety of mafic ultramafic rocks (Naldrett, 2004; Barnes and Lightfoot, 2005) and have low PGEs except for the Noril’sk ores of Russia (Naldrett, 2004). Most intrusions were sourced from mantle peridotite, but some Phanerozoic examples were derived from metasomatized mantle lithosphere (Lu et al., 2019). As discussed in Chapter 9, most of the world’s large Ni Cu deposits are located within 100 km of the faulted margins of stable cratons (Begg et al., 2010; Maier and Groves, 2011), allowing preservation and hence tracking of the evolution of supercontinents. Due to this preservation control, intrusion-related Ni Cu PGE systems are recorded in an episodic pattern from the Paleoproterozoic to the Mesozoic (Fig. 5.6), with the recent discovery of the Julimar Pd-rich Ni Cu PGE Co deposit in the Gonneville Intrusion in Western Australia (https://chalicegold.com/project/julimar-nickel-copper-PGE-project) potentially extending this back to the Neoarchean. Most deposits, as dictated by their magma sources, formed during intra-plate tectonic events during the lifetime of the supercontinents. However, Pechenga, with a similar timing to the Bushveld Complex formed close to the assembly of Kenorland, and Duluth formed close to the assembly of Rodinia (Fig. 5.6). Many deposits are related to LIPs (Lesher, 2019) with the giant PGE Ni Cu deposits of Noril’sk-Talnakh, the world’s largest Pd repository, in the giant Siberian LIPs (Barnes et al., 2020), being the standout example. Although the giant Sudbury system is widely interpreted to relate to a meteorite impact (Keays and Lightfoot, 2004), the ca 1.85 Ga emplacement age of the body broadly coincides with the incipient breakup and reassembly of Columbia (Fig. 5.8).

5.4.3.2 Iron oxide copper gold systems The magmatic-hydrothermal IOCG group of deposits that are temporally related to alkaline subalkaline magmatism are described in Section 3.4.5. Precambrian systems dominate the IOCG group in terms of both copper and gold resources (Williams et al., 2015; Groves et al., 2010). Archean examples are represented by the world-class Salobo, Cristalino, Sossego, and Igarape Bahia-Alemao deposits in the Carajas Province of Brazil on the eastern edge of the Southern Amazon Craton (Grainger et al., 2008). Mesoproterozoic examples include the giant Olympic Dam deposit (Ehrig et al., 2017: Fig. 3.12), the adjacent worldclass Prominent Hill and Carrapateena deposits on the margin of the Gawler Craton, and Ernest Henry at Cloncurry (Lilly et al., 2017). Younger examples include the Neoproterozoic world-class Khetri deposit in India and the giant Cretaceous Candelaria (Contreras et al., 2018) and Manto Verde deposits in the tectonically anomalous Coastal Cordillera of Chile (Williams et al., 2005; Groves et al., 2010).

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The Precambrian IOCG deposits with .100 Mt resources are situated in intra-plate settings close to the margins of Archean or Paleoproterozoic cratons or other lithospheric boundaries and formed 100 200 Myr after assembly of the Kenorland and Rodinia supercontinents and outgrowth of Columbia (Fig. 5.10). The anomalous giant Mesoproterozoic Dahongshan Fe Cu Au deposit (Wang et al., 2020), located on the southwestern margin of the Yangtze Craton, broadly overlaps the temporal peak that includes Olympic Dam and formed during the outgrowth of Columbia. As it has anomalous features relative to undoubted IOCG deposits, it is not shown in Fig. 5.10. For the Precambrian IOCGs, intracratonic magmatism and associated hydrothermal activity are interpreted to have been driven by asthenosphere upwelling and mantle plumes and resultant low-degree partial melting of subduction-related volatile-rich and metal-enriched metasomatized SCLM to produce hybrid magmas (Groves et al., 2020a). Preservation was possible due to the formation of IOCGs above buoyant mantle lithosphere with its deep roots (Groves and Santosh, 2021). Phanerozoic IOCG deposits such as Candelaria (Contreras et al., 2018) occur in post-Gondwana Pangea breakup (Fig. 5.10) anomalous extensional to transtensional zones in the Coastal Cordillera, which are also the site of anomalous mantle-derived mafic to felsic intrusions (Groves et al., 2010). As discussed in Section 3.4.5, the timing of mineralization at ca 115 Ma is broadly coincident with the giant Cretaceous mantle plume in the Pacific Ocean (Bierlein and Pisarevsky, 2008). It is postulated that detached slabs of metasomatized SCLM are required in anomalous convergent margin settings to generate world-class IOCG deposits. It is suggested that formation and preservation of giant IOCG deposits was largely a Precambrian process related to concerted activity of mantle plumes that impacted on buoyant metasomatized mantle lithosphere, with Phanerozoic IOCG deposits forming only rarely in tectonic settings where Precambrian conditions were replicated.

5.4.3.3 Kiruna-type Fe P systems The highly anomalous group of magnetite apatite deposits, widely known as Kiruna-type deposits, are described in Section 3.4.4 and Fig. 3.11, which shows the location of the historically long-mined giant late-Paleoproterozoic Kiruna deposit in the Norrbotten Region of the Fennoscandian Shield in northern Sweden. As Kiruna-type deposits have been grouped by some authors with IOCGs, they are discussed next in terms of their timing relative to IOCGs within the supercontinent cycle (Fig. 5.10). Although Kiruna-type iron ores have been grouped with IOCG deposits, as summarized by Williams et al. (2005), there are several important differences including: (1) their restriction to felsic volcanic host rocks; (2) their tabular, strata-parallel geometry compared to near-vertical breccia pipes; (3)

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the general absence of significant Cu and Au, with the exception of some minor deposits in the Norrbotten Region; and (4) the presence of silicification. As noted by Groves et al. (2010), there are also differences in terms of their temporal relationships to the supercontinent cycle (Fig. 5.10). There are no Archean equivalents of the Carajas IOCGs that formed in Kenorland and there are no deposits of equivalent age to the giant Mesoproterozoic IOCGs of the Gawler Craton. Instead, the Paleoproterozoic Kiruna deposits formed close to the assembly of Columbia while the Pea Ridge deposits formed at the end of outgrowth-beginning of the breakup of Columbia, and Benson formed during the assembly of Rodinia, much earlier than the Neoproterozoic IOCGs in Rajasthan.

5.5 Mineral deposits as sensitive indicators of Earth evolution 5.5.1

Coupled metallogenic and supercontinent cycles

As discussed in Chapter 1, mineral systems are highly anomalous concentrations of economic elements on Earth, and hence their formation requires a critical combination of factors from appropriate geodynamic settings, through to element sources, thermal drivers, precipitation mechanisms, and preservation mechanisms. Thus mineral systems are sensitive indicators of evolving processes through Earth history. Their evolution is summarized in Fig. 5.11. In terms of the supercontinent cycle, the crustal blocks comprising the first supercontinent Ur at ca. 3.1 3.0 Ga are difficult to define. However, the preservation of anomalously old mineral deposits in some continental belts or cratons can provide important evidence. Importantly, Eoarchean BIFs are exposed at Isua in Greenland, and significant Paleoarchean to Mesoarchean orogenic gold deposits are preserved on both the Kaapvaal and eastern Pilbara Cratons. Several of the cratons, particularly the adjacent Kaapvaal and Zimbabwe Cratons, have core-like (Ti, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, PGE) metal fingerprints (Fig. 5.5) that suggest they originated in zones of early Earth mantle overturn (s). The breakup of Ur at ca. 3.0 Ga witnessed the evolution of extensive sedimentary basins, including the foreland basin that hosted the supergiant ca. 2.95 2.7 Ga Witwatersrand gold uranium paleoplacer systems of the Kaapvaal Craton, whose longevity again points to the incorporation in Ur of at least segments of the Kaapvaal Craton. The assembly of Kenorland from 2.7 to 2.4 Ga, peaking at 2.6 2.5 Ga, involved one of the major metallogenic periods in Earth history. The world’s largest komatiite-associated Ni Cu systems formed because of mantle plume or mantle overturn events, and giant gold-rich submarine VMS systems formed in back-arc basins in convergent margins. This also represents one of

FIGURE 5.11 Temporal distribution of a variety of important mineral deposit classes in relation to the supercontinent cycle. For Colombia, only the assembly phase is shown. Compiled from a wide variety of sources including Hedenquist, J.W., Thompson, J.F.H., Goldfarb, R.J., Richards, J.P. (Eds.), 2005. Economic Geology One Hundredth Anniversary Volume. Soc. Econ. Geol., Littleton, Colorado, 1136 pp. and adapted from Santosh, M., Groves, D.I., 2022. Global metallogeny in relation to secular evolution of the Earth and supercontinent cycles. Gondwana Res. 107, 395 422. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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the most intensive global periods of orogenic gold mineralization in convergent margins, with giant and world-class gold systems now located in several cratons. The contrasting metallogenic fingerprints of the Neoarchean greenstone belts that resulted from mantle plume-influenced plate tectonics, for example, the giant orogenic gold and VMS association in the Superior Province compared to the giant orogenic gold, komatiite Ni Cu, and Li (spodumene) pegmatite association (Section 3.6.1) in the Yilgarn Craton, suggests that individual subcircular cratons formed before their incorporation into Kenorland. In addition, the broadly synchronous emplacement of voluminous basic magmas to produce the giant Ni Cu PGE deposits of the Stillwater Complex in the Wyoming Craton and Great Dyke in the Zimbabwe Craton supports the concept that these were fragments of Ur with residual thick lithosphere incorporated into Kenorland. Late Neoarchean giant IOCG deposits formed at Carajas in the Southern Amazon Craton late in the assembly and consolidation of Kenorland. The formation of Kenorland allowed global shallow marine basins to develop on widespread continental margins. These extensive basins became the sites of deposition of sedimentary sequences that included thick BIFs, some manganiferous, between 2.6 and 2.4 Ga. The subsequent modification of the oxide-facies BIFs produced the greatly enriched iron ore provinces in the world in Australia, Brazil, and Africa, while the Mn-enriched BIFs in Namibia remain an enormous manganese resource. There was then a hiatus in global metallogeny until the assembly of Columbia at ca. 2.0 1.8 Ga with continued outgrowth along its margins until ca. 1.5 Ga producing a more temporarily dispersed metallogenic history than that of Kenorland assembly. Giant Paleoproterozoic orogenic gold provinces, particularly in West Africa, and VMS provinces, particularly in northern Canada, formed in convergent margins as in the Neoarchean, but porphyry Cu Au and komatiite Ni Cu deposits were much less abundant. The evolution of Columbia appears to mark the transition from giant layered intrusionrelated PGE Cr Ti V systems to intrusion-related Ni Cu PGE systems. Emplacement of the youngest of the giant layered intrusion-related PGE Cr Ti V systems, the Paleoproterozoic supergiant Bushveld Complex, was broadly coincident with that of the giant intrusion-related Ni Cu PGE system at Pechenga, with the supergiant Sudbury Complex emplaced later in Columbia evolution, albeit related in some way to a meteorite impact. The Paleoproterozoic supergiant Kiruna Fe-P systems were also emplaced during Columbia assembly, whereas the smaller Mesoproterozoic Pea Ridge deposits formed during its initial breakup. The Mesoproterozoic outgrowth history of Columbia is discussed in more detail in Chapter 6 on the Boring Billion and is only summarized here. It represented a major metallogenic period with formation of IOCG systems, including the supergiant Olympic Dam Cu Au U deposit (Fig. 3.12), Broken-Hill-type systems, including the supergiant Broken Hill Pb Zn Ag

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deposit (Fig. 3.5), and SEDEX Cu Zn Pb Ag systems, including the giant Mt Isa, HYC (Fig. 3.3), and Century deposits. Many of these deposits are sited in Australia, but the giant Sullivan SEDEX deposit is in British Columbia in Canada and there are significant Broken Hill-type deposits, including Gamsberg, in South Africa. The formation of the giant Mesoproterozoic unconformity-type U deposits of the Athabasca Basin of Canada (Fig. 3.2) and Alligator Rivers Province of Australia appears to be related to the initiation of breakup of Columbia. Major diamond deposits, including the kimberlite-hosted Premier deposit (Fig. 3.14) in South Africa and the giant Argyle diamond-bearing lamproite pipe in Australia (Gurney et al., 2005), first appeared at around 1.2 Ga during Columbia breakup. The period from the early outgrowth phase of Columbia to Gondwana assembly was represented by relatively minor metallogeny, including orogenic gold, VMS, and porphyry-style deposits, typical of convergent margins. This may have been related to a lack of preservation due to a decline in mantle temperatures and consequent reduction in the thickness and buoyancy of the mantle lithosphere. However, the preservation of intrusion-related Ni Cu PGE deposits at Voisey’s Bay, Duluth, and Jinchuan, China during the late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic reflected their proximity to thick mantle lithosphere, as did the preservation of the Benson Fe P and Rajasthan IOGD deposits. The late Neoproterozoic pre-Gondwana period was also the period of formation of the controversial Zambian Copper Belt systems, again close to the margins of Archean-Paleoproterozoic thick lithosphere blocks. This Neoproterozoic metallogeny is also represented by mineral systems in the greenstone belts of the Arabian Nubian Shield, which formed in convergent margins now represented by the suture between West and East Gondwana. These contain an increasing number of discoveries of orogenic gold and VMS deposits, including gold-rich porphyry-epithermalVMS systems, and Li (spodumene) pegmatites (Fig. 3.15) and possibly porphyry Cu Au deposits (Bierlein et al., 2016), in Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. In the late Neoproterozoic to the Quaternary, there was first the assembly of Gondwana and then Pangea and then their subsequent breakup. This period is represented by a very complex tectonic history involving the progressive evolution of the Paleo-Tethys, Tethys, Paleo-Pacific, and Pacific Oceans together with continent collisions including the major collision between India and Asia as the assembly of the future Amasia supercontinent commenced. This produced a complex collage of diachronous orogenic belts that extended globally. These included several giant provinces of orogenic gold, VMS, porphyry, and epithermal deposits plus giant granite-related Sn W Mo deposits in convergent margins, and the evolution of secondary deposits including in situ formation of supergene Cu ores and the deposition of giant placer deposits of gold, cassiterite, scheelite, and diamonds in foreland basins. The combination of thinner mantle lithosphere, geometric

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complexity, and diachroneity of the Phanerozoic orogenic belts produced an episodic distribution of primary convergent margin deposits that contrasts with the more regular patterns of their earlier equivalents associated with the tectonic evolution of Kenorland and Columbia. Although IOCG ores are largely a Precambrian deposit type, there are deposits in the Andes that formed at a similar time to a mantle plume that affected the Pacific Rim. The supergiant LIPs-related Noril’sk Pd-rich intrusion-related Ni Cu PGE deposit, now sited on the margin of the Siberia Craton, formed close to the time of the breakup of Gondwana and Pangea. Other deposits that formed during this period that were affected by atmospheric evolution following the great oxidation event (GOE) or the Phanerozoic explosion of life are discussed in Chapters 8 and 9. The evolution of the mineral systems discussed above are shown schematically in terms of global mantle overturns, the assembly of the supercontinents, the GOE, and the Cambrian explosion of life in Fig. 5.11.

5.6

Summary

Individual ore deposits are part of larger-scale mineral systems that represent anomalous locations in the Earth’s crust. As their formation requires conjunctions of critical parameters related to geodynamics, the fertility of underlying crust and mantle lithosphere, crustal architecture, and preservation, it is to be expected that ore deposits evolved in parallel with Earth’s evolution. In several instances, they represent some of the most robust markers of that evolution and the related supercontinent cycle. Although there are ongoing controversies on the relative roles of tectonic processes in the Archean, there is general agreement that plate tectonics operated from the Eoarchean, albeit modified by abundant mantle disturbances. In the early Earth, a hotter mantle generated a long-term double-layered convection system that was disrupted by episodic mantle overturns, with the largest in the early Neoarchean potentially fertilizing the mantle with core-enriched elements such as Ti, Cr, Fe, Ni, and PGEs. Ur, the earliest clearly defined supercontinent formed at ca. 3.1 3.0 Ga from the amalgamation of small continents with thick mantle lithosphere or tectosphere keels. The rare spatial conjunctions of pre-4.0 Ga crust, pre-3.0 Ga komatiite-bearing greenstone belts with orogenic gold and VMS deposits, pre-2.0 Ga large, layered intrusions with Ti, V, Fe, Co, Ni, and PGE deposits, and giant diamond fields containing Archean diamonds that formed in thick, cool mantle lithosphere suggest that the anomalously mineralized Kaapvaal and Zimbabwe Cratons and the Wyoming Craton were once part of Ur on which the unique Witwatersrand goldfields formed in a foreland basin setting. The assembly of Kenorland at ca. 2.6 Ga and Columbia at ca. 2.0 Ga witnessed the widespread formation and preservation of giant orogenic gold and VMS systems that typify modern convergent margins, although the high

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crustal-level arc-related porphyry and epithermal deposits were only rarely preserved due to rapidly uplifting arc settings. For Kenorland and Columbia, most orogenic gold and VMS systems formed in a restricted period close to supercontinent assembly, but a few major gold and VMS systems also formed during Columbia outgrowth. These deposit types did not form again for the one billion years of the Boring Billion with few related to the assembly of Rodinia. However, the breakup of Rodinia and later assembly and breakup of Gondwana and Pangea produced episodic formation of convergent margin systems, including orogenic gold and VMS systems, with increasing preservation of porphyry skarn Cu Au deposits and skarn and lode-style W and Sn systems related to the paleo-Tethys Ocean and other ocean basins. The widespread Cenozoic metallogenic belts of the circumPacific and those related to the collision of India and Eurasia represent the early stages of the assembly of the future Amasia supercontinent within the next 100 200 million years. Giant Ni Cu PGE deposits formed on craton margins during breakup of all supercontinents, Kenorland, Columbia, Rodinia, Gondwana, and Pangea. Giant IOCG deposits also formed on craton margins late in the evolution of Kenorland and Columbia, with less important deposits related to extensional tectonics during Rodinia and Gondwana Pangea. Giant Kiruna-type Fe P deposits were largely restricted to extensional periods associated with the tectonic evolution of Columbia. Thus the supercontinent cycle played a critical role in controlling the distribution of the major metallogenic belts under evolving tectonic regimes on a cooling Earth.

Chapter 6

The anomalous Boring Billion Chapter Outline 6.1 Introduction 115 6.2 Overview of the Boring Billion 116 6.3 Metallogeny before and during the Boring Billion 121 6.3.1 Introduction 121 6.3.2 Early Precambrian mineral systems absent or rare in the Boring Billion 122 6.3.3 Mineral systems extending into the Boring Billion 128

6.1

6.3.4 Mineral systems largely confined to the Boring Billion 131 6.4 The not-so-boring metallogeny of the Boring Billion 136 6.5 The critical conjunction between metallogeny and tectonic evolution 138 6.6 Summary 142

Introduction

The period 1800 800 Ma that represents the Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic is dubbed the ‘Boring Billion’ or ‘Barren Billion’ because it is considered as the dullest time in Earth history (Buick et al., 1995). The term Boring Billion was introduced by Brasier and Lindsay (1998) to refer to the period between ca. 2.0 and 1.0 Ga interpreted to be characterized by geochemical and biological stasis. Young (2013) introduced the term Barren Billion to define the period between 1.8 and 0.8 Ga to represent a time of glacial stagnation and lack of carbon isotope excursions. The period between 1.7 and 0.75 Ga was referred to as the Earth’s Middle Age by Cawood and Hawkesworth (2014), who identified several temporally unique features, as discussed below. This time interval was characterized by relative tectonic stability (Roberts, 2013), climatic stasis, and slow biological evolution (Mukherjee et al., 2018). Although bounded by two distinct oxygenation and glacial events, the Boring Billion was a time of very low oxygen levels and no glaciation. However, there are several contradictory features that suggest the Boring Billion is a conundrum with this Middle Age of the Earth as a not-so-Boring Billion. In particular, some of the world’s most valuable mineral deposits formed in this period, in several regions globally, but particularly in or

Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-21684-8.00007-1 © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 115

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adjacent to Australian cratons and thick lithosphere blocks (Huston et al., 2012, 2016). The generally accepted tectonic evolution of the Columbia and Rodinia supercontinents during the Boring Billion is discussed next using mineral systems that require a critical conjunction of Fertility, Geodynamic, Architecture, and Preservation parameters as additional constraints (Groves and Santosh, 2021; Santosh and Groves, 2023). In particular, the mineral systems active between 1.8 and 0.8 Ga are reviewed to determine whether they match the proposed tectonic and atmospheric conditions for the Boring Billion and whether they provide any additional insights into Earth evolution during this period.

6.2

Overview of the Boring Billion

As discussed in the previous chapters, Earth is the only known planet characterized by horizontally moving lithospheric plates with oceanic crust generated at mid-oceanic ridges and subducted at convergent margins that leads to the building of arcs, continents, and eventually supercontinents with associated metallogeny. The Hadean history of Earth remains speculative, with one model for the period from 4.53 Ga onward suggesting that solidification of a vast magma ocean generated the primordial crust dominantly composed of gabbro and anorthosite, mostly by analogy with the geology of the Moon (Santosh et al., 2017). Another model proposes that plate tectonics in a crude form was initiated at around 4.3 Ga through “ABEL” (Advent of BioELements) Bombardment (Maruyama et al., 2018) with slab-pull force resulting from Late Heavy Bombardment events that caused crustal fracturing and eclogitization. The vigorous convection arising from high mantle potential temperatures is interpreted to have broken up the primordial continents that were dragged down to the deep mantle, marking the onset of a Hadean form of plate tectonics (Santosh et al., 2017; Maruyama et al., 2018). From the Archean to the Mesoarchean, the surface of the planet was predominantly a stagnant lid with multiple plume-related and localized subduction events (Fig. 6.1). As discussed in Chapter 5, the onset of active plate tectonics was established by ca. 3.2 3.0 Ga (Smithies et al., 2007; Palin and Santosh, 2021; Yu et al., 2021). Early Archean hot and shallow subduction was probably short-lived, due to the buoyancy and low rigidity of hotter oceanic lithosphere. The transitional period during the Neoarchean and Paleoproterozoic/Mesoproterozoic was a time of continued cooling of the mantle, which reduced the buoyancy of oceanic lithosphere and increased its strength, thus allowing gradual steepening of the angle of subduction at convergent plate margins (Palin and Santosh, 2021). Modern-style cold, deep, and steep subduction began in a cooler Neoproterozoic (ca. 0.9 0.8 Ga) Earth. As noted above, the period 1800 800 Ma marked the Boring Billion, a period characterized by relative tectonic stability (Roberts, 2013), climatic

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FIGURE 6.1 Schematic illustration showing plate tectonics through time on Earth. The speculative concept relating Late Heavy Bombardment and Hadean plate tectonics is after Santosh et al. (2017) and Maruyama et al. (2018). Modified after Palin, R.M., Santosh, M., 2021. Plate tectonics: what, where, why, and when? Gondwana Res. 100, 3 24. Published with permission from Elsevier.

stasis with consistently low levels of atmospheric oxygen (below 0.1% of present levels), predominantly anoxic oceans, and slow biological evolution (Mukherjee et al., 2018). Cawood and Hawkesworth (2014) also noted several unique features such as paucity of passive margins, absence of glacial deposits and iron formations, lack of significant seawater Sr-isotope spikes, paucity of passive margins, lack of phosphate deposits, high ocean salinity, abundant anorthosites and alkali granites, and limited orogenic gold deposits. Some studies consider that, based on an elevated thermal regime, abundance of unusual dry magmas such as anorthosites and A-type granites. and paucity of new continental margins, the Boring Billion was characterized by a protracted ‘single-lid’ episode (Stern, 2010). Thus any differences in mineralization styles during this interval could essentially reflect different plate tectonic styles. For example, Goldfarb et al. (2010) emphasize that the Mesoproterozoic lacks ore deposits that are common to younger assemblages formed by modern-style plate tectonic processes such as orogenic gold and porphyry Cu Au Mo deposits in convergent margins. This interval is also generally considered to mark a delay in the evolution of complex life because of the low levels of atmospheric oxygen. However, Mukherjee et al. (2018) argued that there were several critical biological evolutionary events during this interval, including the appearance of eukaryotes, origin of multicellularity and sexual reproduction, and the first major diversification of eukaryotes, which provided evolutionary pathways that later gave rise to metazoans and other modern life forms. In general, the absence of banded iron formations, evaporites, phosphorites, and glaciation events is

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FIGURE 6.2 (A) General scheme and time frames of the assembly, evolution, and breakup of supercontinents in Earth history. (B) Global detrital zircon age data with age peaks broadly corresponding to the timing of formation of major supercontinents. Note the general decrease in the zircon population during the Boring Billon period. (C) Histograms showing the abundance of (Continued)

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L

consistent with a period of stasis. With subdued plate motions and transition from lid to modern plate tectonics, the 1800 800 Ma period is considered to mark a billion years of tectonic standstill that effectively stalled the evolution of complex life. In terms of the supercontinent cycle (Fig. 6.2), the commencement of the Boring Billion coincides with the final amalgamation of Columbia, the Earth’s first coherent supercontinent, with its closely packed continental fragments (Rogers and Santosh, 2002; Meert and Santosh, 2022), before its outgrowth, breakup, and reassembly into the Neoproterozoic supercontinent Rodinia. Roberts (2013), based on geological and paleomagnetic evidence, construed that Columbia remained as a quasiintegral continental lid until at least 1.3 Ga, with dyke swarms of significant temporal and spatial range marking failed attempts to break up the supercontinent. Columbia then underwent only minor modifications during incorporation into the Rodinia supercontinent at ca. 1.1 0.9 Ga. The external accretionary belts evolved into internal Grenville-type and equivalent, largely high-grade, metamorphic collisional belts. Roberts (2013) also correlated the limited plate tectonic movements during Columbia’s lifespan with a long period of stability in Earth’s atmospheric and oceanic chemistry. There is also an apparent decrease in the global detrital zircon population, a reduction in the appearance of passive margins that reflect the lack of sediment build-up, and low continental velocity during this period (Fig. 6.2). These features collectively indicate the lack of evidence for complete rifting and dispersal of the continental fragments in Columbia. The generally low abundance of subduction-related ophiolite suites, and their older counterparts representing Precambrian greenstone belts, during the late-Paleoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic period also coincides with the Boring Billion timespan (Furnes et al., 2014). The breakup and reassembly of supercontinents have been correlated to either introversion, where oceanic spreading along interior orogens is transformed into collision along the same orogens, extroversion, where exterior accretionary orogens are transformed into interior collisional orogens (Murphy and Nance, 2003, Murphy et al., 2009; Li et al., 2019), or a combination of passive margin sequences through Earth history with a general low abundance during the Boring Billion period. (D) Continental velocity showing general slowdown in the Boring Billon time frame. (A) After Santosh, M., Groves, D.I., 2022. Global metallogeny in relation to secular evolution of the Earth and supercontinent cycles. Gondwana Res. 107, 395 422, published with permission from Elsevier; (B) after Voice, P.J., Kowalewski, M., Eriksson, K.A., 2011. Quantifying the timing and rate of crustal evolution: global compilation of radiometrically dated detrital zircon grains. J. Geol. 119 (2), 109 126; (C) after Bradley, D.C., 2008. Passive margins through Earth history. Earth-Sci. Rev. 91, 1 26; (D) after Piper, J., 2013. A planetary perspective on Earth evolution: lid tectonics before plate tectonics. Tectonophysics 589, 44 56. After Santosh, M., Groves, D.I., 2022. Global metallogeny in relation to secular evolution of the Earth and supercontinent cycles. Gondwana Res. 107, 395 422, published with permission from Elsevier.

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FIGURE 6.3 Schematic diagrams illustrating the major mechanisms of reassembly of supercontinents through introversion, extroversion of a combination of these two following the original proposals of Murphy and Nance (2003) and Murphy et al. (2009). Modified after Santosh (2010a,b) and Santosh and Groves (2022).

both (Fig. 6.3). Various lines of evidence indicate that the continental fragments within Columbia, although rotated, remained relatively intact and that the striking similarities between Columbia and Rodinia exclude a large-scale reconfiguration. Thus Roberts (2013) suggested that the transformation from Columbia to Rodinia was largely one of extroversion (Fig. 6.4). Cawood (2005) proposed that the Terra Australis and other orogens that bounded the Pacific were accretionary orogens that did not form via the classic Wilson-Cycle Ocean closures that culminated in continent continent collisions. This is explained as a consequence of accordion-style back-arc extensional events interspersed with transitory periods of compression caused by coupling between subducting and overriding plates (Collins, 2002a; Aitchison and Buckman, 2012). The evolution of these orogenic systems occurs in the upper (continental) plate of a convergent plate margin with large-scale slab retreat resulting in widespread extension and attendant rifting and back-arc development, with extensional episodes punctuated by shortlived orogenic contractional events. The concept of ‘accordion tectonics’ (Fig. 6.5), characterized by extension alternating with compression, and in the absence of any significant continental drift, is considered here to be a major tectonic style during the Boring Billion period of transition from Columbia to Rodinia. Collins (2002a) proposed a tectonic switching model

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FIGURE 6.4 Paleogeographic assembly of the Columbia and Rodinia supercontinents with the concept that the transformation from Columbia to Rodinia involved extroversion. After Roberts, N.M.W., 2013. The Boring Billion? Lid tectonics, continental growth and environmental change associated with the Columbia supercontinent. Geosci. Front. 4(6), 681 691. From Santosh, M. and Groves, D.I., 2023. The Not-So-Boring Billion: A metallogenic conundrum during the evolution from Columbia to Rodinia supercontinents. Earth-Science Reviews, p.104287. Published with permission from Elsevier.

where prolonged lithospheric extension was interrupted by intermittent, transient contraction. Tectonic switching is attributed to upper plate extension induced by slab retreat, resulting in arc splitting. Once slab retreat mode is reestablished, lithosphere extension resumes with the generation of new, largely outboard, arc-back arcs. Collins (2002a) correlated the process of tectonic switching to the formation of continental crust together with granulite facies metamorphism. The clockwise rotation of Baltica Amazonia West Africa, as implied in Fig. 6.4, can also be explained by this process. Although the Boring Billion was a period of limited supercontinent breakup and slowdown in several Earth processes, it was a not-so-Boring Billion in terms of its diversity of individual mineral systems and its anomalously rich metallogeny, as discussed in the following sections.

6.3 6.3.1

Metallogeny before and during the Boring Billion Introduction

The globally significant mineral systems and their deposits developed from the time of the Ur supercontinent (or supercraton: Bleeker, 2003) at ca. 3.1 Ga through the Mesoarchean to Neoarchean, with the assembly of the

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FIGURE 6.5 Schematic plate tectonic models illustrating the concept of ‘accordion-style’ tectonics. Modified and redrawn after Aitchison, J.C., Buckman, S., 2012. Accordion vs. quantum tectonics: insights into continental growth processes from the Paleozoic of eastern Gondwana. Gondwana Res. 27, 674 680.

Kenorland supercontinent, through the early Paleoproterozoic before assembly of the Columbia supercontinent, to the Boring Billion between 1.8 and 0.8 Ga are shown in Table 6.1. The distribution of these significant, commonly world-class to giant, mineral systems are subdivided into three categories: (1) early Precambrian mineral systems that are rare or absent in the Boring Billion; (2) mineral systems that extend into the Boring Billion; and (3) mineral systems that are essentially confined to the Boring Billion. The subsequent discussion follows these three categories.

6.3.2 Early Precambrian mineral systems absent or rare in the Boring Billion 6.3.2.1 Orogenic gold systems Orogenic gold systems (Section 2.3, Figs. 2.10 2.15) are first recognized at 3.4 3.1 Ga (Zegers et al., 2002), before the assembly of Ur. Worldwide orogenic gold metallogenesis that occurred between 2.75 and 2.55 Ga with a strong peak at 2.65 Ga in greenstone belts globally (Goldfarb et al., 2005), broadly coinciding with the assembly of Kenorland. The following global peak was at B2200 2060 Ga in the Birimian greenstone belts of

TABLE 6.1 Comparisons between mineral systems developed in the Archean and Paleoproterozoic and those between 1.8 and 0.8 Ga, the so-called Boring Billion. Komatiite-related Ni Cu systems and BIF systems, the precursors to global iron deposits, are not shown as they relate to restricted time events, a hotter early Earth, and the Great Oxidation Event, respectively. Relationship to early Precambrian

Mineral system

Geodynamic setting

Key processes of formation

Key processes of preservation

Archean-paleoproterozoic mineral systems rare or absent during Boring Billion

Orogenic gold

Convergent margin subduction

Devolatilization related to subduction processes

Deep crustal formation shortly before cratonization

Volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) Cu Zn Pb

Convergent margin back-arc basin

Sea floor exhalation Magmatism (?) Cu Zn Pb Au

Thick sediment cover: accretion to continental crust

Porphyry Cu Au Mo

Convergent margin arc or back-arc

Magmatic-hydrothermal fluid exsolution

Poor preservation: rapid uplift and erosion

Paleoplacer Au U

Foreland basin: intracratonic

Deposition of biogenic/ alluvial gold by braided streams

Deposition in crustal basin on thick Archean (Ur?) lithosphere

Layered intrusion PGE Cr Ti V

Intracontinental setting

Giant magmatic event related to asthenosphere uprise

Intrusion into crust on thick Archean (Ur?) lithosphere

Iron oxide copper gold (IOCG)

Mantle plume on craton margin

Magmatism from melting of metasomatized lithosphere

Formation on buoyant lithosphere on craton margin

Archean paleoproterozioc mineral systems continue into Boring Billion

(Continued )

TABLE 6.1 (Continued) Relationship to early Precambrian

Mineral system

Geodynamic setting

Key processes of formation

Key processes of preservation

Kiruna-type Fe P

Mantle plume on craton margin

Magmatism from melting of metasomatized lithosphere

Formation on buoyant lithosphere on craton margin

Mafic intrusionrelated Ni Cu Co PGE

Craton margin magmatism

Mild extension and basic magma intrusion

Formation on buoyant lithosphere on craton margin

Carbonatite-related REE (Nb, Cu)

Craton margin extension

Small degree partial melting of metasomatized lithosphere

Formation on buoyant lithosphere on craton margin

SEDEX deposits Zn Pb Cu

Extrusional basin on thick lithosphere

Hydrothermal leaching and marine sedimentation

Formation on thick buoyant Paleoproterozoic (?) lithosphere

Broken Hill-type Pb Zn Ag

Intracontinental rift zone (?)

Intense hydrothermal circulation in rare environment

High-grade metamorphism: slow exhumation

Unconformity-related U

Intracontinental setting

Hydrothermal circulation redox conditions

Formation on thick buoyant lithosphere (?)

Cu Au

Mineral systems virtually confined to Boring Billion

BIF, banded iron formation; PGE, platinum group elements; REE, rare earth elements; SEDEX, sedimentary exhalative deposits. Source: Data from Hedenquist et al. (2005), Groves et al. (2010), and Santosh and Groves (2022, 2023).

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FIGURE 6.6 Temporal distribution of mineral systems from 3.2 to 0.8 Ga, with emphasis on those formed within the Boring Billion. Width of boxes may be due to longevity of formation of specific mineral systems and/or uncertainties in precise ages. Data from Hedenquist et al. (2005), Huston et al. (2016), and Phillips (2017b), and specific references within the text. Derived from Santosh and Groves (2022). Published with permission from Elsevier.

West Africa (Masurel et al., 2022) broadly coincident with the assembly of Columbia (Fig. 6.6). The Boring Billion lacks significant orogenic gold provinces with only small (,1 moz Au) orogenic gold deposits in rare greenschist domains in the Grenvillian Sunsas belt of the Amazon Craton (Geraldes et al., 1997; Goldfarb et al., 2001). The Boring Billion does however include the solitary giant ca. 1.74 Ga (Morelli et al.,2010) Homestake deposit in South Dakota, the largest banded iron formation (BIF)-hosted gold deposit globally with 40 60 Moz gold total resource (Bell, 2013). It formed within the period of outgrowth of Columbia (Fig. 5.8), an interval in which accretionary tectonics dominated at its margins, although its exact tectonic setting is unclear. The anomalous timing of the Homestake deposit within the Boring Billion is reflected by several enigmatic system-scale parameters as summarized in Porter (2010). Although the metamorphic setting and structural geometry of ore zones and nature of alteration halos are like those of orogenic gold systems worldwide (Groves et al., 2018), the tabular BIF-hosted ore bodies are commonly in synclinal rather than anticlinal closures in the anticlinorium and their formation is probably during retrograde metamorphism (Caddey et al., 1991). The ore deposit does not appear to lie on crustal to lithosphere-scale lineaments and is also isolated rather than lying in a multideposit gold belt. Other anomalous features include host sequences of largely clastic sedimentary rocks and BIF units with minor mafic volcanic rocks within a broad dome.

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FIGURE 6.7 Schematic cross-section through a convergent margin showing the normally associated metallogeny of orogenic gold, VMS, and porphyry-related systems These are absent in the Boring Billion where the only giant ‘hybrid’ gold deposit, Homestake, is hosted by a continental sedimentary succession rather than a greenstone belt. Adapted from Groves et al. (2020a, b,c) and Santosh and Groves (2022). Published with permission from Elsevier.

The proposed geodynamic setting of a long-lived intracontinental rift or a backarc basin (Caddey et al., 1991) is also anomalous. Homestake is probably best described as a hybrid mineral system with most features consistent with an orogenic gold system but with some features akin to those of intrusion-related gold (Thompson et al., 1999) systems that lie on craton margins (Fig. 6.7). Before the final breakup of Rodinia at the end of the Boring Billion, the orogenic gold systems of Siberia, including the ca. 680 Ma giant Olympiada deposit (Gibsher et al., 2019), formed, followed by the Neoproterozoic ca. 600 Ma greenstone-hosted orogenic gold systems (Zoheir et al., 2015) of the Arabian Nubian Shield (Johnson et al., 2017) that were assembled into Gondwana. The lack of significant undoubted orogenic gold systems is totally consistent with other evidence presented above that subduction-related convergent margins were rare or absent during most of the Boring Billion. .

6.3.2.2 Volcanogenic massive sulfide systems Volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) Cu Zn Pb submarine hydrothermal systems (Sections 3.3,3; 5.4.2.2: Fig. 3.7) are first recorded from the eastern Pilbara Craton just before the assembly of Ur, with other Mesoarchean deposits formed in the Murchison greenstone belt of South Africa in the Murchison Province of the Yilgarn Craton. Like orogenic gold deposits, there was a proliferation of VMS mineralization at ca. 2.7 Ga during Kenorland assembly, with the largest, in places gold-rich, VMS province in the Abitibi Belt of Canada. Unlike the orogenic gold systems which peaked at ca. 2.0 Ga at the time of assembly of Columbia, Paleoproterozoic VMS deposits at Flin Flon in Canada and near Bergslagen in Sweden formed at around 1.9 Ga, about 140 million years before the formation of the enigmatic Homestake gold deposit in the early part of the Boring Billion. There was

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then a hiatus during the Boring Billion before the appearance of Neoproterozoic VMS deposits such as Bisha and the gold-rich Hassai deposits in the Arabian Nubian Shield. The lack of significant VMS deposits in the Boring Billion complements a similar lack of orogenic gold deposits in that period, consistent with other evidence presented above for a lack of convergent margins in that time interval.

6.3.2.3 Porphyry copper gold systems Porphyry Cu Au Mo deposits (Sections 2.2; 5.4.2.3: Figs. 2.2 2.9) form part of a mineral system that also involves high-sulfidation Au Ag deposits and skarn Fe Cu Au Mo Sn W deposits. Due to their formation in volcanic and continental arcs with attendant high postmineralization uplift rates, they are rarely preserved in the Precambrian, with the giant Neoarchean Boddington Au Cu Mo Ag deposit, hosted in an isolated, low metamorphic grade greenstone belt lying on high-grade gneisses in the southwest Yilgarn Craton (Porter, 2017a,b), arguably the only world-class to giant Precambrian example. The smaller porphyry systems of Haib River, Namibia and Tongkuanyu, China formed during the assembly of Columbia between ca. 1.9 and 1.8 Ga. Some deposits formed post-0.8 Ga, for example, Jebel Ohier in the Arabian Nubian Shield, but it was not until the Paleozoic that giant systems such as the late Devonian Oyu Tolgoi quartz-monzonite porphyry Cu Au Mo system formed in the long-lived Kazakh-Mongol arc (Porter, 2016b). The Boring Billion is devoid of any porphyry Cu Au Mo systems. Although not as definitive as for orogenic gold and VMS systems, due to their lack of long-term preservation, the absence of porphyry Cu Au Mo systems in the Boring Billion is at least consistent with the lack of convergent margins during that time interval in Earth history. 6.3.2.4 Paleoplacer gold (uranium) systems The Mesoarchean Witwatersrand Goldfield, representing a series of paleoplacer deposits in a foreland basin (Section 3.2.1: Fig. 3.1) is the world’s largest gold province. The extreme reducing system in the Mesoarchean that allowed the preservation of detrital uraninite and pyrite as well as gold in sedimentary rocks was a critical factor. In contrast, the giant Paleoproterozoic Tarkwaian paleoplacers of Ghana comprise iron oxides, hematite, and magnetite, but lack uraninite, because they postdated the Great Oxidation Event. No paleoplacer gold systems formed in the Boring Billion as Homestake was the only potential large gold source and foreland basins were absent due to lack of major convergent tectonic regimes. Instead, the intermediate oxidation conditions favored the appearance of unconformity-type uranium

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systems, as discussed below. Placers and paleoplacers only became abundant again in the geological record when foreland basins were flanked by uplifting orogenic belts in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic.

6.3.2.5 Layered intrusion PGE Cr Fe Ti V systems Large layered differentiated intrusions from ultramafic through mafic to more Fe-rich felsic layers from the base to top host the major platinum group elements (PGE), Cr, Ti, and V resources globally (Section 3.6.2: Fig. 3.16). All these PGE Cr FE Ti V systems, including, from oldest to youngest, Lac des Isles, Stillwater, Great Dyke, Kami, and Bushveld, are of Neoarchean to early Paleoproterozoic age (Fig. 6.8). Santosh and Groves (2023) suggest that the hotter Archean mantle generated a long-term double-layered convection system which was disrupted by episodic mantle overturns, with the largest in the early Neoarchean potentially enriching the mantle in metals that form the Earth’s core. These mineral systems were absent in the cooler Earth during the time of the Boring Billion, being replaced by giant intrusion-related Ni Cu PGE systems (Fig. 6.8). 6.3.3

Mineral systems extending into the Boring Billion

6.3.3.1 Iron oxide copper gold systems Iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) systems (Section 3.4.5: Fig. 3.12) are represented by giant magmatic-hydrothermal deposits containing economic Cu 6 Au 6 U 6 LREE (light rare earth elements) grades. Precambrian deposits are dominant in terms of both copper and gold resources. Neoarchean examples include the cluster of world-class deposits in the giant Carajas Province of Brazil. Within the Boring Billion, Mesoproterozoic examples include the supergiant Olympic Dam deposit and the adjacent world-class Prominent Hill and Carrapateena deposits on the margin of the Gawler Craton. Younger examples, still within the Boring Billion, include the Neoproterozoic world-class Khetri deposit in India and potentially the anomalous giant Mesoproterozoic Dahongshan Fe Cu Au deposit in China. The Precambrian deposits with .100 Mt resources are situated in intraplate settings close to the margins of Archean or Paleoproterozoic cratons or other lithospheric boundaries with intracratonic A-type magmatism and associated hydrothermal activity interpreted to have been driven by asthenosphere upwelling and mantle plumes (Groves et al., 2010). The formation and preservation of the Mesoproterozoic IOCG systems are entirely consistent with the accordion-style tectonics inferred for the Boring Billion (Fig. 6.5) in which extension caused a thermal anomaly (mantle plume) related to asthenosphere uprise and subsequent compressional closure allowed preservation on thick mantle lithosphere.

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FIGURE 6.8 Contrasting ages of pre-Columbia world-class to supergiant PGE Cr V deposits in large layered intrusions and largely post-Columbia intrusion-hosted Ni Cu PGE deposits including those within the Boring Billion. Note that Bushveld and Sudbury, the two largest deposits (thicker bars), straddle the time of assembly of Columbia. Adapted from Santosh, M. and Groves, D.I., 2023. The Not-So-Boring Billion: A metallogenic conundrum during the evolution from Columbia to Rodinia supercontinents. Earth-Science Reviews, p.104287. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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6.3.3.2 Kiruna-type iron phosphorous systems The anomalous Kiruna-type magnetite apatite system (Section 3.4.4: Fig. 3.11), named after the giant late-Paleoproterozoic Kiruna system in the Norrbotten Region of the Fennoscandian Shield in northern Sweden, has been grouped with the IOCG system but there are several important geological differences. In terms of temporal distribution, there are no Archean equivalents of the Carajas IOCGs that formed in Kenorland and there are no deposits of equivalent age to the giant Mesoproterozoic IOCGs within the Boring Billion. In contrast, the giant Paleoproterozoic Kiruna deposits formed close to the assembly of Columbia about 300 Myr before the onset of the Boring Billion. However, both the smaller Pea Ridge and Benson deposits formed within the Boring Billion with their genesis (Rojas et al., 2018) consistent with the concept of accordion-style tectonics. 6.3.3.3 Intrusion-related nickel copper systems Precambrian intrusion-related Ni Cu PGE systems (Section 3.6.3: Fig. 3.18) developed in a rather rhythmic pattern from the early Paleoproterozoic to the Neoproterozoic (Figs. 6.6 and 6.8) in contrast to the larger Neoarchean to early Paleoproterozoic PGE-bearing layered intrusions (Fig. 6.8) Most of the world’s world-class to giant Ni Cu deposits are located within 100 km of the margins of cratons, with the Superior, Siberia, North China, and KolaKarelia cratons particularly well-endowed. In view of this preferential nearcraton location, Maier and Groves (2011) suggest that these rigid margins were regions of translithospheric faults toward which asthenosphere upwellings or mantle plumes could be diverted and through which mantle magmas could readily ascend to form Large Igneous Provinces or LIPs (Lesher, 2019) where preservation was possible. Most deposits, as expected from their magma sources, formed during intraplate tectonic events during the existence of the Columbia and Rodinia supercontinents, with the giant Thompson, Voisey’s Bay, Duluth, and Jinchuan systems all emplaced during the Boring Billion. Only the Sudbury and Pechenga systems formed before the Boring Billion in the late-Paleoproterozoic to early Mesoproterozoic. Although in themselves not definitive of accordion-style tectonics, the layered intrusion-related Ni Cu PGE deposits are consistent with a model involving limited extension, asthenosphere upwelling, mantle melting, and subsequent compression that preserved them on thick lithosphere margins before subsequent separation of continental blocks. 6.3.3.4 Carbonatite-related rare earth elements (REE) (Cu, Nb, P) systems Neoarchean to Neoproterozoic carbonatite-related mineral systems, sited on craton margins, are mined for REE, Cu, Nb, and P among other minor

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elements in carbonatite intrusions globally (Section 3.5.1: Fig. 3.13). The Neoarchean Palabora deposit is the only large alkaline complex to host a major copper-bearing carbonatite. World-class Paleoproterozoic carbonatiterelated REE systems include Mount Weld in Western Australia and Montviel in Quebec, Canada with Miayoya in Hubei Province, China being one of the youngest with a Triassic age (Wang et al., 2020). The two largest giant carbonatite-related REE systems globally were formed in the Boring Billion. The ca. 1.4 1.2 Ga Bayan Obo REE Nb Fe deposit (Section 3.5.1) is located in Inner Mongolia, China in a proposed rift zone on the northern margin of the North China Craton. It hosts the largest REE resource and second largest Nb resource globally. with a REE resource of over 57.4 Mt with an average grade of 6% REE oxide (Hao et al. 2002; Fan et al., 2014). The giant Mountain Pass REE carbonatite, with a similar age (ca. 1.38 Ga) to the Bayan Obo carbonatite, and arguably only second to it in a global context ( . 16 Mt REE oxides) is one of a series of alkaline intrusions that lie on a 130 km long narrow belt on the southern margin of the enveloping North American Craton. Both carbonatites are interpreted to have been generated by partial melting of metasomatized mantle lithosphere caused by upwelling asthenosphere in a transient extensional (rift) setting. Carbonatite-related REE prospects and deposits that formed between ca. 1000 and 800 Ma at the end of the Boring Billion are known from Gifford Greek in Western Australia and the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi. As for the other magmatic (intrusion-related Ni Cu PGE) and magmatichydrothermal (IOCG, Kiruna-type Fe P) mineral systems, the formation and preservation of the giant Boring Billion carbonate REE systems are entirely consistent with a regime of transient accordion-style tectonics.

6.3.4

Mineral systems largely confined to the Boring Billion

6.3.4.1 Sedimentary exhalative deposits (SEDEX) zinc lead copper systems SEDEX deposits (Section 3.2.4: Fig. 3.3) represent a major Mesoproterozoic component of the group of sediment-hosted stratiform to stratabound Pb Zn systems that also includes the largely younger Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) deposits, Zambian Copper Belt Cu Co deposits, and Kupferschiefer deposits (Leach et al., 2005). As shown in Fig. 6.6, world-class to giant Precambrian SEDEX deposits of this broader group are confined to the Boring Billion. The Mesoproterozoic SEDEX deposits are interpreted to have formed mostly in failed intracratonic rifts and contrast with giant Paleozoic examples such as Red Dog and Howards. Pass which formed in faulted passive continental margin settings (Leach et al., 2005). Most authors suggest that basinscale hydrothermal circulation (Fig. 3.3A) scavenged major amounts of Pb

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from arkosic sandstones and/or felsic volcanic rocks, as well as Cu and Zn from mafic rocks, to form giant deposits such as HYC/McArthur River (Fig. 3.3B), Century, and Mt Isa in Australia and Sullivan in Canada. These metals are interpreted to have been leached and transported by oxidized, moderate temperature (,250 C) and moderate-to-high salinity (10 30 wt.% NaCl) brines interpreted to have been sourced from evaporites at low latitudes and remained buffered as they traversed voluminous oxidized terrestrial sedimentary strata. Advection along basin-margin faults focused these metal-charged fluids into oxidation reduction interfaces, such as distal-facies organic-rich shales, where metal sulfides such as chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and galena precipitated with pyrite to form the giant SEDEX deposits. As the relationship of the SEDEX systems to craton margins is unclear, Hoggard et al. (2020) provide a series of lithosphere asthenosphere-boundary (LAB: Bartzsch et al., 2011) maps, based largely on the use of seismic tomography, to determine the depth of lithosphere beneath the continental crust. Hoggard et al. (2020) use the Carpentaria Zinc Belt in northern Australia, which contains several giant Pb Zn Cu deposits formed within the Boring Billion between 1.8 and 1.4 Ga (Large et al., 2005), as a case SEDEX study. This research is given further impetus in the study of Huston et al. (2023). These deposits lie along an arcuate trend that is oblique to mapped geology and geophysically constrained crustal geological boundaries, suggesting a more deep-seated control. Their LAB model for Australia (Hoggard et al., 2020: their Fig. 2B), shown schematically in Fig. 6.9, demonstrates that these deposits lie on the margin of thick lithosphere, and coincide with the 170 km depth for the LAB. In addition, the Ernest Henry IOCG deposit near Cloncurry lies on this margin, making its tectonic setting more compatible with that of Olympic Dam and other IOCG deposits that lie on the eastern margin of the Gawler Craton (Fig. 6.9). Hoggard et al. (2020) interpret their LAB study to indicate a geodynamic setting for the SEDEX systems to be one where lithosphere edges represent rheological contrasts that focus strain and localize repeated cycles of extension and basin contraction, which results in both rift basin development and fluid focusing. They and Huston et al. (2023) emphasize that, for SEDEX deposits, continental rifting juxtaposes essential mineral system components including evaporites, volcanic rocks, and reductant lithologies, such as organic-rich shales, in restricted fault-bound basins comprising thick syn-rift sediments. The moderate temperatures for deposition of the SEDEX deposits are due to reduced basal heat flow due to the greater thickness of the underlying lithosphere provided that extension is limited. As for other mineral systems described earlier, these features are consistent with the formation of Mesoproterozoic SEDEX systems under a regime of accordion-style tectonics, the major regime suggested for the Boring Billion, and in contrast to tectonic regimes proposed for Paleozoic SEDEX systems.

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FIGURE 6.9 Distribution of world-class to supergiant mineral deposits that formed during the Boring Billion in central to northern Australia. Deposit types abbreviated in the figure in order are as follows: diamond, lamproite-associated diamond deposit; Fe ore, enriched BIF-hosted iron ore; uranium, unconformity associated uranium deposit; IOCG, iron oxide copper gold deposit; gold, orogenic gold deposit; Pb Zn Cu, SEDEX Zn Pb Cu deposit; Ni Cu PGE, mafic intrusion-hosted Ni Cu PGE deposit. In text, BHT refers to Broken Hill-type Pb Zn Ag deposit. Modified from Groves et al. (2021) with deposit ages added from Huston et al. (2016) and papers in Phillips (2017b).

6.3.4.2 Broken Hill-type lead zinc silver systems There is controversy over whether Broken Hill-type (BHT) Pb Zn Ag systems (Section 3.2.6: Fig. 3.5) should be considered part of the SEDEX group or assigned to a separate mineral system (Leach et al., 2005). Although the ages of the Aggeneys and Gamsberg BHT deposits in the Bushmanland Group of South Africa (Baillie et al., 2007; Hohn et al., 2021) are poorly constrained, their probable age range of ca. 1750 1650 Ma overlaps that of both Broken Hill (1.65 Ga) and Cannington (ca.1.675 Ga) and the Australian SEDEX deposits, all falling within the Boring Billion. Although similar to SEDEX deposits as stratabound zoned Pb Zn Ag systems, BHT deposits have been modified during regional upper-amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism. Their median Ag and Pb contents are also 3 and 1.5 times those of typical SEDEX deposits (Leach et al., 2005). Their sequences of syn-rift immature clastic sedimentary rocks, with lack of calcareous or graphitic rock and presence of minor bimodal volcanic units also differ from the host sequences to SEDEX deposits, as does their enrichment in Cu, As, Sb, Au, F, Cl, and REE and K, Rb, Pb, and Mn in stratabound alteration halos. In Australia, although the Cannington BHT deposit (Wright et al., 2017) lies on the same lithosphere margin as the SEDEX deposits and the Ernest Henry IOCG deposit, the Broken Hill deposit does not (Fig. 6.9).

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The supergiant Broken Hill deposit is the largest Pb Zn Ag deposit globally (Groves et al., 2008; Groves and Plimer, 2017). The ca. 2.65 Ga overturned orebody, hosted by multiply deformed granulite facies rocks, is stratabound and sediment-hosted, comprising multiple stacked Pb and Zn ore lenses above a cross-cutting siliceous and pyrrhotite-bearing feeder-zone (Fig. 3.5). As summarized by Groves et al. (2008), the deposit was formed in a regionally anomalous rapidly sedimented subbasin, synchronous with highlevel bimodal felsic and high Fe Ti tholeiitic basaltic sills. Seawater-free hypersaline ore fluids are interpreted to reflect hydrothermal cells driven by bimodal magmatism with metal leaching from precursor evaporite sequences and/or derived from a distal magmatic source. The deposit is interpreted to have been deposited as a sequence of exhalative chemical precipitates above sulfide mounds and lenses that formed in permeable sands above a feeder pipe in a linear subbasin of a freshwater rift zone. As all BHT deposits lack evidence for crustal thickening by overthrusts, it is suggested they were complexly deformed and metamorphosed to granulite facies under a high thermal gradient. It is suggested here that the BHT deposits formed in restricted zones of anomalously high geothermal gradients in ancient equivalents of the East African Rift (Njinju et al., 2019) where there was asthenosphere upwelling. Rapid cessation of rifting due to basin closure under compression could then explain the anomalous preservation of the BHT deposits in the Boring Billion. This is entirely consistent with accordion-style tectonics discussed above, with zones of greater extension and higher heat flow than those for SEDEX basins.

6.3.4.3 Unconformity-type uranium systems Unconformity-type uranium systems (Section 3.2.2: Fig. 3.2), first recognized about 55 years ago (Bruce et al., 2020), comprise predominantly U as uraninite but may also have significant Au and Ni and minor Ag, As, Co, Mo, and Se. They are sited in domains where late-Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic sandstones unconformably overlie Archean to early Paleoproterozoic metamorphic basement rocks. The uranium deposits are normally sited at or just below or above (hangingwall or perched ores) on an unconformity where it is intersected by faults that extend into graphitic schists in the basement (Fig. 3.2). All world-class to giant unconformity-type uranium systems formed in the Boring Billion. The largest are in the Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan, Canada ( . 650,000 t U3 O8: Bruce et al., 2020) and the McArthur Basin/ Alligator River province in the Northern Territory, Australia ( . 450, 000 t U3 O8: Bruce et al., 2020). These represent the world’s largest U resources excluding those of Olympic Dam. The Athabasca deposits including the

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largest McArthur River and highest-grade Cigar Lake deposits formed at ca. 1.59 Ga (Alexandre et al., 2007). Within the McArthur River Basin in Australia, the deposits including Ranger and Jabiluka formed at ca.1.69 Ga at broadly the same time as the Australian SEDEX and BHT deposits (Huston et al., 2016). They are younger than the uranium-bearing paleoplacers which required a reduced atmosphere, instead owing their prominence due to the Great Oxidation Event that preceded the Boring Billion. They were replaced by sandstone-roll-type deposits in the Phanerozoic after the great explosion of life in the Cambrian. In terms of tectonic setting, the Athabasca Basin straddles the boundary between Archean and Paleoproterozoic lithosphere in the complex Canadian Shield (Jefferson et al., 2007) and the McArthur Basin sits within the same thick lithosphere as the SEDEX deposits in the Northern Territory and north Queensland in Australia. Interestingly, in terms of other Boring Billion mineral deposits, Skirrow et al. (2016) record transient regional extensional or strike-slip tectonic events during the uranium mineralization episodes in the McArthur Basin during the Columbia outgrowth stage. These mineral systems are again consistent with formation and preservation under an accordion-style tectonic regime in a less-oxygenated environment where the major redox boundary was defined by preexisting graphitic units in the basement rocks overlain by more oxidized sedimentary units and hydrothermal fluid circulation was driven by moderate asthenosphere upwelling below extensional basins.

6.3.4.4 Lamproite diamond systems Diamonds formed in the mantle by ca. 3.4 Ga, but most diamond deposits are associated with kimberlites (Section 3.5.2: Fig. 3.14) that intruded into Archean cratons from ca. 542 Ma onward (Gurney et al., 2005) from the onset of modern-style plate tectonics (Stern et al., 2016). However, some diamondiferous intrusions were emplaced earlier during the Boring Billion between ca. 1200 and 1140 Ma. The most important are the Premier deposit in South Africa and the Argyle deposit in Australia, with the less-significant Majhgawan deposit in India (Gurney et al., 2005). Both Argyle and Majhgawan are anomalous deposits that are hosted by lamproites. These are rare volatilerich, ultrapotassic mantle-derived subvolcanic or volcanic rocks with extremely incompatible element enrichments that intrude into various post-Archean rock sequences globally. Normally, they lack significant diamond concentrations. Although Majhgawan is relatively small, the recently closed ca. 1.15 Ga Argyle (AK1) mine (Jaques et al., 1984) has been the world’s major producer of diamonds, including the highly prized pink diamonds for which Argyle is internationally renowned. As of 2016, the mine produced more than 835 Mcts of diamonds with 67 Mcts of reserves and 48 Mcts of resources (Boxer et al., 2017). The deposit lies on the eastern margin of the

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Kimberley Craton, with an estimated lithospheric thickness of 225 250 km, in the Halls Creek Orogen. The LREE-rich olivine lamproite pipe intrudes into Paleoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic rocks, to form a complex of coalesced and overlapping carrot-shaped diatremes of largely lapilli tuffs. The lamproite at Argyle has anomalously high Ba, Hf, Nb, Pb, Rb, Sr, Ta, Ti, and Zr contents, together with nonradiogenic Nd and highly radiogenic Sr isotopic compositions. This geochemistry indicates that the lamproite formed by very small degrees of partial melting of metasomatized and fertilized mantle lithosphere adjacent to the craton margin. It is unclear what led to the anomalous proportion of pink diamonds, although it is possible that seismic shock deformed the lattice due to the anomalously higher volatile contents of associated lamproites in the complex overlapping diatremes. The ca. 1200 Ga (Allsopp and Kramers, 1977) Premier diamond deposit, which is located about 200 km west of the eastern margin of the Kaapvaal Craton, is the closest diamondiferous kimberlite to that margin of the craton in southern Africa. It hosts a disproportionate percentage of large diamonds including the 3,106 carat Cullinan Diamond (valued at US$ 400 million in today’s market) which when cut provided the diamonds for the British Crown Jewels. Although speculative, the preservation of anomalously old lamproite diamond deposits is consistent with an accordion-style tectonic regime where extension was followed by compression which helped to preserve the anomalously old diamondiferous systems on or near-craton margins.

6.4

The not-so-boring metallogeny of the Boring Billion

Although the Boring Billion is characterized by a highly anomalous, protracted and ‘quiet’ tectonic evolution, its metallogenic evolution was a bonanza that yielded some of the world’s giant ore deposits (Table 6.2). It was a time of particularly rich Cu, Pb, Zn, Ag, and Au in SEDEX, BHT, and IOCG deposits, U in unconformity-type and IOCG deposits, REE in carbonatites, and diamonds in lamproites, and overall absence of Au in orogenic gold and Cu Zn Au Mo in porphyry and VMS systems. Although the Archean and Paleoproterozoic that predated the Boring Billion and the Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic that postdated it had cyclic major episodes of orogenic gold and VMS, and more rare episodes of porphyry Cu Au Mo mineralization, the Boring Billion had only a few small deposits of these systems that dominate modern subduction-related convergent margins (Groves et al., 2020a,b,c). A possible exception is the enigmatic solitary giant Homestake deposit which formed just within the period ascribed to the Boring Billion (Figs. 6.6 and 6.7). The processes and products of extensive mantle melting evolved from the emplacement of Archean to early Paleoproterozoic large layered intrusions with stratiform PGE, Cr, and Fe Ti V into craton interiors to emplacement

TABLE 6.2 Supergiant and giant deposits of the Boring Billion. As data are conflicting between sources, best minimum size estimates are given. Deposit

Country

Deposit type

Comment

Size

Reference

Argyle

Australia

Diamond

World’s largest

.900 M carats

Boxer et al. (2017)

Bayan Obo

China

Carbonatite REE

World’s largest

.57.4 Mt REE oxide

Fan et al. (2016)

Mountain Pass

United States

Carbonatite REE

World’s second largest

.16 Mt REE oxide

Castor (2008)

McArthur River

Canada

Unconformity U

Giant

0.22 Mt U308

Jaireth and Huston (2010)

Jubiluka

Australia

Unconformity U

Giant

0.21 Mt U308

Jaireth and Huston (2010)

Olympic Dam

Australia

IOCG

World’s most valuable

.77 Mt Cu

Ehrig et al. (2017)

.2.5 Mt U308

Ehrig et al. (2017)

.30 Moz Au

Ehrig et al. (2017)

Voisey’s Bay

Canada

Intrusion-hosted Ni Cu

World’s 7th largest

.3 Mt Ni 1 Cu

Naldrett et al. (2000)

Homestake

United States

Enigmatic Au

Largest BIF-hosted Au

40 60 Moz Au

Bell (2013)

Broken Hill

Australia

Broken Hill-type

Historic world’s largest

.52 Mt Pb 1 Zn

Jaireth and Huston (2010)

HYC-McArthur River

Australia

SEDEX Zn Pb

Supergiant system

.70 Mt Zn 1 Pb

Porter (2016a)

Mt Isa

Australia

SEDEX Cu Zn Pb

Supergiant system

.14.5 Mt Cu

Jaireth and Huston (2010)

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of Mesoproterozoic mafic intrusions with Ni Cu sulfide ores along craton margins during the Boring Billion (Fig. 6.8). IOCG and carbonatite-related REE systems, the alkaline products of low degrees of partial melting of metasomatized and fertilized mantle lithosphere, occurred throughout Earth evolution but the supergiants formed in the Boring Billion (Fig. 6.6). Lamproite-hosted diamond deposits formed only in the Boring Billion with Argyle the largest diamond deposit globally emplaced at 1.15 Ga. Unique giant Precambrian SEDEX systems of Cu, Zn, and Pb Zn mineralization that formed in extensional, probably rift, basins on the margins of the thick lithosphere in the Boring Billion (Fig. 6.9) were followed by the late Neoproterozoic Zambian-type Cu Co systems (Hitzman et al., 2012) and late Permian Kupferschiefer (Oszczepalski et al., 2019), and the widespread MVT Pb Zn systems (Leach et al., 2010a,b) that were most abundant in the Phanerozoic. Phanerozoic SEDEX deposits formed in faulted passive continental margin settings rather than rift basins as for the Precambrian SEDEX deposits. The BHT systems that appear to have formed in rift subbasins with anomalously high heat flow in the Boring Billion are unique in terms of their high metamorphic grade and rich Ag Pb Zn deposits that include the supergiant at Broken Hill. Hence, there is a correlation between the tectonic processes that marked the Boring Billion and the coincident highly anomalous mineral systems and their giant endowments (Table 6.2).

6.5 The critical conjunction between metallogeny and tectonic evolution The Boring Billion occupies the 1800 800 Ma time interval that marks the transition from the Columbia to Rodinia supercontinents. As discussed above, it is commonly considered as the dullest time in Earth history, being characterized by geochemical stasis. This interval was also: (1) a nadir in the development of convergent and passive margins; (2) climatic stasis with low levels of atmospheric oxygen; (3) a consequent time of absence of BIFs and development of unconformity-type uranium deposits in contrast to prior uraninite paleoplacers and subsequent sandstone-roll uranium deposits; (4) lack of significant seawater Sr-isotope spikes: (5) lack of phosphate deposits; (6) high ocean salinity; (7) slow biological evolution; and (8) emplacement of abundant anorthosites and alkali granites. Tectonic stability in this interval is also implied by limited evidence for the breakup and continental drift during the transition from Columbia to Rodinia. The tectonic regime appears to have been dominated by accordion-style tectonics with periods of variable degrees of extension, rifting, and consequent asthenosphere upwelling followed by compression and closure of extensional basins. As sensitive indicators of tectonic regimes due to the complex conjunction of factors required to form them, the Boring Billion mineral systems

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provide important constraints on its evolution. The extreme paucity of orogenic gold, VMS, and porphyry systems most simply confirms other evidence for a lack of widespread subduction-related convergent margins with which they are correlated throughout geological history (Groves et al., 2020a,b,c, 2022a,b). Removal of the suite of mineral systems that form in convergent margins by rapid uplift to form high-grade metamorphic belts is less likely, although it is conceivable that the widespread high-grade metamorphism displayed by the Grenvillian orogenic belts that preceded the assembly of Rodinia (Meert and Powell, 2001) could have removed all but rare hypozonal orogenic gold deposits that potentially had formed in the deep crust. It appears that it is Boring Billion accordion-style tectonics that was ultimately responsible for the unique group of giant to supergiant mineral systems of immense value to the global economy (Table 6.2), as shown schematically in Fig. 6.10. The magmatic Ni Cu PGE deposits in intrusionrelated deposits formed close to major lithospheric boundaries in zones of extension and asthenosphere upwelling that initiated mantle melting to produce basic magmas that intruded the continental crust and were preserved in thick buoyant lithosphere by subsequent limited compression. The IOCG,

FIGURE 6.10 Schematic representation of the relative positions of mineral systems and their genesis related to accordion-style tectonics in the Boring Billion. As the deposits from these systems are seldom adjacent, their relative positions can only be inferred. Archean lithosphere shown as the source of deep magmas would be metasomatized and fertilized by earlier subduction events. Adapted from Santosh, M. and Groves, D.I., 2023. The Not-So-Boring Billion: A metallogenic conundrum during the evolution from Columbia to Rodinia supercontinents. EarthScience Reviews, p.104287. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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carbonatite-related REE, and lamproite diamond deposits are part of essentially volatile (H2O, CO2;, Cl, F)-rich but sulfur-poor magmatic or magmatichydrothermal systems that formed during variable degrees of melting of metasomatized and fertilized lithosphere by asthenosphere upwelling during extension that was concentrated along craton margins (Fig. 6.10). Those mineral systems that occur in sedimentary sequences or underlying basement also appear to show variable connections to accordion-style tectonics (Fig. 6.10). Giant BHT Pb Zn Ag systems are considered to have formed in deep terrigenous rifts with high thermal gradients caused by extensive asthenosphere uprise as in the modern African Rift Zone. In contrast, the giant SEDEX Zn Pb Cu and unconformity-type U deposits appear to have formed in shallower extensional (rift) basins with sufficient thermal input from asthenosphere upwelling to drive hydrothermal flow and metal scavenging from contrasting volcano-sedimentary or basement sequences (Fig. 6.10). Although many mineral systems formed episodically throughout the Boring Billion, there were peaks in IOCG, SEDEX, BHT, and unconformity-type U deposits, particularly in central Australia, between ca.1.7 and 1.6 Ga, carbonatite-related REE and Kiruna-type deposits at ca. 1.4 Ga, and diamonds and Kiruna-type deposits at ca. 1.1 Ga. The tectonic stasis during the Boring Billion would have had a major impact on the underlying mantle, particularly in terms of generating unique mineralization. Such an environment provides a perfect setting for the transition from mantle downwelling to mantle upwelling beneath Columbia, with accordion-style tectonics and the unique mineralization being sympathetic outcomes of mantle upwelling. Thus the metallogenic bonanza was linked to the generation of global-scale mantle upwelling beneath Columbia, which could also explain the anorthosite-rapakivi granite enigmas during this time interval. The mantle upwelling scenario, in this case, is similar to that proposed by Murphy et al. (2021) to explain the history of the Ediacaran supercontinent Pannotia. A plot of the position of the major Boring Billion mineral systems on a paleogeographic reconstruction of Columbia (Fig. 6.11) displays interesting distributions and relationships. Central Australia (see also Fig. 6.9) and North America are both highly endowed but in contrasting mineral systems. The giant carbonatite-related REE systems at Bayan Obo and Mountain Pass potentially lie close to adjacent craton margins, and the giant Sullivan SEDEX system is close to the giant SEDEX systems of Australia. A compelling feature is the concentration of mineral systems in the western blocks in the configuration shown in Fig. 6.11, whereas the eastern blocks have poor mineral endowments. Interestingly, Rogers and Santosh (2004) and Meert (2014) record that the poorly endowed Siberia, Greenland, Baltica, and Amazonia blocks all comprise .2.3 Ga cratons whereas the highly endowed blocks comprise younger crust and lithosphere. Their higher proportion of margins to the surface area would make formation and preservation during

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FIGURE 6.11 Paleogeographic reconstruction of Columbia supercontinent based on Kaur and Chaudhri (2014), with positions of giant to supergiant deposits formed in the Boring Billion (Table 6.1) shown. Fig. 6.9 is an enlargement of the block designated as central Australia which hosts the greatest diversity of Boring Billion deposits. From Santosh, M. and Groves, D.I., 2023. The Not-So-Boring Billion: A metallogenic conundrum during the evolution from Columbia to Rodinia supercontinents. Earth-Science Reviews, p.104287. Published with permission from Elsevier.

accordion-style tectonics more likely. The exception is North America (Laurentia) with abundant .2.3 Ga crust (Rogers and Santosh, 2004; Meert, 2014). However, Laurentia shows much greater internal complexity of terranes than Siberia, Greenland, Baltica, and Amazonia, so has a higher ratio of margins to the surface area as for the smaller blocks. The internal complexity of Laurentia resulted from the amalgamation of Columbia and it is likely that the internal sutures provided conduits for mineralizing magmas and fluids. An additional potential factor contributing to the apparent lower endowment is the current lower proportion of outcrop in the colder climates of Siberia (permafrost), Greenland (ice), and Baltica (glacial cover) and the extensive young sedimentary basins of Amazonia that include the vast Amazon Basin.

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6.6

Summary

The Boring Billion extends from 1800 to 800 Ma and marks the transition from Columbia to Rodinia. It is consistently interpreted as a lull in Earth history in terms of the evolution of global plate tectonics, the atmosphere, oceans, and biological evolution. In terms of tectonics, there was a paucity of both convergent and passive margins with only limited continental breakup and continental drift during the transition from the breakup of Columbia to the assembly of Rodinia. The tectonic regime appears to have been dominated by intermittent periods of variable degrees of extension, rifting, and asthenosphere upwelling followed by compression and closure of extensional basins: a regime of accordion-style tectonics, which is potentially consistent with a single-lid concept. As expected for this tectonic scenario, there is a paucity of the orogenic gold, VMS, and porphyry systems that typify subduction-related convergent margin settings both before and after the Boring Billion. Instead, the dominance of anomalous accordion-style tectonics resulted in an equally anomalous but richly endowed metallogeny, with many mineral systems developed exclusively in the Boring Billion. Tectonic domains with varying degrees of rifting and associated asthenosphere upwelling facilitated formation of the following: (1) giant magmatic Ni Cu PGE deposits from mantle melts; (2) IOCG, carbonatite-related REE, and lamproite-hosted diamond deposits from volatile-rich melts of metasomatized lithosphere; and (3) sediment-hosted unconformity-type U, SEDEX Zn Pb Cu, and BHT Pb Zn Ag deposits from increasing degrees of rifting and increasing thermal gradients. All deposit types were preserved on thick buoyant lithosphere due to cessation of rifting caused by subsequent compression. In parallel with accordion-style tectonics, metallogeny was episodic with important peaks at ca. 1.7 1.6 Ga, ca. 1.4 Ga, and 1.1 Ga. Several of the preserved deposits represent the largest and/or most valuable REE, U, Cu Au U, or Pb Zn Ag deposits globally. The more intensively endowed blocks are those within Columbia with Paleoproterozoic lithosphere and the North American Craton with its myriad of internal blocks/sutures. It appears that blocks with a high density of margins relative to the surface area were most susceptible to rifting under relatively low-strain accordion-style tectonism. Overall, it appears that the Boring Billion, the dullest interval from an Earth System perspective, was a metallogenic bonanza and the least-boring, and potentially most metal-endowed, period in Earth history.

Chapter 7

Paleoproterozoic great oxidation event Chapter Outline 7.1 Evolution of the atmosphere hydrosphere biosphere system 143 7.1.1 Earth climate and evolution of life 143 7.1.2 Great oxygenation events 145 7.2 Metallogeny related to the Paleoproterozoic GOE 145 7.2.1 Valency implications for subsequent mineral systems 145

7.2.2 The great period of formation of iron deposits in banded iron formation systems 146 7.2.3 Evolution of manganese deposits 147 7.2.4 Evolution of uranium deposits 148 7.3 Summary: redox reflections of atmosphere evolution 149

7.1 Evolution of the atmosphere hydrosphere biosphere system In this chapter, the evolution of the early Paleoproterozoic great oxidation event is discussed and its consequences for global metallogeny are considered.

7.1.1

Earth climate and evolution of life

As discussed above, during the .4 Ga history of Earth evolution, there were several major steps from the early magma ocean stage to the birth of oceans and initiation of plate tectonics, construction of continents, evolution of primitive life forms, and the dawn of modern life (Maruyama et al., 2013: Fig. 7.1A). The Earth experienced various phases of major tectonic, climatic, and other perturbations with significant impacts on the marine and terrestrial environment, life, and ecosystems (Fig. 7.1B: Young, 2013). There was a gradual increase in solar luminosity and alternating global glaciations and warm periods, which were accompanied by atmospheric oxygenation. Weathering of granitic continental crust supplied nutrients into the oceans, thus stimulating photosynthetic activity and initiating the atmospheric Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-21684-8.00008-3 © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 143

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FIGURE 7.1 (A) Schematic compilation of the major phases during the secular evolution of Earth, environment, and life. The bold vertical line marks present day Earth. (B) Major events in environmental and life evolution during Earth history. The age ranges of some of the supercontinents are also shown. ‘Barren Billion’ in the figure is equivalent to the ‘Boring Billion’ discussed in this work. (A) After Maruyama, S., Ikoma, M., Genda, H., Hirose, K., Yokoyama, T. Santosh, M., 2013. The naked planet Earth: most essential pre-requisite for the origin and evolution of life. Geosci. Front. 4 (2), 141 165; (B) after Young, G.M., 2013. Precambrian supercontinents, glaciations, atmospheric oxygenation, metazoan evolution, and an impact that may have changed the second half of Earth history. Geosci. Front. 4 (3), 247 261. From Santosh, M., Groves, D.I., 2022. Global metallogeny in relation to secular evolution of the Earth and supercontinent cycles. Gondwana Res. 107, 395 422. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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oxygen pump and creating an environment that would eventually lead to the birth of modern life, as discussed in Chapter 8. The formation of supercontinents is also considered by some authors to have promoted an increase in the concentration of oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere. For example, Campbell and Allan (2008) suggested that the vast mountain belts generated by continent continent collisions during supercontinent formation supplied large volumes of nutrients into the oceans, leading to an explosion of algae and cyanobacteria and enhanced production of O2 through photosynthesis.

7.1.2

Great oxygenation events

Two great oxygenation events are recognized during Earth evolution: the great oxidation event (GOE) at ca. 2.4 2.0 Ga and the Neoproterozoic oxygenation event (NOE) at ca. 550 400 Ma, with the latter coincident with the Cambrian explosion of life (Fig. 7.1A, B), as discussed in Chapter 8. In a recent study, Eguchi et al. (2020) evaluated the mechanisms responsible for the great oxygenation events by utilizing a carbon oxygen box model that tracks the Earth’s surface and interior carbon fluxes and reservoirs, together with carbon isotope ratios and atmospheric oxygen levels. This demonstrates that, about 2.5 billion years ago, a tectonic transition resulted in increased volcanic CO2 emissions that increased the deposition of both carbonates and organic carbon through enhanced weathering and nutrient delivery to oceans. The enhanced burial of carbonates and organic carbon allowed the accumulation of atmospheric oxygen as well as increased delivery of carbon to subduction zones to initiate the early Paleoproterozoic GOE.

7.2 7.2.1

Metallogeny related to the Paleoproterozoic GOE Valency implications for subsequent mineral systems

In terms of secular changes in the formation of mineral systems, the evolution of the atmosphere system is critical because atmospheric pO2 controls both the solubility of metals in solution and the stability of ore minerals of redox-sensitive metals with multiple valency states. The oxidation state of the atmosphere system controls not only which metals can precipitate under nearsurface conditions, but also affects the severity of weathering at the Earth’s surface as the climate changes. In terms of mineral systems of redox-sensitive elements, those of Fe, Mn, and U show the greatest variation through time, with the 2.4 2.0 Ga GOE being a major factor, as discussed below.

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7.2.2 The great period of formation of iron deposits in banded iron formation systems Historically, iron has been mined from magmatic-hydrothermal Fe skarns and Kiruna-type Fe P deposits (Section 4.4.4; Fig. 3.11) and Phanerozoic oolitic and hematitic sediment-hosted Clinton-type and minette-type deposits (Melon, 1962), but modern mining revolves around enriched low-P ores (Section 3.3.1; Fig. 3.6) derived from oxide-facies banded iron formation (BIF) in the great BIF basins of Brazil, Western Australia, and Africa (Clout and Simonson, 2005). Oxide-facies BIFs, representing banded units of alternating quartz and magnetite, are the main hosts to the iron ores, although there may be less-common, carbonate-, silicate-, or sulfide-facies host units. Algoma-type BIFs are widespread in Paleoarchean to Neoarchean Archean greenstone belts, as old as ca. 3.75 Ga in Isua, Greenland (Komiya et al., 2004), but the major BIF basins formed over a restricted time interval from about 2.6 to ca. 2.4 Ga at the transition from the Neoarchean to Paleoproterozoic ending in the GOE at ca. 2.4 Ga (Duuring et al., 2017). The BIFs formed on passive continental margins (Castro, 1994), from ocean water interpreted to have been enriched in silica and Fe from submarine volcanic vents (Klein and Beukes, 1992), probably related to mantle plume or asthenosphere uprise events (Isley and Abbott, 1999). Due to low atmospheric pO2, Fe could be transported as Fe21 in the shallow anoxic basins, with additional evidence for the role of anoxygenic phototropic bacteria in their genesis (Kappier et al., 2005). The great period of formation of the BIFs between ca. 2.6 and 2.4 Ga relates to the conjunction of the formation of the first major supercontinent Kenorland to provide global continental margins before the beginning of the GOE at ca. 2.4 Ga. At this time, Fe transport as Fe21 would have been reduced and finally curtailed at the end of the GOE at ca. 2.0 Ga. Significantly, no major BIF sequences are reported in the rock record later than 2.0 Ga. Subsequently, the BIF basins underwent Paleoproterozoic thin-skinned compressional deformation to produce thrust-fold structures, including domes (Clout and Simonson, 2005; Dalstra and Rosie`re, 2008). Later fault reactivation and intrusion of dolerite dykes (Thorne et al., 2017) produced structural geometries that acted as ground preparation for the subsequent formation of iron ores. Evans et al. (2013) suggest that silica was removed from the deformed BIF system by high-pH hypersaline brines that were derived during density- or topographically driven infiltration (Fig. 3.6B). They conclude that this infiltration could be either upward- or downward-directed flow, with upward flow indicated by some evidence presented by Dalstra and Rosie`re (2008). Evans et al. (2013) also point out that such fluid infiltration by dense hypersaline brines is a similar genetic model (Fig. 3.3A) to that proposed for Mississippi valley type (MVT) and sedimentary exhalative deposit

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(SEDEX) Pb Zn sulfide deposits by Emsbo (2009) and Leach et al. (2010a,b), among others. As a result of juxtaposition of the deep-rooted lithosphere and the overlying sedimentary basins that host the BIFs, there were major rheological contrasts during subsequent orogeny around the craton margins. As a result, the BIFs and derived iron ore deposits which onlapped the cratons that dispersed from Kenorland were preserved for over 2000 million years.

7.2.3

Evolution of manganese deposits

Manganese has several oxidation states, including Mn21, Mn31, and Mn41. As for Fe, Mn21 is most soluble with Mn minerals deposited via oxidation reactions that are more sluggish than for Fe. Not surprisingly, therefore Mn deposits (Fig. 7.2) have a similar temporal evolution to Fe deposits, although, in this case, the younger deposits of Mn are potentially more important economically. The dominant global resources mimic those of the BIF-related deposits with manganiferous BIF deposited following the assembly of Kenorland and before the GOE. The largest resources are in the Kalahari manganese province in the Paleoproterozoic Transvaal Group of

FIGURE 7.2 Temporal distribution of manganese mineral systems (A) and sediment-hosted uranium mineral systems (B) in relation to the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). Adapted from Groves et al. (2005a,b) and Santosh and Groves (2022). Published with permission from Elsevier.

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South Africa (Astrup and Tsikos, 1998). Major potential ores are manganese carbonate (braunite kutnahorite) sedimentary rocks interbedded with BIF, and although their origin is controversial, they almost certainly formed by processes equivalent to those of the associated BIF in anoxic basins. Deposits in karsts formed in some areas via dissolution of Mn-bearing carbonate rocks as the atmosphere became more oxidizing (Fig. 7.2). As for the BIFs, post-GOE Mn deposits are represented by shallow water black shale or oncolitic/oolitic deposits (Schaefer et al., 2001). Their first appearance is in the Paleoproterozoic of South Africa, Ghana, Gabon, and Brazil, but they are most common from the Neoproterozoic to Cenozoic, with a peak in the late Mesozoic Cenozoic (Fig. 7.2). The largest resources of post-GOE Mn ores are the oncolitic/oolitic deposits of Ukraine, including the giant Oligocene Nikopol ores (Force and Cannon, 1988), which comprise carbonate, mixed carbonate-oxide, and oxide horizons that have been partly oxidized to produce supergene Mn oxide deposits. The deposits are interpreted to have both volcanic-hydrothermal and terrestrial inputs (Sasmaz et al., 2020) under the influence of organic activity (Force and Cannon, 1988; Schaefer et al., 2001) in oxic/suboxic ocean basins. The youngest deposits are represented by monolayers of Mn nodules that are being deposited on deep water, organic poor, oxygenated abyssal plains of the Earth’s oceans, particularly the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The abundance of contained critical metals, including Co, Mo, Ni, W, and rare earth elements (REE) (Hein et al., 2014), makes these nodules an important future metal source once contentious marine mining legislation and environmental concerns can be resolved.

7.2.4

Evolution of uranium deposits

Uranium has two common oxidation states with U61 stable under oxidizing conditions and U41, the component of uraninite, the most common U ore mineral, only stable under reducing conditions. Thus redox conditions and redox reactions play a crucial role in the temporal distribution of uranium deposits, with the majority sediment-hosted, although there are rare graniterelated deposits such as Ro¨ssing in Namibia and there are significant U grades in the giant Olympic Dam iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) deposit (Ehrig et al., 2017). Descriptions and discussions of U systems and Ubearing deposits are spread over several sections (Sections 3.2.1, 3.2.2, and 3.4.50 in Chapter 3 and Section 6.3.4.3 in Chapter 6). In bringing them together here, there is of necessity some repetition of text. The earliest uranium deposits are uraninite-bearing quartz pebble conglomerate paleoplacer gold deposits. Although giant paleoplacer gold deposits formed both in the Mesoarchean Neoarchean Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa (Frimmel et al., 2005) after the breakup of Ur and in the Paleoproterozoic Taarkwa Basin in Ghana (Taylor and Anderson, 2010)

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around the time of assembly of Columbia, only the Archean paleoplacers (Fig. 3.1) contain economic uraninite concentrations. The Witwatersrand deposits (ca. 2.95 2.7 Ga) that formed before the GOE dominate ArcheanPaleoproterozoic U production, with only minor syn-GOE resources (ca. 2.4 2.2 Ga) at Elliot Lake in Canada (PorterGeo Database, 1993). This clearly reflects the stability of detrital uraninite (England et al., 2001) under relatively reducing conditions in the hydrosphere before the GOE (Fig. 7.2). Post-GOE Mesoproterozoic uranium deposits (ca. 1600 1300 Ma) are dominated by unconformity-type deposits (Bruce et al., 2020), mostly from the Athabasca Basin of Canada (Fig. 3.2) and the Alligator Rivers Province of Australia (Fig. 7.2). The deposits are sited at redox boundaries separating Paleoproterozoic oxidized basement from overlying reduced Mesoproterozoic sedimentary sequences. Although precise mechanisms are debated (Bruce et al., 2020), the deposits formed where U61-bearing oxidized fluids were reduced by marine carbonaceous material in sedimentary rocks above the unconformity (Wilde et al., 1989). Eldursi et al. (2021) suggest that the world-class Cigar Lake deposit in the Athabasca Basin formed via fluid convection where faults played an important role in enhancing permeability and thermal convection under low stress conditions. Li et al. (2021) suggest that, more generally, mineralization involved a combination of pulses of short-lived, deformation-driven fluid flow within periods of prolonged fluid convection. In the Phanerozoic, sandstone-roll-type deposits became the dominant uranium systems (Fig. 7.2). They mostly formed in the United States and Central Asia after the breakup of Gondwana Pangea in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic (Adams, 1991). In these systems, oxygenated groundwater carrying U61 is interpreted to have been tectonically pumped through permeable sandstone and conglomerate aquifers to be deposited by reaction with terrestrial organic material (Jin et al., 2020). The development of abundant landbased plant life during the evolution of Gondwana Pangea was a critical factor in the evolution of this deposit type. Carbonate-hosted uranium deposits in Quaternary ancient river channels represent the youngest surficial deposit type of uranium. They are best described from calcrete-filled channels in the north-eastern Yilgarn Block of Western Australia, with Yeelirrie a prime example, where groundwaters leached U from the weathered Archean basement (Shirtliff et al., 2017).

7.3

Summary: redox reflections of atmosphere evolution

The GOE was the single most important ‘moment’ in Earth history for metals such as Fe, Mn, and U with more than one valency state. Before the GOE, the Archean paleoplacer quartz pyrite gold uraninite deposits of the Witwatersrand Basin were the dominant U source, and Paleoproterozoic BIF provinces were the major source of future Fe deposits and to a lesser

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extent future Mn deposits. Following the GOE, more oxygenated basin waters that migrated under both external forces and gravity produced the giant BIF-hosted hematite-rich Fe deposits that are now the major global source of Fe. Following the Industrial Revolution, younger, smaller, and lower-grade sediment-hosted Fe deposits were largely abandoned. Manganese ores evolved from black shale-hosted deposits to dominant oncolitic/oolitic deposits in concert with atmosphere evolution, calcareous rocks became more abundant, and shallow marine basins were better preserved in the Cenozoic. The emergence of modern oxygenated oceans with abundant hydrothermal activity has resulted in the formation of manganese nodules that are a future resource of not only Mn but also Co, Ni, and REE among several other critical metals. Uranium deposits evolved from unconformity-type deposits in the Mesoproterozoic, through sandstone roll-type deposits in the late Mesozoic to Cenozoic, to carbonate-hosted deposits in Quaternary drainage systems. Although not covered above, the oxygenated atmosphere induced rock weathering under a variety of climatic conditions to produce bauxites and lateritic Fe, Ni, and Au deposits (Freyssinet et al., 2005). Lateritic Ni deposits are particularly important as demand for Ni increases while discovery rates for Ni Cu sulfide deposits decline. Weathering also induced supergene upgrading of exposed ore deposits, particularly porphyry Cu Au and orogenic gold deposits (Sillitoe, 2005), where mining of enhanced Cu and/or Au grades greatly assisted future mine development and brownfield exploration through early return on capital. Cenozoic weathering also resulted in the formation of giant Sn, W, and Au placers as discussed in Section 3.4.1. In recent times, the search for clean energy sources has placed emphasis on critical elements such as HREEs, which can be used in permanent magnets for wind turbines (Groves et al., 2023). These are also located in weathering profiles as regolith-hosted ionic clay deposits. Xie et al. (2020) term these deposits ion absorption REE deposits or IARs because they are formed by ion absorption on to clays in lateritic weathering profiles. Almost all economic IAR deposits are in southern China, mainly in the Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian provinces, although there has been a recent exploration surge in southern Western Australia. The source rocks to major deposits are mainly felsic intrusive to acidic volcanic rocks, particularly highly evolved Mesozoic granites that are REE-rich (Bao and Zhao, 2008).

Chapter 8

Cambrian explosion of life Chapter Outline 8.1 Neoproterozoic to Phanerozoic hydrosphere biosphere system evolution 8.2 Contrasting temporal pattern of SEDEX and MVT systems

151

8.3 Importance of abundant organisms 8.4 Potential importance of hydrocarbons

154 155

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This chapter briefly describes the hydrosphere biosphere system that evolved following the Paleoproterozoic Great Oxidation Event (GOE) to promote the explosion of life after the Neoproterozoic Oxidation Event (NOE) in the Cambrian period. The effect this had on metallogeny, particularly the development of widespread carbonate sedimentation in shallow basins, is also discussed.

8.1 Neoproterozoic to Phanerozoic hydrosphere biosphere system evolution Two major Neoproterozoic glaciations in the Sturtian (715 680 Ma) and Marinoan (680 635 Ma) were followed by the NOE, which accelerated the evolution of large multicellular animals of the Ediacaran fauna before the initial bloom of Phanerozoic modern life marked by the Cambrian explosion of life (Hoffman and Schrag, 2002; Maruyama and Santosh, 2008). The elevated atmospheric oxygen levels and adequate nutrient supply through weathering of the extensive granitic basement were critical factors that created a suitable environment for this birth of modern life. Maruyama and Santosh (2008) speculated that a link from the galaxy- to genome-level synthesizing models on cosmic radiation exerted a significant control on mutation and life evolution. Campbell and Allan (2008) further suggested that the extensive mountain belts generated by continent continent collisions during supercontinent formation supplied voluminous nutrients into the oceans, leading to an explosion of algae and cyanobacteria and enhanced production of O2 through photosynthesis. Maruyama et al. (2013) proposed that the following were key factors in terms of the origin and evolution of life on Earth: (1) nutrient source; (2) chemistry of primordial ocean, Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-21684-8.00009-5 © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 151

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(3) initial mass of ocean, and (4) size of rocky planet. Plate tectonics probably helped cleanse the toxic oceans. Initiation of the return flow of seawater into the mantle in the Neoproterozoic led to the emergence of a large continental landmass above sea level, enabling weathering and distribution of nutrients on a global scale. In response, high oxygen levels in the atmosphere would have led to the emergence of the ozone layer as a shield against radiation, thereby enabling animals and plants to finally invade the land in the Phanerozoic. Of particular importance to Phanerozoic metallogeny following the NOE was the increase in biogenic carbonates, particularly limestone reefs, in sedimentary basins on continental shelves and an increase in organic carbon to form widespread carbonaceous shales in deeper parts of the basins. The carbonate rocks could react with circulating ore fluids to produce replacementstyle mineral deposits, and the metal-rich carbonaceous shales could both produce reservoirs of metals for circulating fluids (Lehmann et al., 2022) and act as efficient redox fronts for the reduction of ore fluids and consequent deposition of metals (Abshire et al., 2022).

8.2

Contrasting temporal pattern of SEDEX and MVT systems

As discussed above, sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) deposits represent a major component of the group of sediment-hosted stratiform to stratabound Pb Zn (Cu?) systems (Large et al., 2005) that also include Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) deposits (Leach et al., 2005) and arguably Zambian Copper Belt-type Cu Co deposits (Hitzman et al., 2005). The major features of SEDEX deposits (Section 3.3.4), including simple pyrite sphalerite galena mineralogy in laterally zoned, laminated, beddingparallel sulfide layers within organic-rich shales and siltstones adjacent to syn-sedimentary normal and strike-slip faults, are exhaustively described by both Leach et al. (2005) and Large et al. (2005). The majority of SEDEX deposits formed in failed rift and passive margin settings (Fig. 3.3) where there was basin-scale hydrothermal circulation of ,250 C oxidized saline brines that scavenged Pb, Cu, and Zn from sedimentary and volcanic rocks to form the SEDEX ores. These fluids remained buffered as they migrated through voluminous oxidized terrestrial sediments. Advection along basinmargin faults focused the fluids into oxidation reduction interfaces, such as distal-facies organic-rich shales, where metal sulfides precipitated to form the giant SEDEX deposits such as HYC (McArthur River Deposit originally termed as ’Here is Your Chance’) (Fig. 3.3B), Century, Mt Isa in northern Australia Fig. 6.9), and Sullivan in Canada (Fig. 6.11). The MVT base-metal deposits, including the so-called Irish-type deposits of the Irish Midlands, consist essentially of galena and sphalerite with accessory barite and/or fluorite that form epigenetic replacement, less commonly vein-like deposits, in platformal carbonate sequences (Fig. 3.3C). Leach et al. (2010a) demonstrate that they formed from brines that were

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driven, at least partly through topographically driven fluid flow, from distant convergent margin orogenic belts that had a hydrological connection to the basins containing the carbonate sequences that host the MVT deposits. The MVT deposits are similar in terms of their economic minerals and elements similarities, and there is some temporal overlap in the Paleozoic, with giant SEDEX deposits, such as Howards Pass and Red Dog, that were broadly coincident with giant MVT deposits, such as Tri-State and Navan. However, the two deposit systems show dramatically different peak development in terms of their timing relative to the Cambrian explosion of life (Fig. 8.1). The collective peak development of SEDEX deposits occurred in the Boring Billion before the Cambrian explosion of life and hence before the development of extensive carbonate platforms. They formed following the initial assembly of Columbia under an accordion-style tectonics regime, as discussed in Chapter 6. At this time, there was the first conjunction of rifted thick mantle lithosphere with overlying, extensive, and thick sedimentary basins, including widespread evaporites, with suitable permeability and

FIGURE 8.1 Temporal distribution of Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) Pb Zn mineral systems (A) and SEDEX Zn Pb Cu mineral systems (B) in terms of the supercontinent cycle and the Cambrian explosion of multicellular life. Adapted from Groves et al. (2005a,b), papers in Hedenquist et al. (Eds. 2005), and Leach et al. (2010a,b), and as presented in Santosh, M. and Groves, D.I., 2022. Global metallogeny in relation to secular evolution of the Earth and supercontinent cycles. Gondwana Research, 107, pp.395-422. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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post-GOE redox conditions and suitable structural geometry to allow the development of giant hydrothermal circulation systems, as summarized by Groves et al. (2005a,b) and Hoggard et al. (2020). Significant Pb from the decay of U and Th isotopes would also have been available to produce the first giant Pb Zn deposits globally. In contrast, the MVT deposits formed after the Cambrian explosion of life on extensive carbonate platforms that only became globally established after the Devonian. The most important periods of MVT mineralization, including the supergiant Tri-State Province of the United States, were during the Devonian to Permian assembly of Pangea and during the accretion of microplates between the Cretaceous to Tertiary along the western margin of North America and between Africa and Eurasia.

8.3

Importance of abundant organisms

The metallogenic impact of the explosion of life at the time of assembly of Gondwana is arguably best indicated by the change in timing of sedimenthosted Cu Zn Pb deposits, as discussed above. As shown in Fig. 8.1, although there were both SEDEX and MVT-like deposits forming from the Paleoproterozoic to the Cenozoic, the major peak of formation of SEDEX deposits in the Mesoproterozoic was offset from the overwhelming peak of formation of MVT-type deposits by over 1200 Myr. The key factor was the rapid evolution of life in the Phanerozoic with the emergence of coral reefs and laterally extensive coralline limestone platforms amenable to replacement by base-metal-rich brines only from the Devonian onward with hiatuses due to extinction events. The explosion of life during the assembly of Gondwana that resulted in the more widespread development of calcareous sedimentary sequences and MVT-type deposits also caused the rise in oncolytic/oolitic Mn deposits, an increase in global skarn Fe Cu Au Mo deposits, and Carlin-type Au Ag deposits where petroleum could also be a contributing factor (Emsbo et al., 2009) as there are known oilfields in adjacent areas. Geologic evidence suggests much of the petroleum migration in the basins that host the Carlin-type systems occurred before gold mineralization. The black host rocks are anomalously carbon-rich (Hofstra and Cline, 2000), the widespread pre-gold framboidal pyrite is like that in halos produced by sulfate-reducing bacteria around North Sea oil and gas reservoirs (Rosnes et al., 1991), and the strong arsenic enrichment is consistent with fluid reduction. The development of abundant carbonaceous material in shale-rich sedimentary sequences resulted in the development of sandstone roll-type U deposits and probably influenced the size of both Phanerozoic sedimenthosted orogenic gold and Carlin-type gold deposits (Large et al., 2011). The Zambian-type Cu Co deposits that formed at the Neoproterozoic Cambrian boundary also developed in a petroleum-bearing intracontinental rift

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basin comprising early oxidized rift-facies clastic rocks, deposited in restricted fault-controlled subbasins, with the thin reduced argillites of the Copperbelt Orebody Member, that hosts most copper deposits, near the centre of the sequence. This again emphasizes the importance of organic material to provide both a source of metals and redox boundaries for their deposition.

8.4

Potential importance of hydrocarbons

Emsbo et al. (2009) pointed out that a variety of basin-hosted ore deposits are characterized by a distinct metal signature that includes V Ni Mo Au PGE U Hg Se As, which can reach ore grades. They record that residual petroleum, or bitumen, commonly occurs in these deposits and is generally interpreted as a redox interface responsible for ore deposition. Emsbo et al. (2009) also record that a combination of chemical analyses of bitumen in several deposits, chemical analyses of petroleum and bitumen from over mature reservoirs, chemical modeling, hydrous pyrolysis, and laboratory solubility experiments demonstrate that this metal suite is significantly more soluble as organometallic complexes in petroleum than as traditional complexes in aqueous fluids. In addition, the amount of metal residing in solution in some petroleum reservoirs can exceed that hosted in known basinhosted ore deposits. In conjunction, these lines of evidence suggest that petroleum has the capacity to transport and deposit large quantities of metal. Confirmatory evidence that hydrocarbons can play a critical role in post-NOE basin-hosted deposits is provided, for example, by Hurtig et al. (2018) for the Pillara MVT deposit of the Canning Basin. Western Australia, by Cao et al. (2016) for the Dongshen sandstone-hosted uranium deposit of China, by Ge et al. (2022) for the Carlin-type gold deposits of South China, and by Zentilli et al., 1997) for the manto-type copper deposits of Central Chile. In addition, the great coal provinces of the Earth clearly owe their development to the evolution of plant life in Carboniferous to Mesozoic terrestrial basins.

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Chapter 9

The role of craton and thick lithosphere margins Chapter Outline 9.1 Introduction 157 9.2 Longevity of cratons and their margins 158 9.3 Modification of craton margins and underlying lithosphere 160 9.3.1 Structural modification 160 9.4 Metasomatic alteration of mantle lithosphere 161 9.5 Magmatic deposits derived from metasomatized lithosphere 165 9.5.1 Carbonatite-related Cu and P deposits 165 9.5.2 Carbonatite-related REE Nb deposits 166 9.5.3 Kiruna-type Fe P deposits 168 9.5.4 Lamproite-associated diamonds 168 9.6 Magmatic-hydrothermal deposits from metasomatized lithosphere 169 9.6.1 Iron oxide copper gold systems 169 9.6.2 Intrusion-related gold deposits 172 9.6.3 Carlin-type gold systems 174

9.1

9.7 Hydrothermal deposits derived from metasomatized lithosphere 175 9.7.1 Jiaodong and other Chinese orogenic gold deposits 175 9.7.2 Other orogenic gold deposits on craton margins 176 9.8 Magmatic systems related to intrusion via trans-lithosphere structures 179 9.8.1 Intrusion-related nickel copper PGE systems 179 9.8.2 Anorthosite-hosted ilmenite deposits 181 9.9 Hydrothermal deposits related to deformation on craton margins 182 9.9.1 BIF-hosted iron ores 182 9.10 Sediment-hosted deposits on craton and thick lithosphere margins 183 9.10.1 Zambian copper belt-type deposits 183 9.10.2 SEDEX zinc lead copper systems 185 9.11 Diversity of mineral systems along craton and thick lithosphere margins 187 9.12 Summary 190

Introduction

Traditionally, mineral exploration followed a predominantly empirical approach, entailing the detection of evidence of mineralization adjacent to the surface of the planet, then targeting drilling to define the extent of a partly concealed ore Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-21684-8.00010-1 © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 157

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body (Woodall, 1994). As deposits that outcrop in well-defined areas have become depleted, the need for concept-based exploration (Hronsky and Groves, 2008) has increased to extend exploration to less well-explored search spaces in which undefined, or unexpected, deposit types might be discovered (Hronsky and Welborne, 2018). Thus conceptual exploration targeting with an understanding of underlying mineralizing processes shared across multiple mineraldeposit types is required (McCuaig and Hronsky, 2014). Despite this imperative, as discussed in the previous chapters, most modern published ore-deposit research concentrates on details related to the generation of a single deposit or, more rarely, a small spatially related deposit group within a mineral system. This chapter is focused on the broader view being largely concerned with the definition of the wide variety of hypogene mineral systems that lie on, or adjacent to, Archean craton margins, which are the most readily recognized types of lithospheric boundaries on publicly available geological and geophysical data. It is initially restricted to craton boundaries, despite the recognition that all lithospheric boundaries are important (Begg et al., 2009), because, although they are more widespread than generally realised, the definition of these margins is predominantly in restricted and confidential databases. Discussion is expanded to regions of anomalously thick lithosphere for sediment-hosted sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) and Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) Pb Zn( Cu) systems, as these generally show no obvious spatial relationship to traditionally defined craton margins. This chapter illustrates that a wide variety of apparently unrelated mineral systems of abundant, base, precious, and/or rare metals may occur on, or adjacent to, craton or thick lithosphere boundaries, thus emphasizing their particularly high potential endowment in greenfield exploration globally and enhancing their greenfield exploration target potential. As most mineral systems considered here are described in Chapter 3, and discussed in Chapters 4 6, their critical features are only briefly summarized with reference to relevant sections and figures. Particular attention is given to their spatial and genetic relationship to craton and thick lithosphere margins, with a strong emphasis on Preservation, one of the four key pillars of mineral systems.

9.2

Longevity of cratons and their margins

Subcircular Precambrian cratons, normally in the order of 1000 km diameter, are the foundation blocks of all continents on Earth. They represent the older and most stable components of the continental lithosphere that occupy the central portions of tectonic plates. Their fundamental components are largely Paleoarchean to Paleoproterozoic (peak Neoarchean: Condie, 2000; Zhai and Santosh, 2011; Jayananda et al., 2020) crystalline basement rocks that include the planet’s oldest Eoarchean to Hadean crust and even older weathering-resistant component minerals (Ge et al., 2018). These cratons

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may be exposed as shields or covered by thick platforms of sedimentary successions, varying markedly from craton to craton. The keys to their longevity, despite the tectonic events that produced the younger rifts and mobile or fold belts that everywhere surround them (Fig. 9.1), are their exceptionally deep roots into the asthenosphere, .250 km for some Archean cratons, and their temporally dependent mineralogical compositions (O’Reilly and Griffin, 1996; Griffin et al., 2003; O’Reilly and Griffin, 2010; Santosh, 2010a). These key parameters, derived from mantle tomography and the compositions of lithosphere xenoliths in mantle-sourced intrusions, including kimberlites, imply that they represent neutral to buoyant rock masses with a low intrinsic isopycnic density that prevents them from sinking into the asthenosphere. These key parameters also ensure that they generally resist tectonic forces that involve both compression and subsequent uplift and extension, with rifts generally developing between them rather than through them. Internally, the cratons have the capacity to preserve giant mineral deposits such as the PGE, chrome, titanium, and vanadium deposits of the Bushveld Complex (Section 3.6.2: Fig. 3.16), the gold deposits of the Witwatersrand Basin (Section 3.2.1: Fig. 3.1), and the diamond pipes at Kimberley (Section 3.5.2: Fig. 3.14) in the Kaapvaal Craton in their centers (Groves et al., 2005a,b: their Fig. 12). These deep lithospheric roots are more than double the thickness of normal continental lithosphere and mature oceanic lithosphere. It is only rare that the internal regions of cratons are

FIGURE 9.1 World map showing major Archean cratons, Proterozoic terranes, and Phanerozoic orogens. Modified after the compilation by Furnes et al. (2015) and Wang, H., van Hunen, J., Pearson, D.G., 2018. Making Archean cratonic roots by lateral compression; a twostage thickening and stabilization model. Tectonophysics 746, 562 571.

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significantly modified, with extensive destruction of the deep lithospheric root, as in the North China Craton, caused by three different subducting plates with three different vectors (Sun et al., 2007; Santosh, 2010a,b; Yang and Santosh, 2020) and resultant gold mineralization (Goldfarb and Santosh, 2014), as discussed in Chapter 2, Representative examples of mineral system models. The processes leading to cratonization are controversial and are not discussed further as they have little impact on the discussion of the distribution of mineral systems on their margins: see Pearson and Brooke (2014) and Hamilton (2019) for exhaustive lists of references that deal with the controversy.

9.3 9.3.1

Modification of craton margins and underlying lithosphere Structural modification

The cratons act as bulwarks that resist deformation relative to rheologically weaker surrounding rock sequences with underlying thinner lithosphere. As a result, stress magnitudes and resulting strain gradients are much greater on craton margins than in their interiors where preexisting weaknesses focus strain in deformation zones (Wang et al., 2017). During compressional or transpressional orogeny, the external rock sequences may be: (1) flattened against the craton margin; (2) translated by oblique-slip shear movement along the margin; or (3) thrust above it. From an ore genesis viewpoint, it is important that such thrusts formed during orogenesis may be preserved at the time of subsequent mineralization to form effective caps or seals on hydrothermal fluid systems. This is certainly the case for the Eocene epigenetic Carlin gold deposits that formed beneath older thrust faults, such as the Late-Devonian to early Carboniferous Roberts Mountain Thrust (Cline et al., 2005). In the formation of giant mineral systems or provinces, extensional tectonic events involving rifting (Fig. 9.2) appear important for the development of precursor structural geometries that control subsequent magma or hydrothermal ore-fluid flux. Centrifuge models have been used by Corti et al. (2013) to simulate the effects of such extension between a resistant, rheologically strong continental lithosphere and an adjacent weaker mobile belt. The effects depend largely on the strength contrasts between the mobile belt or intervening suture and the craton. All geophysical models demonstrate rifting along the craton margin, with associated lithosphere thinning and asthenosphere upwelling (Fig. 9.3A C). Where there is an intervening suture, geophysical models show that narrow deep rift valleys develop with thinned lithosphere below. A major border fault or shear system may develop adjacent to the craton. Where such sutures are absent, the geometry depends on the strength contrasts between the craton and adjacent mobile belt. Relatively low strength contrasts result in a relatively homogeneous distribution of extensional faults across the mobile belt, whereas high-strength contrasts, the normal situation, selectively produce major faults along the craton margin.

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FIGURE 9.2 Geological and tectonic framework of Peninsular India showing the Archean cratons and Proterozoic belts. Most of the craton margins are bounded by major suture/shear/fault zones. From Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., 2021. Craton and thick lithosphere margins: The sites of giant mineral deposits and mineral provinces. Gondwana Res. 100, 195 222. Published with permission from Elsevier.

Whatever the strength contrast, extension clearly can develop a wide zone of crustal permeability via trans-lithosphere faults adjacent to the craton margin, combined with a strong control on sedimentary facies in basins developed on the locally thinned lithosphere. An excellent example is shown by the integration of geological, geophysical, and radiogenic isotope data for the welldocumented Carlin District on the margin of the rifted North American Craton (Fig. 9.4A and B). Where extension is followed by compression, the normal faults that juxtapose high-strength cratons against weaker sedimentary basins that onlap them may act as linear steps that localize monoclinal to anticlinal zones within the later thrust faults, enhancing their capacity as linear zones of caps or seals on hydrothermal fluid systems (Wijns et al., 2004; Emsbo et al., 2006: their Fig. 4).

9.4

Metasomatic alteration of mantle lithosphere

Since the 1970s, widespread mantle metasomatic alteration has been recognized through the study of petrology, mineralogy, and fluid inclusions within

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FIGURE 9.3 Geophysical data showing prominent thinning and mantle upwelling along the margins of major cratons. (A) Two-dimensional resistivity model computed from joint inversion of magnetotelluric data which clearly shows the eroded craton margins and craton roots of the Eastern and Western Dharwar craton blocks, as well as mantle upwelling along the craton boundary suture. (B) Depth of lithosphere asthenosphere boundary (LAB) in the North China Craton defined from seismic data. Lithospheric thinning is developed at the boundaries of the Western Block, with extensive erosion of the craton root toward the eastern margin of the Eastern Block. Yang and Santosh (2020) identified a close correlation between the thinned domains and the location of Mesozoic world-class gold deposits. (C) Three-dimensional model computed from P wave tomography showing the deep lithospheric architecture of the Southern Korean Peninsula, which marks the eastern periphery of the Sino-Korean Craton. The crustal blocks and the tectonic boundaries along their margins are clearly defined, accompanied by mantle upwelling. (A) After Malleswari, D., Veeraswamy, K., Abdul Azeez, K.K., Gupta, A.K., Babu, N., Patro, P.K., Harinarayana, T., 2019. Magnetotelluric investigation of lithospheric electrical structure beneath the Dharwar Craton in south India: evidence for mantle suture and plumecontinental interaction. Geosci. Front. 10, 1915 1930; (B) after Xu, Y., Zeyen, H., Hao, t., Santosh, M., Li, Z., Huang, S., Xing, J., 2016. Lithospheric structure of the North China Craton; integrated gravity, geoid and topography data. Gondwana Res. 34, 315 323; (C) from Song, J. H., Kim, S., Rhie, J., 2020. Heterogeneous modification and reactivation of a craton margin beneath the Korean Peninsula from teleseismic travel time tomography. Gondwana Res. 81, 475 489.

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FIGURE 9.4 (A) Map of northern Nevada showing the distribution of Carlin-type gold deposits and associated trends relative to recognized crustal-scale features including isotopic and geophysical boundary, and initial 87 Sr/86 Sr and 208Pb/204Pb isopleths (Crafford and Grauch, 2002; Grauch et al., 2003). (B) Schematic SW NE cross-section across northern Nevada showing the inferred architecture of the Precambrian North American paleo-continental margin exhibiting the fragmented western margin of the North American Craton with control of sedimentary facies by lithosphere-scale faults that down-step to the west. The giant Carlin gold district, Nevada (yellow disks with size indicated), lies above faults on craton margin. Modified after Emsbo, P., Groves,.D.I., Hofstra, A.H., Bierlein, F.P., 2006. The giant Carlin gold province: a protracted interplay of orogenic, basinal, and hydrothermal processes above a lithospheric boundary. Miner. Deposita 41, 517 525.

mantle xenoliths transported to upper crustal levels by kimberlites and basaltic magmas. Less commonly, exposed tectonic slices of mantle peridotite allow the definition of metre-to-kilometre-scale metasomatic domains. There appear to be three types of metasomatic alteration: (1) modal metasomatic alteration involving the introduction of new minerals, commonly in veins; (2) cryptic metasomatic alteration solely involving changes in the compositions of preexisting mantle minerals; and (3) stealth metasomatic alteration that adds phases that are mineralogically indistinguishable from common mantle peridotite phases (O’Reilly and Griffin, 2013). These processes lead to a heterogeneously metasomatized and fertilized mantle lithosphere, on a millimetre to terrane scale. Fluid inclusion and trace-element studies of minerals in mantle xenoliths, both off-cratons and within cratons, reveal evidence for low-degree partial melts. These produced both carbonatite and silicate magmas containing highdensity fluids with carbonatitic, hydrosilicic, and saline brine endmembers (Rosenbaum et al., 1996). This explains the extreme heterogeneity of metasomatic alteration between mantle lithosphere domains. The causative process may vary from (1) fertilization by low-degree asthenosphere melts; through (2) veining of the lithosphere during plume activity or rifting events; to (3) fertilization during subduction (Hughes et al., 2015).

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From the viewpoint of mineral systems adjacent to craton boundaries, any subduction-induced fluid-related fertilization would overprint earlier metasomatic alteration and potentially enhance volatile and metal contents in the mantle lithosphere. Clear evidence of fertilization of the mantle lithosphere beneath the North China Craton (Deng et al., 2018) is provided by both Saunders et al. (2018) and Wang et al. (2020e). Wang et al. (2020e) failed to reproduce the anomalously high gold values recorded by Saunders et al. (2018). However, they do suggest that any increase in volatiles in the mantle lithosphere would promote its devolatilization and consequent fluid generation to drive deep mineralization systems. Oceanic crust and the overlying sediment wedge will inevitably be subducted below craton margins where devolatilization of the slab can result in extensive upward fluid-flux either (1) along slab mantle boundaries (Sibson, 2004; Peacock et al., 2011); (2) into fore-arc or accreting terrane margins; or (3) into the mantle lithosphere (Wyman et al., 2008; Hronsky et al., 2012; Bebout, 2013: Goldfarb and Santosh, 2014; Wyman et al., 2016). Metasomatic fluid is released when the base of the fore-arc mantle wedge becomes fully hydrated (Katayama et al., 2012). At this stage, the oceanic slab will devolatilize, together with its overlying pyrite-bearing oceanic sediment wedge. The latter is important as ore elements such as Sb, As, Bi, Cu, Au, Ag, and Te in sedimentary pyrite can be released into the fluid via the breakdown of pyrite to pyrrhotite above about 500 C (Large et al., 2009, 2011; Steadman et al., 2013) and fertilize the mantle lithosphere. Significant aqueous fluid, CO2, and S will be released at similar temperatures from the breakdown of hydrous silicates, carbonate minerals, and pyrite. Slab devolatilization thus provides an incredibly effective process for fertilization of mantle lithosphere beneath craton margins during each subduction event that affects them (Fig. 9.5). Alternatively, subducted oceanic crust and its overlying

FIGURE 9.5 Cartoon showing lithosphere thinning, asthenosphere upwelling and metasomatism of mantle lithosphere on the margin of the North China Craton. After Yang, C.X. and Santosh, M., 2020. Ancient deep roots for Mesozoic world-class gold deposits in the north China craton: an integrated genetic perspective. Geoscience Frontiers, 11(1), pp.203-214. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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sediment wedge could be underthrust by B200 km and underplated at the base of subcontinental mantle lithosphere, below the back-arc (Castro et al., 2010). This could generate melt and volatile-rich fluid carrying ore metals and sulfur to metasomatize and fertilize the surrounding mantle lithosphere indirectly, a source proposed by Zhao et al. (2021) for Chinese orogenic gold deposits in the Kunlun Qinling Orogen.

9.5 Magmatic deposits derived from metasomatized lithosphere The widespread metasomatism and fertilization of mantle lithosphere beneath craton margins promote small degrees of partial melting during orogenic events, with consequent widespread intrusion of alkaline and high-K igneous suites along these margins. The giant mineral systems associated with such alkaline intrusions are those related to highly anomalous magmas with a complex petrogenesis involving both magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal processes. These include (1) carbonatites (Wang et al., 2020f) that are associated with Cu, P, rare earth elements (REE) and Nb deposits among others; (2) magnetite apatite melts associated with Kiruna-type iron ores (Xie et al., 2019); and (3) rare lamproites with diamond deposits (Jaques et al., 1984). The relationships of these mineral systems to craton margins are discussed briefly below with emphasis on the giant deposits in each group.

9.5.1

Carbonatite-related Cu and P deposits

Palabora (Groves and Vielreicher, 2001) is the only giant alkaline complex to host a major copper-bearing carbonatite. Dated at ca. 2060 Ma (Eriksson, 1989), it is part of a widespread 2.5 1.6 Ga southern African alkaline event (Verwoerd, 1993). The complex, surrounded by a swarm of syenite intrusions, was emplaced into an anorogenic setting close to the eastern margin of the Kaapvaal Craton. It largely comprises an approximately 7 3 3 km series of micaceous and pegmatoidal pyroxenites, with minor serpentinized dunite, and has a margin of fenitized Archean granitic gneisses. Progressively more volatile-rich magmas are interpreted to have been emplaced over time, with metasomatic replacement resulting in the petrological heterogeneity recorded at all scales (Fourie and de Jager, 1986). The copper ore body ( . 850 Mt at 0.5% Cu) occurs within a transgressive near-vertical carbonatite, surrounded progressively by concentric layers of banded carbonatite, phoscorite, and pegmatoidal pyroxenite, known as the Loolekop pipe. The Palabora Complex is also a giant phosphate and vermiculite deposit (Fourie and de Jager, 1986; Porter, 2001), with an estimated total resource of . 2000 Mt of .6.5% P2O5. Palabora is described in more detail in Section 3.5.1 and shown in Fig. 3.13.

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FIGURE 9.6 Epsilon Nd vs epsilon Sr showing field of Palabora carbonatite relative to other carbonatites and alkaline rocks. Modified from Goff, B.H., Weinberg, R., Groves, D.I., Vielreicher, N. M., Fourie, P.J., 2004. The giant Vergenoeg fluorite deposit in a magnetite-fluorite-fayalite-REE pipe: A hydrothermally altered carbonatite-related pegmatoid? Miner. Petrol. 80, 173 199.

The complex including the Loolekop pipe, which is surrounded by a swarm of syenite intrusions, was emplaced into an anorogenic setting close to the eastern margin of the Kaapvaal Craton on the western edge of Kruger National Park. The Loolekop carbonatite appears to have both magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal components Giebel et al. (2017). Its highly anomalous epsilon neodymium and epsilon strontium values are distinct from other global carbonatites (Fig. 9.6), with greater similarity to the highly anomalous within-craton forsterite magnetite hematite fluorite Vergenoog pipe (Goff et al., 2004) and to lamproites. It is possible that crustal components were incorporated during emplacement or by hydrothermal reactions with wall-rock gneisses, or were inherited from metasomatized mantle lithosphere below the craton margin that was fertilized by volatiles from the continental sediment wedge above the subducted plate that was responsible for the metasomatism. Other world-class phosphate deposits in zoned carbonatite complexes include Khibiny on the margin of the Kola Craton, Russia (Zaitsev et al., 2017) and Araxa, Tapira, and Rochina on the margin of the Sao Francisco Craton, Brazil (Da Rocha et al., 1992). The preservation of Palabora and these other carbonatite-hosted mineral systems over variable time spans is due to their location on or near thick mantle lithosphere on craton margins.

9.5.2

Carbonatite-related REE Nb deposits

The Bayan Obo REE Nb Fe deposit, located in Inner Mongolia, China, hosts the largest REE resource globally, with a REE resource of over

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57.4 Mt with an average grade of 6% rare earth oxide, a Nb resource of 2.16 Mt with an average grade of 0.13% Nb2O5, and a Fe resource of at least 1500 Mt with an average grade of 35% iron oxide (Hao et al., 2002). Almost all resources in the giant deposit lie within a broadly E-W-trending orehosting dolomite unit. The ages of both the ore-hosting dolomite and local carbonatite intrusions have a similar range of B1.4 1.2 Ga by various dating methods, including zircon U Th Pb dating of 1418 6 29 Ma and 1325 6 60 Ma for the ore-hosting dolomite and carbonatite, respectively (Campbell et al., 2014; Fan et al., 2014). As discussed in more detail in Section 3.5.1, it is likely that the ore-hosting dolomite and REE-rich carbonatite were part of the same complex magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal event related to partial melting of metasomatized mantle lithosphere (Yang et al., 2019) responsible for the anomalous size and REE grades of the Bayan Obo mineral system. Importantly, Bayan Obo is located on the northern margin of the North China Craton (NCC) (Fig. 9.7A), where the Mesoproterozoic Bayan Obo Group, a series of terrigenous clastic-volcanic sedimentary rocks, overlie Archean and Paleoproterozoic basement rocks (Fan et al., 2010; Zhong et al., 2015: Fig. 9.7B). The Bayan Obo Group was formed in a rift basin on the fragmented margin of the NCC during the breakup of the Columbia Supercontinent (Zhai, 2010). The giant mineral system owes its preservation for over 1200 Myr to its proximity to the margin of the buoyant NCC.

FIGURE 9.7 Tectonic setting (A) and generalized geology of the Bayan Obo REE deposit (B). Modified from Yang, K.F., Fan, H.R., Santosh, M., Hu, F.F. and Wang, K.Y., 2011. Mesoproterozoic carbonatitic magmatism in the Bayan Obo deposit, Inner Mongolia, North China: Constraints for the mechanism of super accumulation of rare earth elements. Ore Geology Reviews, 40(1), pp.122 131.

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The world-class Mountain Pass REE carbonatite, with a similar age (ca. 1.38 Ga) to the Bayan Obo carbonatite, is one of a series of alkaline intrusions derived from metasomatized mantle lithosphere that lie on a 130 km long narrow belt typified by ultrapotassic rocks of lamproite affinity on the southern margin of the enveloping North American Craton (Castor, 2008). The older (1.9 1.8 Ga) zoned carbonatite complex at Khibiny on the margin of the Kola Craton, Russia (Zaitsev et al., 2017), as well as being a phosphate source, also represents a significant REE resource. Other, smaller carbonatiterelated Nb REE deposits include: (1) the Paleoproterozoic Montviel deposit, about 100 km west of the eastern margin of the Superior Craton in Quebec, Canada (Nadeau et al., 2015); (2) the Petrayan-Vara deposit adjacent to the Kola Craton (Kozlov et al., 2020); and (3) the Araxa deposit near the western margin of the Sao Francisco Craton, Brazil (Traversa et al., 2001). As for Palabora, their proximity to thick lithosphere keels was the key factor in the longevity of their preservation.

9.5.3

Kiruna-type Fe P deposits

The highly anomalous group of largely Mesoproterozoic magmatic magnetite apatite deposits is described in more detail in Section 3.4.4 and discussed in several other chapters, so is just briefly mentioned here. Their distribution in the Norrbotten Region of northern Sweden is shown in Fig. 3.11. In terms of their importance in this chapter, they are sited within the complex Fennoscandian Shield within the narrow Norrbotten Craton about 100 km from its contact with the larger Karelian Craton to the east. Other Kiruna-type deposits include those of the Mesoproterozoic Southeast Missouri Iron Province, which include Pea Ridge and the Benson Mines (Porter, 2013). Importantly, these lie along the southern margin of the North American Craton. As for the carbonatite-related deposits discussed above, proximity to buoyant craton margins ensured their preservation.

9.5.4

Lamproite-associated diamonds

The great majority of diamond deposits are associated with kimberlites that intruded into Archean cratons, as discussed in Section 3.5.2, and shown in Fig. 3.14. However, anomalous deposits are associated with lamproites that are volumetrically minor, volatile-rich, ultrapotassic incompatible-elementenriched mantle-derived subvolcanic that intrude into various non-Archean rock sequences globally, but normally contain no significant diamond concentrations. Diamonds were first discovered in the Ellendale pipes, part of a province containing more than 150 lamproite pipes on the western margin of the Kimberley Craton (Jaques et al., 1986). The ca. 20 Ma olivine lamproite pipes contained a high percentage of high-quality gemstones, particularly white, brown, and yellow varieties (Ahmat, 2012). However, it was the

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FIGURE 9.8 (A) Generalized geology of the Argyle (AK1) diamond-bearing lamproite pipe. (B) regional tectonic map showing setting of Argyle (AK1) and the Ellendale diamond pipe on the eastern and western margins of the Kimberley Craton, respectively. Inset at top left is of redpink diamonds from Argyle with image from James Threadgold Jeweler website. (B) Simplified from Boxer, G.l., Jaques, A. l., Rayner, N.J., 2017. Argyle (AK1) diamond deposit. In: Phillips, G. N. (Ed.), Australian Ore Deposits. Australas. Inst. Min. Metall. Melbourne Mono. 32, pp. 527 531.

discovery of the world-class ca. 1.2 Ga Argyle (AK1) pipe (Fig. 9.8A) on the eastern margin of the Kimberley Craton (estimated lithosphere thickness of 225 250 km) in the Halls Creek Orogen (Fig. 9.8B) that revealed one of the world’s major producers of diamonds, largely brown but including the highly prized pink diamonds (Fig. 9.8 inset) for which Argyle is internationally renowned. As of 2016, the mine has produced more than 835 Mcts of diamonds with 67 Mcts of reserves and 48 Mcts of resources (Boxer et al., 2017).

9.6 Magmatic-hydrothermal deposits from metasomatized lithosphere 9.6.1

Iron oxide copper gold systems

Iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) systems, initially defined following discovery of the giant Olympic Dam Cu U Au deposit (Fig. 3.12), comprise magmatic-hydrothermal deposits that: (1) contain economic Cu 6 Au 6 U

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grades; (2) are structurally controlled, commonly with breccias; (3) have abundant low-Ti iron oxides intimately associated with Fe Cu sulfides; (4) have light rare earth elements (LREE) enrichment and low-S sulfides; and (5) lack quartz veins or silicification (Groves et al., 2010). As discussed in Sections 3.4.5 and 5.4.3.2, Precambrian deposits are the dominant members of the IOCG group in terms of both copper and gold resources. In terms of relationship to craton margins, Archean examples including Salobo, Cristalino, Sossego, and Igarape Bahia-Alemao in the Carajas Province of Brazil are sited on the eastern margin of the Southern Amazon Craton (Grainger et al., 2008). Mesoproterozoic examples including the giant Olympic Dam deposit (Ehrig et al., 2017) and the adjacent world-class Prominent Hill and Carrapateena deposits occur on the margin of the Gawler Craton of South Australia (Fig. 9.9A). The giant Olympic Dam IOCG deposit (Ehrig et al., 2017), arguably located below a maar with the hosting breccia pipe (Fig. 9.9B), is intruded

FIGURE 9.9 (A) Schematic map of the eastern margin of the Gawler Craton, South Australia, showing the giant Olympic Dam and world-class Prominent Hill and Carapateena IOCG deposits, within 100 150 km of the craton margin. (B) Simplified map of the giant Olympic Dam deposit showing size of ore body, breccia pipe, and brecciated granite. (A) Adapted from Hand, M., Reid, A., Jagodzinsky, E., 2007. Tectonic framework and evolution of the Gawler Craton, South Australia. Econ. Geol. 102, 1377 1395 with more detailed geology shown by Reid, A.J., 2017. Geology and metallogeny of the Gawler Craton. In: Phillips, G.N. (Ed.), Australian Ore Deposits. Australas. Inst. Min. Metall. Melbourne Mono. 32, pp. 589 594 (their Fig. 1); (B) modified after Ehrig, K., Kamenetsky, V.S., McPhie, J., Cook, N.J., Ciobanu, C.L., 2017. Olympic Dam iron oxide Cu-U-Au-Ag deposit. In: Phillips, G.N. (Ed.), Australian Ore Deposits. Australas. Inst. Min. Metall. Melbourne Mono. 32, pp. 601 610 and other sources.

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by a multitude of lamprophyre and other mafic ultramafic intrusions (Huang et al., 2016) that represent the mantle magmatism ultimately responsible for the IOCG system. In this respect, it resembles the giant lamproitehosted diamond system at Argyle (Fig. 9.8A). In terms of this chapter, it is important that the 12 Precambrian IOCG deposits with .100 Mt resources are situated in intracratonic settings close to the margins of Archean or Paleoproterozoic cratons or other lithospheric boundaries and formed 100 200 Myr after assembly of the supercontinents Kenorland and outgrowth of Columbia (Groves et al., 2020c: their Fig. 5). A schematic model is shown in Fig. 9.10. Phanerozoic IOCG deposits such as Candelaria (Contreras et al., 2018) occur in anomalous extensional to transtensional zones in the Coastal Cordillera, which are also the site of mantle-derived mafic to felsic intrusions that are anomalous in an Andean context, as summarized by Groves et al. (2010). The timing of mineralization at ca. 115 Ma, broadly coincident with the giant Cretaceous mantle plume in the Pacific, implies that special conditions, probably detached slabs of metasomatized mantle lithosphere, are required in convergent margin settings to generate world-class IOCG deposits. Formation and preservation of giant IOCG deposits was largely a Precambrian phenomenon related to heightened activity of mantle plumes that impacted on buoyant metasomatized mantle lithosphere at that stage in Earth history, with Phanerozoic IOCG deposits forming only rarely in tectonic settings where conditions like those in the Precambrian were replicated. A schematic model (Fig. 9.11) shows the position of IOCG deposits, together

FIGURE 9.10 Schematic diagram showing the formation of IOCG deposits at a variety of crustal depths in an anorogenic setting from magmatic-hydrothermal fluid derived from hybrid magma from melting of metasomatized mantle lithosphere. From Groves, D.I., Zhang, L, Santosh, M. 2020c. Subduction, mantle metasomatism and gold: as dynamic and genetic connection. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 132, 1419-1426. Published with permission from Geological Society of America.

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FIGURE 9.11 Schematic figure showing the various alkaline-magmatism-associated magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal deposits on craton margins discussed in the text relative to giant magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal deposits that occur within the cratons. Note the left-hand side of the figure represents Phanerozoic examples and the right-hand side represents Precambrian examples. Adapted from Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Zhang, L, Deng, J., Yang, L-Q. 2021 Subduction: The recycling engine room for global metallogeny. Ore Geology Reviews. 134, 104130. Published with permission from Elsevier.

with the largely Precambrian carbonatite-related Cu REE Nb and lamproiterelated diamond deposits discussed above, relative to mineral systems such as layered intrusions with PGE, Cr, Fe, and Ti deposits (Bushveld Complex), kimberlite-associated diamond deposits, and the Vergenoeg F-REE deposit which formed in more-inboard intracratonic settings.

9.6.2

Intrusion-related gold deposits

Intrusion-related gold deposits (IRGDs) are described in Section 3.4.2 and illustrated in Fig. 3.9. Although originally considered widespread globally (Thompson et al., 1999; Lang et al., 2000), IRGDs are a much more restricted group. Globally, the only significant cluster of undisputed IRGDs is situated near the margin of the North American Craton (Fig. 9.12) in the Tintina district of the Tombstone Tungsten Belt of Alaska and Yukon. The giant deposit of this group is Fort Knox (preproduction reserve of 158 Mt at 0.83 g/t gold: or alternative total resource of B450 Mt at 0.42 g/t gold: Porter, 2002) is hosted in the roof zone of a granite granodiorite stock

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FIGURE 9.12 (A) Schematic map of Alaska and Yukon showing major tectonic boundaries, position of Tintina IRGD gold and tungsten province and the Fort Knox gold deposit. (B) Photograph of typical sheeted quartz-K-feldspar-Fe-sulfide-gold veins illustrating limited alteration on vein margins. (A) Derived predominantly from Hart, C.J.R., McCoy, D., Goldfarb, R.J., Smith, M., Roberts, P., Hulstein, R., Bakke, A.A., Bundtzen, T.K., 2002. Geology, exploration and discovery in the Tintina gold province, Alaska and Yukon. In: Integrated Methods for Discovery: Global Exploration in the Twenty-First Century, Denver, Colorado, vol. 9. Soc. Econ. Geol. Spec. Pub., pp. 241 274 and Nelson, J.L., Colpron, M., Piercey, S., Murphy, D.C., Dusel-Bacon, C., Roots, C.F., 2006. Paleozoic tectonic and metallogenic evolution of pericratonic teranes in Yukon, northern British Columbia and eastern Alaska. Geol. Assoc. Canada 43, 323 360. (B) Photograph courtesy of Craig Hart.

or cupola (McCoy et al., 1997). The enigmatic, isolated giant Telfer gold deposit in Western Australia (Rowins et al., 1997) is an equivocal member of the IRGD group. It occurs just to the east of the Pilbara Craton. The IRGDs differ from orogenic gold deposits in that they occur exclusively in continent-margin-facies sedimentary sequences that include reduced shales and reactive carbonate rocks that lie on, or adjacent to craton margins. The causative hybrid magmas were initially generated by partial melting of metasomatized lithosphere, fertilized during prior subduction, to form lamprophyre melts that ponded below the Mohorivicic discontinuity (MOHO) (Fig. 9.13). These, in turn, caused crustal melting with ore elements and volatile transfer across chemical gradients between the two magma types, leading ultimately to gold deposition from magmatic-hydrothermal fluids liberated from hybrid felsic magmas (Mair et al., 2011). A schematic model

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FIGURE 9.13 Cartoon showing the formation of IRGDs from magmatic-hydrothermal fluids derived from hybrid mixed mantle-crustal magmas related to continental extension and mantle upwelling. Carlin-type deposits shown speculatively at higher crustal levels, probably indirectly related to the same systems. Adapted from Groves, D.I., Zhang, L, Santosh, M. 2020. Subduction, mantle metasomatism and gold: as dynamic and genetic connection. Geological Society of America Bulletin. 132, 1419-1426. Published with permission from Geological Society of America.

that also depicts Carlin-type deposits (discussed below) is provided as Fig. 9.13. The possible link to IRGDs relates to the discovery of the arguably Carlin-like 1.7 Moz gold Rackla deposit (Lasley, 2018), northeast of the Tintina province. The position of the generally accepted IRGDs on craton margins ensured their preservation.

9.6.3

Carlin-type gold systems

The classic Eocene Carlin gold province of Nevada lies south of the Tintina IRGD province of Alaska and Yukon, along the same margin of the enveloping North American Craton (Cline et al., 2005; Muntean et al., 2011). The gold province is one of the largest globally, making the United States the world’s third ranking gold producer almost entirely from Carlin production. Carlin-type gold systems are described in Section 3.4.3, with a giant example shown in Fig. 3.10, and are only briefly summarized here in connection to their craton margin setting. The deposits lie along trends, the Carlin, Battle MountainEureka, Getchell, and Jerritt Canyon trends (Fig. 9.4A), that appear to reflect the extensional formation of the Carlin systems and the architecture of the underlying crust, and even lithosphere, of the craton margin with its westernstepping extensional faults as shown in Fig. 9.4B (Grauch et al., 2003). Although the precise ore-fluid source for Carlin gold ores is debated, the driving force for hydrothermal circulation into extensional trap sites was a similar hybrid magmatic system derived by partial melting of subduction-related fertilized underlying mantle lithosphere below the craton margin to that

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FIGURE 9.14 Schematic tectonic maps showing the province-scale comparison between the Carlin deposits of Nevada (A) and the Carlin-type deposits of the Youjiang Basin, China (B). Both lie on craton margins with orthogonal linear trends interpreted to be related to underlying lithosphere-scale faults that fragment the complex craton margin. Modified after Wang, Q-F., Groves, D.I. 2018. Carlin-style gold deposits, Youjiang Basin, China: tectono-thermal and structural analogues of the Carlin-type gold deposits, Nevada, USA. Miner. Deposita 53, 909 918, who provide an exhaustive list of source references.

generating the IRGDs (Muntean et al., 2011). This is the major reason for the incorporation of Carlin-type deposits in Fig. 9.13. Although the Eocene Carlin deposits are almost certainly preserved due to their near-craton setting, their overall absence from Paleozoic basins could be the result of destruction during continued extension with block rotation, roll-over, and emplacement of metamorphic core complexes. Arguably, slightly deeper Cretaceous Carlin-type deposits are recorded from the Youjiang Basin in China (Wang and Groves, 2018; Yang et al., 2020), where a more distal hybrid magmatic input is implied. Interestingly, these deposits can be interpreted to lie on linear trends subparallel to craton margins as for the trends for the Carlin deposits of Nevada (Fig. 9.14).

9.7 Hydrothermal deposits derived from metasomatized lithosphere 9.7.1

Jiaodong and other Chinese orogenic gold deposits

Most orogenic gold deposits (Groves et al., 1998) are sited away from well ducumented craton margins within orogens in which gold mineralization formed during transpressional deformation along convergent margins late in their geodynamic evolution (Goldfarb et al., 2005). However, many of the orogenic gold provinces of China, including those of the Jiaodong Peninsula, that have helped China become the world’s principal gold producer, are sited adjacent to craton margins. Jiaodong (Fig. 39) and the other gold provinces are

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FIGURE 9.15 Regional tectonic map showing distribution of hypozonal orogenic deposits in amphibolite-facies domains and mesozonal to epizonal orogenic gold deposits, in orogenic belts bordering cratons, which have fluid and metal sources interpreted to be from metasomatized mantle lithosphere. Map modified from Goldfarb, R.J., Qiu, K.F., Deng, J., Chen, Y.J., Yang L.Q., 2019. Orogenic gold deposits of China. In: Chang, Z.S., Goldfarb R.J., (Eds.), Mineral Deposits of China. Soc. Econ. Geol. Spec. Pub. 22, pp. 620.

exhaustively described and discussed in Sections 2.3.2 and 4.4.2, with supporting evidence for a subcrustal origin involving devolatilization of metasomatized and fertilized mantle lithosphere, and these data are not repeated here. Instead, the positions of the known gold deposits in various orogenic gold provinces are summarized in Fig. 9.15. The provinces range in age from the Devonian Huangjindong deposit in the Jiangnan Orogen (Zhang et al., 2020a), through numerous Upper Triassic-Lower Jurassic deposits in the Eastern Kunlun Qinling Dabie Orogens (Zhao et al., 2021), to the Lower Cretaceous Jiaodong deposits (Deng et al., 2019), and the Cenozoic deposits of the Ailaoshan Orogen (Wang et al., 2020a). They and the isolated Lower Jurassic Danba deposit (Zhao et al., 2021) lie along the margins of, or between, the North China and Yangtze Cratons and between the Yangtze and Cathaysia Cratons. The deposits shown in colors other than yellow represent those for which there is evidence of a subcrustal origin.

9.7.2

Other orogenic gold deposits on craton margins

Although most Phanerozoic orogenic gold deposits are spatially unrelated to known craton margins, there are some exceptions. As there is no compelling

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FIGURE 9.16 Tectonic map of Central Asian region showing position of giant orogenic gold deposits in complexities in suture zones in orogenic belts related to heterogeneous stresses developed around exposed and buried craton margins. Modified by R.J. Goldfarb in 2010 from Sengor, A.M.C., Natal’in, B.A., 1996. Palaeotectonics of Asia-fragments of a synthesis. In: Yin, A., Harrison, T.A. (Eds.), The Tectonic Evolution of Asia. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 486 640.

literature to suggest that the source of these deposits was ore fluid from a fertilized mantle-lithosphere source, they are only briefly mentioned here for completeness. What is clear is that many Phanerozoic world-class to giant deposits are related to pronounced curvilinear segments of the orogen where there is overlap between rigid cratons and that some early Precambrian deposits may form along cryptic paleo-craton margins. As an example, shown in Fig. 9.16 (Groves et al., 2016), Phanerozoic orogenic gold deposits that lie along the Central Asian Orogen mimic the relatively linear segment between the Tarim Craton to the west and NCC to the east (Goldfarb et al., 2014: their Fig. 11). Fig. 9.16 shows the siting of the giant Muruntau deposit of Uzbekistan in the Tien Shan region related to a curved, structurally complex segment of the orogen related to interaction between the Eastern European Craton to the west and the Tarim Craton to the east and south. The giant Berevskoe deposit in Ukraine occurs along the same structure where it curves strongly to the north. At the eastern end of the orogen, along the Mongol-Okhotsk orogenic belt, there are structural complexities related to interaction of the orogeny between the Siberian Craton to the north and NCC to the south (Goldfarb et al., 2014; their Fig. 15). The giant Vasilikovskoe orogenic gold deposit of Kazakhstan lies in the segment of the orogen with the giant Russian Olympiada and Sukhoi Log deposits in curvilinear, structurally complex zones to the east and north, respectively.

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Although early Precambrian orogenic gold deposits are sited in greenstone belts that are internal to defined cratons, some evidence suggests that the world-class to giant deposits are controlled by lithosphere boundaries. For example, the giant Golden Mile and world-class Mt Charlotte deposits at Kalgoorlie, together with world-class deposits such as, from north to south, Wiluna, Sons of Gwalia, Kambalda-St Ives group, and Norseman, lie along a linear zone traditionally known as the Norseman-Wiluna Belt (Swager, 1997). This belt lies along the faulted margin between the Southern Cross Domain of the Youanmi Terrane to the west and the Kalgoorlie Terrane to the east. Mole et al. (2013) demonstrate through an epsilon Nd isotope map of the Yilgarn Craton (reproduced with Kalgoorlie shown in Fig. 9.17) that this belt corresponds to a lithosphere boundary or paleo-craton juxtaposing older continental crust to the west and younger accreted crust to the east.

FIGURE 9.17 Epsilon neodymium isotopic map of the Yilgarn Craton at 2.7 2.6 Ga, showing distribution of ca. 2.7 Ga nickel deposits, ca. 2.65 Ga gold deposits, and BIF-hosted iron oxide deposits. Note the location of the Kalgoorlie Gold Field along the strong N-NW-trending gradient in the center of the craton, which is suggested to represent the margin of the paleo-craton at ca. 2.7 Ga, with evolved crust to the west (the Proto-Yilgarn) and juvenile crust to the east. Adapted from Vielreicher, N.M., Groves, D.I. and McNaughton, N.J., 2016. The giant Kalgoorlie gold field revisited. Geoscience Frontiers, 7(3), pp.359-374. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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Interestingly, the earlier-formed world-class komatiite-associated Ni Cu deposits such as Kambalda, Perseverance, and Mt Keith align parallel to the same margin.

9.8 Magmatic systems related to intrusion via translithosphere structures 9.8.1

Intrusion-related nickel copper PGE systems

Deposits within nickel Cu (PGE) systems that generally form in magma conduits in mafic ultramafic intrusions of a wide variety of sizes are discussed in Section 3.6.3 and illustrated in Fig. 3.18. The nature of these deposits at the district to ore body scale are well described and not repeated here. Instead, their relationship to craton margins is explored. Most of the world’s large Ni Cu deposits are located near the margins of well-defined cratons (Groves et al., 2005a,b; Begg et al., 2010). Some cratons, namely the Superior, Siberia, North China, and Kola-Karelia cratons, are particularly well-endowed, mimicking the heterogeneous metal endowment pattern in cratons worldwide (De Wit et al., 1999). For example, Pechenga, Kevitsa, and the Kotalahti belt lie on the margin of the KareliaKola Craton, and Africa’s largest Ni Cu deposit, at Kabanga, on the eastern margin of the Tanzania Craton. The giant Noril’sk deposit lies at the western margin of the Siberian Craton, and Jinchuan is on the northern margin of the NCC, a similar tectonic setting to the giant Bayan Obo REE-bearing carbonatite. Voisey’s Bay sits along the western margin of the Nain Craton, and Santa Rita at the eastern margin of the Sao Francisco Craton. The giant Ni Cu deposit at Sudbury is also located near a craton margin in the Superior Province. As Sudbury is interpreted to result from a meteorite impact, this spatial association is normally considered coincidental, but as discussed above, the ca. 1.9 Ga emplacement age of the body coincides with the breakup of Kenorland. In view of this, Maier and Groves (2011) suggest that the role of the impact was one of modifying or focusing a large magmatic system that was already in the process of crustal ascent. Maier and Groves (2011) show that, for the Fennoscandian Shield, where craton margins are well located, a 100 km buffer zone on each side of the margin captures all major Ni Cu PGE deposits. Interestingly, the Kemi (or Elijarvi) chromite deposit (Weihed et al., 2008), the largest in Europe, occurs within 50 km of the margin of the Karelian Craton, near its intersection with the Norrbotten Craton in the Fennoscandian Shield. However, for the enveloping North American Craton, where craton boundaries are less distinct, a 200 km buffer zone is required (Fig. 9.18). In view of this preferential location of the Ni Cu deposits near craton margins, Maier and Groves (2011) suggest that these represented major strength contrasts in combined continental crust and lithosphere toward which

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FIGURE 9.18 Location of PGE deposits in large layered intrusions (in red) and intrusionrelated Ni Cu (in yellow) deposits in North America, with sizes indicated. Distribution of exposed Archean crust (pink shade) and craton boundaries after Bleeker (2003). Craton margins are shown as stippled lines, and thick orange lines denote 200-km corridors centered on craton boundaries. Corridors are wider than in Fennoscandia because craton margins in America are mostly less well exposed and constrained. Modified from Maier, W.D., Groves, D.I., 2011. Temporal and spatial controls on the formation of magmatic PGE and Ni Cu deposits. Miner. Deposita. 46, 841 858 and Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., 2021. Craton and thick lithosphere margins: The sites of giant mineral deposits and mineral provinces. Gondwana Res. 100, 195 222. Published with permission from Elsevier.

asthenosphere upwelling could be diverted and where mantle-derived magmas could readily ascend through trans-lithosphere structures on the faulted cold craton edge. Abundant S-rich crustal rocks normally provided the external S source required to fertilize the magma and induce the formation of immiscible sulfide liquid droplets from which the Ni Cu sulfide deposits formed (Ripley et al., 2003; Li and Ripley, 2005). In such dynamic environments, turbulent flow in magma conduits could be controlled by alternating compressiveextensional tectonic regimes (Maier and Groves, 2011), with differential segregation of sulfide and silicate liquids due to their contrasting densities and viscosities. Sulfide liquid accumulations in irregularities in the conduits provided the massive, high-tenor ores, surrounded by zones of disseminated, lower-tenor ores trapped in crystallizing mafic ultramafic rocks as the magmas cooled. As for all mineral systems discussed in this chapter, proximity to thick buoyant lithosphere aided deposit preservation, in several cases for half of Earth history in the case of individual mafic intrusion-hosted Ni Cu deposits.

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Anorthosite-hosted ilmenite deposits

Anorthosite-hosted ilmenite deposits are discussed only briefly here as they are not a global mineral-deposit group and hence are not described in Chapter 3. However, both a late-Mesoproterozoic deposit cluster at Allard Lake in Quebec, Canada, and an early Neoproterozoic deposit cluster at Tellnes, Norway, are giant Ti sources. Importantly, both deposit clusters lie within 200 km of the enveloping North American Craton and Fennoscandian Shield margins, respectively, and have ore body shapes that resemble intrusionrelated Ni Cu PGE deposits. The Allard Lake ilmenite deposit, in the Havre-Saint-Pierre anorthosite complex, part of an allochthonous belt in the Grenville province, is the world’s largest mined Fe Ti oxide deposit with a pre-mining resource of .200 Mt at grades of .60 wt.% hemo-ilmenite (Charlier et al., 2010) The main ore body is funnel-shaped, measuring 1.03 3 1.10 km and 100 300 m-thick, an order of magnitude larger than the intrusion-related Ni Cu sulfide deposits. The ore is a cumulate ilmenite-rich norite, or ilmenitite, comprising hemo-ilmenite (ilmenite with extensive hematite exsolution lamellae), andesine (An45 50), aluminous spinel, and minor orthopyroxene. The origin of the anorthosite host rocks and the ilmenite ores are both equivocal, and resolution is made more difficult by postformation metamorphism (Charlier et al., 2010). Although Charlier et al. (2010) and Woodruff et al. (2010) present slightly different genetic models, both basically invoke complex models in which a succession of magma pulses, hybridization, and the fractionation of hemo-ilmenite, alone or together with plagioclase, was responsible. They are interpreted to have operated within a dynamic magma conduit in which major concentrations of hemo-ilmenite formed by gravity settling or related plagioclase buoyancy or via tectonically induced relocation of more dense components. The Tellnes ilmenite deposit, located at the margin of the enveloping Fennoscandian Shield in south-west Norway, is an ilmenite-rich norite lens ˚ na-Sira massif anorthosite of the Rogaland within the early Neoproterozoic A Province, part of the Sveconorwegian orogenic province, correlated with the Grenville province in North America. The Rogaland anorthosites and associated Ti Fe deposits were emplaced into granulite-facies gneisses during postcollisional magmatic activity. The complex, essentially sickleshaped Tellnes ore body (2.7 km 3 450 m, 570,000 sq. m: Porter, 2003) is intrusive into the surrounding anorthosite with sharp contacts, numerous cross-cutting apophyses, and intrusive breccias. According to Porter (2003), Tellnes accounts for up to 13% of the world’s annual supply of TiO2 pigment. Diota et al. (2003) consider that it represents a Ti-enriched noritic crystal mush emplaced into a fracture zone. Woodruff et al. (2010) group it genetically with the Allard Lake anorthosite-hosted deposits. The association with the margins of the thick lithosphere is a structural one that relates to the availability of deep faults or shear zones, as for the

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intrusion-related Ni Cu PGE deposits, rather than a generation from fertilized mantle lithosphere. Interestingly, the anorthosite-hosted ilmenite deposits contain limited minor elements other than V, Cr, and P, but do contain very minor amounts of Cu Fe (Ni, Co) sulfides at both Allard Lake and Tellnes.

9.9 Hydrothermal deposits related to deformation on craton margins 9.9.1

BIF-hosted iron ores

The extensive literature on iron ores and their precursor banded iron formations (BIFs) is full of controversies about the genesis of both (Clout and Simonson, 2005; Hagemann et al., 2008; Bekker et al., 2010). These are discussed in Section 3.3.1 with a cross-section through an ore body and a proposed genetic model illustrated in Fig. 3.6. In this section, they are only briefly described with an emphasis on those characteristics that relate to the siting of the BIF-hosted iron ores on craton margins. As all iron ores share many common features globally, the Hamersley Iron Province of Western Australia ( . 3.2 Bt at 58% 62% Fe) is used as the prime example (Fig. 9.19) as there is more extensive modern literature to draw on than for other provinces.

FIGURE 9.19 Geological map of the Pilbara Craton and Hammersley Basin in northern Western Australia showing major iron ore deposits. Adapted and simplified from Duuring et al. (2017) by Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., 2021. Craton and thick lithosphere margins: The sites of giant mineral deposits and mineral provinces. Gondwana Res. 100, 195 222. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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The major BIF basins formed over a restricted time interval from about 2.6Ga to the time of the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) at ca. 2.4 Ga (Beukes and Gutzmer, 2008). They formed on passive continental margins (Gross and Zajac, 1983; Castro, 1994), thus explaining their spatial relationship to craton margins, as Archeaon cratons represented the continental crust at the time of their deposition. As a result of this juxtaposition of the deep-rooted lithosphere and overlying sedimentary basin, there were major rheological contrasts during subsequent orogeny around the craton margins (Clout and Simonson, 2005; Thorne et al., 2017), and the resultant iron ore deposits were preserved for over 2000 Myr. In the Hamersley Basin, the major thinskinned deformation events that the BIF-bearing sequences experienced produced a dome-and-basin fold geometry, with the giant deposits at Tom Price and Paraburdoo located on a major basement dome (Fig. 9.19). Similar compressional fault-fold structures, including domes, are recorded in other iron ore districts worldwide (Dalstra and Rosie`re, 2008). Subsequent extensional tectonic events and intrusion of dolerite dykes produced structural geometries that acted as ground preparation for the subsequent formation of iron ores, which is discussed by Evans et al. (2013) and shown schematically in Fig. 3.6B. Evans et al. (2013) argue that such fluid infiltration by distal dense hypersaline brines driven by topographically drive fluid flow is a similar genetic model to that proposed for MVT and SEDEX Pb Zn (Cu) sulfide deposits by Leach et al. (2010a,b). The structural geometry, involving compressional structures reactivated and overprinted by extensional faults with horst and graben development, combined with the situation above a fragmented craton margin, resembles that of the Carlin deposits in Nevada (Fig. 9.4B).

9.10 Sediment-hosted deposits on craton and thick lithosphere margins 9.10.1 Zambian copper belt-type deposits Sediment-hosted (stratiform) copper deposits that comprise disseminated to veinlet-style Cu Fe Co sulfide ore bodies in shallow-marine dolomitic and siliciclastic sedimentary rocks (Hitzman et al., 2005), account for about onequarter of world copper production. Despite this, economically viable deposits are rare, with only four basins containing giant to supergiant ( . 24 Mt Cu) deposits. As noted above, these are, in age order, the Paleoproterozoic Kodaro-Udokan Basin in Russia, the largely Neoproterozoic Katangan System in central Africa, the Carboniferous basin that hosts the Dzezkazgan deposit in Kazakhstan, and the Permian basin in central Europe which hosts the Kupferschiefer ore bodies (Hitzman et al., 2005). Of these, the Zambian Copperbelt of the Katangan System has achieved the most attention as it is arguably the most mineralized Neoproterozoic to early Cambrian basin

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globally and has produced more than 1000 Mt of copper, in addition to globally significant Co during its history (McGowan et al., 2003). It is described and its genesis discussed in Section 3.2.5 using the extensive references in Selley et al. (2005), Hitzman et al. (2012), and Porter (2015), with a crosssection shown in Fig. 3.4. Its craton margin setting is highlighted below. Both Selley et al. (2005) and Porter (2015) mention the siting of the Zambian Copperbelt on the southern end of the Congo or Kasi Craton, which is also shown on the margin of thick lithosphere defined by seismic tomography by Hoggard et al. (2020: their Fig. S19), but only Hoggard et al. (2020) discuss its significance in a broader context as reviewed under the discussion on SEDEX deposits below. Fig. 9.20 shows that the Zambian Copperbelt lies at a triple point junction defined by three conventionally defined Archean cratons (Congo or Kasai, Tanzania and Kalahari Cratons) and enveloping Paleoproterozoic crustal blocks (Angolan Shield, Bangweulu Block, and

FIGURE 9.20 Geological map of southern Africa showing major tectonic units and relationship of Central African (Zambian) Copperbelt in Neoproterozoic Lufilian Arc at a triple point junction between the Kisai (Congo), Tanzania, and Kalahari Cratons and their adjacent Paleoproterozoic blocks. Adapted from McCourt et al. (2013) with details of Lufilian Arc from Selley et al. (2005) and as presented by Groves, D.I. and Santosh, M., 2021. Craton and thick lithosphere margins: The sites of giant mineral deposits and mineral provinces. Gondwana Research, 100, pp.195-222. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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Rehoboth Block), together representing thick lithosphere. Interestingly this triple point junction is only cryptic in the lithosphere asthenosphere-boundary (LAB) map of Hoggard et al. (2020: their Fig. S19), which emphasizes the Congo Craton, with a weaker signal from the Kalahari Craton, and virtually no signal from the Tanzania Craton. The rift basins into which the host rocks to the sediment-hosted Cu Co ores were deposited probably represent fragmented craton margins, which also influenced structural regimes during basin inversion to produce the arcuate shape of the fold and thrust belt that hosts most giant ore bodies (Fig. 9.20). The craton margin connection is thus a tectonic one, with the thick lithosphere surrounding the Copperbelt aiding its preservation. The giant Udokan sediment-hosted copper deposit is sited on the southeastern margin of the Siberian Craton as shown by Seltmann et al. (2010) and on the margin of the thick lithosphere as shown by Hoggard et al. (2020: their Fig. S10). The relationship of the Kazakhstan and Kupfershiefer ores to thick mantle lithosphere is obscure from the available literature. Although Hoggard et al. (2020: their Fig. S12) show variations in lithosphere thickness in the region, the scale of their figure does not allow clear placement of the major Kupfershiefer and lesser Kazakhstan ores in terms of variations in lithosphere thickness.

9.10.2 SEDEX zinc lead copper systems SEDEX deposits represent a major component of the group of sedimenthosted stratiform to stratabound Pb Zn systems that also include MVT deposits (Leach et al., 2005). As their characteristics and genesis are described in some detail in Sections 3.2.4, 6.3.4.1, and 8.2 and shown in Fig. 3.3, only those aspects related to their setting relative to thick mantle lithosphere margins are discussed below with emphasis on the study of Hoggard et al. (2020). Most research on SEDEX mineral systems has been on the deposit-tobasin scale or has examined their genesis in the context of the secular evolution of the Earth (Leach et al., 2010a,b). There was little discussion on their position within continents or their relationship to craton boundaries until the research by Hoggard et al. (2020). This is because, apart from the Mesoproterozoic Sullivan and Phanerozoic Howard’s Pass deposits in the Selwyn Basin, and the Phanerozoic Red Dog deposit of north-western Alaska, which lies close to the edge of the enveloping North American Craton, there had been no obvious spatial relationship to traditionally defined (Bleeker, 2003; Furnes et al., 2015) craton margins, although Huston et al. (2023) now show that these giant North American SEDEX deposits lie on the margin of thick lithosphere. Hoggard et al. (2020) produce several LAB (Bartzsch et al., 2011) maps, based largely on seismic tomography, to determine the depth of the

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lithosphere beneath the continental crust. This effectively enlarges the margins of thick lithosphere relative to the traditional craton margins and provides internal depth resolution under the sedimentary basins which cover about three-quarters of the continental land surface. Hoggard et al. (2020) use the Carpentaria Zinc Belt in northern Australia, which contains several world-class Pb Zn Cu deposits formed between 1.8 and 1.4 Ga (Large et al., 2005), as an example. These deposits lie along an arcuate trend that trends oblique to geologically and geophysically defined crustal boundaries, suggesting a more fundamental control. Their LAB model for Australia (Hoggard et al., 2020: Fig. 2b), shown schematically in Fig. 9.21, which interestingly de-emphasizes signals of the thick lithosphere beneath the Yilgarn Craton and particularly the Pilbara Craton, shows that the northern Australian SEDEX deposits lie on the margin of thick lithosphere, and in particular coincide with the 170 km depth for the LAB. Interestingly, the Ernest Henry IOCG deposit lies on this margin (Fig. 9.21), making its location more consistent in terms of other IOCG deposits that lie close to craton margins (Groves et al., 2010), as discussed above. Hoggard et al. (2020) extend their LAB study globally to include MVT and Zambian Copperbelt-type mineral systems. They show that 85% of sediment-hosted base-metal deposits, including all giant deposits ( . 10 million tons of metal), occur within 200 km of the edges of the thick lithosphere. They interpret this in terms of a geodynamic setting where the lithosphere edges represent rheological contrasts that focus strain and

FIGURE 9.21 Geological map of Australia showing conventional position of Archean cratons compared to a lithosphere asthenosphere-boundary (LAB) map from Hoggard et al. (2020: Fig. 2b) with thick lithosphere largely mimicking the distribution of Archean and Proterozoic crust. The position of major mineral deposits referred to in the text is shown. Adapted from Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., 2021. Craton and thick lithosphere margins: The sites of giant mineral deposits and mineral provinces. Gondwana Res. 100, 195 222.

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localize repeated cycles of extension and basin contraction, therefore controlling both basin development and fluid focusing. This is interpreted to provide the long-term lithospheric edge stability and genetic link between deep Earth processes and near-surface hydrothermal mineral systems to form the SEDEX deposits, as discussed for the Boring Billion SEDEX systems in Chapter 6. Hoggard et al. (2020) emphasize that, for SEDEX deposits, continental rifting juxtaposes essential mineral system components including evaporites, volcanic rocks, and reductants, such as organic-rich shales, in restricted fault-bound basins. They further suggest that tectonic extension of thick mantle lithosphere enhances the thickness of syn-rift sediments due to increased mantle buoyancy, and that basal heat flow is reduced due to the greater thickness of lithosphere. They conclude that these factors provide the optimal setting for giant sediment-hosted mineral systems because they combine to double the extent of the low-temperature hydrothermal operating window. Many of the more general models for the critical roles, such as longevity, stability, and rheological contrasts, played by craton boundaries for mineral systems discussed above form the heart of the more sophisticated model provided by Hoggard et al. (2020) for SEDEX and other sediment-hosted Pb Zn Cu mineral systems.

9.11 Diversity of mineral systems along craton and thick lithosphere margins As noted above, a significant number of different mineral systems are sited adjacent to craton margins and thick lithosphere blocks, and therefore juxtaposition of diverse mineral deposits is inevitable as in the Tien Shan and Mongol-Okhorst orogenic belt of the Central Asian Orogen (Goldfarb et al., 2014). The Fennoscandian Shield (Fig. 9.22) provides an excellent example where a wide variety of deposits related to different mineral systems with a wide range of metal commodities lie adjacent to the western margin of the Karelian Craton and its junction with the Norrbotten Craton (Weihed et al., 2008). These include the giant Kiruna-type Fe P ores of Sweden, the giant chromite deposits at Kemi in Finland, the highly anomalous Outokumpu Cu Zn- (Co, Au, Ag, Ni) ores, and several Ni Cu PGE deposits. To the north, the giant Pechenga Ni Cu deposit and the giant REE P deposit at Khibiny in Russia are adjacent to the margin of the Kola Craton. In addition, a multitude of volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits lie along the margin of the Karelian Craton and on the boundary between the Skellefte and Ulmea blocks in Sweden. These presumably were emplaced in back arcs and tectonically emplaced on to lithosphere boundaries, explaining their highly deformed nature (Carranza and Sadeghi, 2014). Arguably, the most spectacular example of a conjunction of 66 worldclass to giant mineral systems within B100 km buffer zones of craton margins is shown in Fig. 9.23, that helps, at least in part, to explain China’s

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FIGURE 9.22 Schematic geological map of the Fennoscandian Shield showing interpreted craton margins and a wide variety of mineral-deposit types adjacent to those margins and other block margins. Adapted from Weihed, P., Eilu, P., Larsen, R.B., Stendal, H., Tontti, M., 2008. Metallic mineral deposits in the Nordic countries. Episodes 31 (1), 123 132 and other data from Geological Survey of Finland database by Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., 2021. Craton and thick lithosphere margins: The sites of giant mineral deposits and mineral provinces. Gondwana Res. 100, 195 222. Published with permission from Elsevier.

premier position as a producer of multiple metal and mineral commodities. Yang et al. (2022) describe how, after the formation of the North China and Yangtze Cratons or Blocks during the Neoarchean-Paleoproterozoic, the margins of the cratons experienced multiple convergence and rifting events leading to metasomatism and fertilization of their underlying mantle lithosphere. The rifted margins with their trans-lithosphere faults provided pathways for Cu Au (Mo W Sn)-bearing felsic to Ni Cu-bearing ultrabasic intrusions and REE-rich carbonatite magmas. They also promoted the development of marginal sedimentary basins with both Cu Pb Zn-rich source units and reactive carbonate or carbonaceous host rocks. There was a diachronous formation of hydrothermal orogenic gold, antimony, and bismuth systems in the narrow orogenic belts between the cratons. Complexity in the Mesozoic Paleo-Pacific subduction systems resulted in asthenosphere upwelling and lithosphere extension and thinning in the NCC, leading to anomalous heat flow and formation of subcrustal orogenic gold deposits, including those of the giant Jiaodong gold province on its north-eastern margin. Although thinned, the mantle lithosphere of the cold buoyant cratons helped the preservation of some of the world’s oldest porphyry-skarn and epithermal mineral systems. Craton margins globally control the formation and preservation of a diverse range of mineral systems, but China represents an extraordinary example of metal endowment due to the anomalous length of its craton margins combined with their abnormally complex tectonic history.

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FIGURE 9.23 Tectonic framework of Eastern China showing 66 world-class to giant mineral deposits within B100 km of the margins of the North China and Yangtze Cratons: compiled from multiple sources, mainly within Chang and Goldfarb (2019). Gold deposits in QinlingDabie Orogen classified according to Goldfarb et al. (2019). Adapted from Yang, L.Q., Deng, J., Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., He, W.Y., Li, N., Zhang, L., Zhang, R.R., 2022. Metallogenic factories and resultant highly anomalous mineral endowment on the craton margins of China. Geosci. Front. doi.org/10.1016/j.gsk.2021.101339. Published with permission from Elsevier.

The juxtaposition of varied mineral systems involving: (1) reactivation of craton-margin extensional faults: (2) formation of continental sedimentary basins with their source and trap components: and (3) fertile basaltic and alkaline magmatism; combined with (4) similar deposit and mineral-system scale geophysical signatures can result in unexpected exploration discoveries. An excellent example is provided by the discovery by Western Mining Corporation Ltd of the supergiant Olympic Dam IOCG deposit (Fig. 3.12, Fig. 9.9) in 1975 during exploration led by Roy Woodall. This team utilized

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a holistic source-transport-trap system approach (Haynes, 2006) in which lineament analysis was used to pinpoint potential continent- to lithosphere-scale faults as potential fluid conduits and magnetic and gravity surveys were used to detect geophysical anomalies under thick cover. The model was essentially built around a Zambian Copperbelt model but led to the discovery of the first giant IOCG deposit recognized globally along the margin of the Gawler Craton. The discovery pinpoints the necessity to produce mineral system models, which transcend the deposit-scale characteristics of individual deposit types, in which a collective geodynamic setting is a key genetic parameter. More global exploration constraints based on key parameters discussed in chapters above are presented in Chapter 10.

9.12 Summary There are few economic geology publications that consider several disparate mineral deposits or systems in terms of their shared geodynamic or tectonic settings. The One Hundredth Anniversary Volume of Economic Geology (Hedenquist et al., Eds), has some examples, and this more holistic approach is adopted in other publications, such as those of Mitchell and Garson, 1981; Sawkins (1984), Blundell (2002), Groves et al. (2005a,b), Kerrich et al. (2005), Bierlein et al. (2006a,b), and Groves et al. (2020a), among others. The diverse hypogene mineral systems that show a spatial relationship to margins of craton or other thick lithosphere blocks are economically significant, being responsible for a large percentage of global production of Au, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, P, Pb, PGE, REE, Ti, and Zn as well as minor byproducts such as Cd, Ga, In, Se, and Te that are used in ’clean energy’ sources such as solar panels. The major mineral systems include iron-rich deposits, such as BIF-derived iron ores, Kiruna-type Fe P deposits, anorthosite-hosted ilmenite deposits, IOCG deposits, and carbonatite-related ores with varying proportions of REE, P, Nb, and Cu. Base-metal deposits are represented by mafic intrusion-hosted Ni Cu PGE sulfide ores, SEDEX (and MVT) Pb Zn Cu deposits, Zambian Copperbelt-type Cu Co, and IOCG deposits (Fig. 9.24). A unifying primary control on this distribution is one of preservation due to proximity to thick, buoyant, virtually indestructible mantle lithosphere, with even early Precambrian deposits that formed in shallow crustal environments being preserved for over 2 billion years because they were thrust on to older continental crust. A further common factor is the deep extensional fault systems that develop on the craton margins during rifting. These produce continental-margin sedimentary basins where BIFs provide the precursors to iron ores, or sedimentary sequences that include evaporites as sources of brines, arenites and volcanic rocks as sources of metals, and organic-rich shales or petroleum as both sources and reductants for sediment-associated

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FIGURE 9.24 Schematic world map showing distribution of exposed Archean crust, inferred craton boundaries, and other blocks with thick lithosphere. Giant examples of the deposit types discussed in the text are shown adjacent to craton margins. Names of cratons are shown in Fig. 9.1. The Figure illustrates the anomalous diverse endowment of the western margin of the North American Craton, as also shown for northern Australia in Fig. 9.21 and for the North China and Yangtze Cratons in Fig. 9.23. Adapted from Bleeker, W., 2003. The late Archean record: a puzzle in ca 35 pieces. Lithos 71, 99 134. From Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., 2021. Craton and thick lithosphere margins: The sites of giant mineral deposits and mineral provinces. Gondwana Res. 100, 195 222. Published with permission from Elsevier.

Pb Zn Cu deposits. Shallow marine carbonate-bearing sequences that developed on craton margins also provide permeable and reactive hosts for later fluid circulation and ore deposition. The long-lived, deep, and cold mantle lithosphere margins with fluctuating stress fields may enhance the endowment potential of these basins. They promote syn-basinal flow of brines to form SEDEX deposits (Hoggard et al., 2020) or later gravity-driven flow of such brines in the formation of iron ores (Evans et al., 2013) or MVT deposits (Leach et al., 2017). Compressional or transpressional reactivation of these extensional fault margins on cold rigid mantle lithosphere may drive syn-orogenic fluid flow to produce important ore deposits. These include the Cu Co ores in the external fold and thrust belt of the Zambian

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Copperbelt (Porter, 2015), or the Chinese orogenic gold deposits on the margins of the North China and Yangtze Cratons (Deng et al., 2020a,b,c). Alternatively, they may provide the pre-ore thrust-related fluid seals over reactive carbonate sequences for Carlin-type gold ores (Cline et al., 2005). These margins with their subcrustal faults and anomalously large rheological contrasts also provided preferred conduits for the emplacement of mafic ultramafic intrusions (Begg et al., 2010; Maier and Groves, 2011) from which Ni Cu PGE sulfide deposits were formed by incorporation of sulfides from the reduced units in the marginal basins (Ripley et al., 2003). Other deposit types on craton margins owe their endowment to the anomalous metasomatism and metal and volatile fertilization of the mantle lithosphere below the craton margin, caused largely by subduction-related devolatilization and/or asthenosphere upwelling. These include a magmatic-hydrothermal group of deposits of largely Precambrian carbonatite-related REE P Nb Cu, and IOCG deposits and Phanerozoic IRGD systems, and the hydrothermal Carlintype deposits, all formed under extensional tectonic regimes. At least some of the Chinese orogenic gold deposits on craton margins were deposited from ore fluids sourced from fertilized mantle lithosphere, but in a transpressional environment (Zhang et al., 2020b).

Chapter 10

Implications for global exploration Chapter Outline 10.1 Introduction 193 10.2 The role and appropriate scale of conceptual targeting 198 10.3 Most productive time periods for specific mineral systems 200

10.4 Association with craton and thick lithosphere margins 207 10.5 Detection of lithosphere scale structures connected to mineral systems 209 10.6 Summary 210

10.1 Introduction Mineral resources have always been recognized by economic geologists as essentially nonrenewable resources from which metals can be mined from mineral deposits within a variety of mineral systems. As discussed above, these mineral resources represent the products of exceptionally rare conjunctions of geological processes at specific places and at specific times in Earth history. Throughout human exploitation, particularly since the Industrial Revolution, these finite resources have systematically declined with generally progressively lower-grade deposits being mined using increasingly greater amounts of conventional energy and producing greater amounts of waste materials on the Earth’s surface. In the 1970s, Skinner (1976, 1979) raised concerns that mineral resources would become exhausted within a short period if mining activity increased to bring developing countries toward the living standards of developed countries with their increasing technological civilization. The immediate concern was not realized mainly because the economies of most developing countries continued to fall way behind developed countries, but also because new geochemical (Smith et al., 2000; Anand and Butt, 2010) and geophysical exploration (Dentith and Mudge, 2014) technologies allowed increased discovery of covered or deeper mineral deposits over the next 20 30 years. That situation has now changed drastically in several important ways including: (1). an increase in world population from 4 to 8 billion since 1975; (2) the emergence of China with its huge population toward the status Mineral Systems, Earth Evolution, and Global Metallogeny. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-21684-8.00011-3 © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 193

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of a developed country, with over 500 million people rescued from poverty, with India and its huge population also emerging rapidly; (3) the development of a technological world using metals in an increasing variety of industries; (4) a decreasing exploration success rate despite massive financial investments (Fig. 10.1), with mining of lower-grade deposits (Fig. 10.2) meaning that metals are being depleted at a faster rate than they are being discovered; and (5) ‘the elephant in the room’ in the development of products such as wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicles as ‘renewable’ energy sources to combat climate change, all of which are manufactured using nonrenewable conventional energy and the declining resources of nonrenewable mineral deposits. The more endangered critical metals that are used to manufacture wind turbines (Cu, Nd, Dy), solar panels (Cu, Ga, Se, Ag, Cd, In, Te), and electric vehicles (Co, Ni, Cu, Pt) that are considered to be long-term solutions to combat carbon dioxide emissions are of particular concern. Several are trace elements in base-metal or gold ores and are only extracted metallurgically from residues, slimes, or other by-products of these ores, and all components of these renewable energy engines are heterogeneously distributed (Table 10.1), a potential geopolitical problem as resources decline. Copper is a key critical element because discovery rates are declining together with grade and yet it is used in all new technologies in everincreasing amounts. For example, an electric vehicle (plus the charge required) uses 5 6 times more copper than an equivalent conventional vehicle. There is a similar short-term problem with nickel. The long-term viability of Net Zero commitments to combat climate change relies on a continual guaranteed supply of the metals to produce the instruments of ‘renewable’ energy because at present the complex configuration of the critical metals, plus steel, glass, and silica in them makes recycling difficult to impossible and, if possible, economically unfeasible. Wind turbines and solar panels are currently destined for landfill with numerous Google images of wind turbine and solar panel graveyards. Precise calculations of the longevity of each of the critical metals are almost impossible to make because there is no globally consistent definition of mineral reserves and resources: only the western world adopts the strict Australasian code for reporting of exploration results, mineral resources and ore reserves (JORC) Code. It is also unclear how various commitments to Net Zero are being met because of disruptions to ‘assured’ energy supplies caused by the weaponization of resources, as, for example, by Russia’s 2022/2023 actions in the European Union due to the invasion of Ukraine. However, several independent attempts have been made to provide a rather consistent indicative estimate (Fig. 10.3 adapted from Watari et al., 2018). This is a plot of projected demand relative to currently known reserves and resources of critical metals. If the histogram for a metal exceeds 100% on the Y axis, there is a looming problem with the supply of that metal before the Net Zero commitment date of 2050, meaning that current Net

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FIGURE 10.1 Gold and copper discoveries 1990 2020 showing rate of new discoveries and exploration budgets. Adapted from S&P Global Market Intelligence by Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Zhang, L., (2023) Net Zero climate remediations and potential terminal depletion of global critical metal resources: a synoptic geological perspective. Geo. Geo. 2. https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.geogeo.2023.100136. Published with permission from Elsevier.

Zero policies are likely to completely exhaust known resources of these metals within the next few decades. Copper (similar to Ni) is one key critical renewable energy metal because discovery rates are declining together with grade (Figs. 10.1 and 10.2), as noted above, and yet it is used in all new

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FIGURE 10.2 Graph showing decline in copper grades from 1970 to 2020 with projection to 2030. Adapted from S&P Market Intelligence website 2022 (S&P, 2022) by Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Zhang, L., (2023) Net Zero climate remediations and potential terminal depletion of global critical metal resources: a synoptic geological perspective. Geo. Geo. 2. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.geogeo.2023.100136. Published with permission from Elsevier.

TABLE 10.1 Compilation of deposit types, metallurgical status following mining, and specific countries from where major critical metal resources are recorded. Deposit types in mineral systems described in Chapters 2 and 3, Element

Deposit types

Metallurgy status

Countries with major resources

Lithium (Li)

Spodumene pegmatites, salars

Primary

Australia, Chile, Bolivia

Aluminum (Al)

Bauxites, snorthosites

Primary

Widespread; Guinea, Australia

Iron (Fe) as steel

Enriched BIF deposits

Primary

Widespread; Australia, Brazil, Russia

Cobalt (Co)

Sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX), magmatic, volcanogenic

By-product (Cu)

DRC, Russia, Australia

Nickel (Ni)

Mafic ultramafic intrusions, laterites

Primary

Indonesia, Philippines, Australia, Brazil, Russia

Copper (Cu)

Porphyry Cu Au, IOCG, SEDEX

Primary

Widespread; Chile, Peru, United States, Australia, Russia, DRC

Gallium (Ga)

Coal-hosted, Karst-type bauxite

Intermediate

China, Russia, Japan, South Korea (Continued )

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TABLE 10.1 (Continued) Element

Deposit types

Metallurgy status

Countries with major resources

Selenium (Se)

Sediment-hosted and volcanogenic Cu

By-product (Cu)

United States, Japan, Canada, China, Australia

Silver (Ag)

Epithermal, volcanogenic, SEDEX

Intermediate

Mexico, Poland, Bolivia, Turkey

Cadmium (Cd)

SEDEX, MVT, volcanogenic

By-product (Zn)

Widespread; China, Japan, Korea

Indium (In)

SEDEX, MVT, volcanogenic

By-product (Zn)

China, Peru, United States, Canada

Tellurium (Te)

Various gold and copper deposits

By-product (Cu, Au)

China, Japan, Sweden, Russia

Platinum (Pt)

Reefs in layered intrusions, alkalic

Primary

South Africa, Russia, Zimbabwe

Neodymium (Nd)

Mainly carbonatites, conglomerates, sands

Primary

China, United States, Australia

Dysprosium (Dy)

Regolith/ion adsorptiontype heavy rare earth elements (HREE) deposits

Primary

China, Australia, exploration elsewhere

Bold Text is used to denote the countries that are the dominant source ( . 50% 90%) of that metal. Note that for rare to minor elements produced as by-products of base-metal mining, the country in which metallurgical processing of copper and zinc ores from several sources is given as the producer of that metal and the original source may be obscure. Data are from numerous websites, publications from the USGS, and the synthesis of Kelley et al. (2021).

technologies in ever-increasing amounts. Potentially catastrophic depletion is also indicated by several independent studies of copper mine lifetimes and serious economic, environmental, or geopolitical problems with future mining of known potential copper deposits (Valenta et al., 2018). As expected, the critical metals that are present in only ppm concentrations in other minerals in deposits mined primarily for that metal are severely endangered metals. The bottom line is that, unless checked, to allow economically viable recycling of endangered critical metals and to develop a metals and energy policy that supports a circular economy, Net Zero policies could exhaust economically viable metal resources within the next 50 years and effectively destroy our global materials-based civilization. A complete review is presented by Groves et al. (2023) among others. These constraints indicate that global mineral-deposit discovery rates, especially for those defined as critical metals, must fill the gap before global governments become aware of a

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FIGURE 10.3 Plot of the ability of resources and reserves of the critical metals ordered in increasing atomic number to meet the major climate change mitigation scenario from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that delineates a path to keep global temperature rise below 2 C in 2100. Histograms colored orange indicate primary metallurgical status of metal and green indicate by-product status of metal. Adapted from Watari et al. (2018) by Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., Zhang, L., (2023) Net Zero climate remediations and potential terminal depletion of global critical metal resources: a synoptic geological perspective. Geo. Geo. 2. https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.geogeo.2023.100136. Published with permission from Elsevier.

catastrophic outcome from Net Zero and recycling becomes viable to realize long-term goals toward achieving resource sustainability (Campbell, 2014; Mudd and Jowitt, 2014; USGS, 2019). As pointed out by Phillips and Vearncombe (2020), brownfield exploration can help but history shows that all mines have a finite life. The following sections in this chapter provide some conceptual guidelines toward global scale parameters that can assist mineral exploration groups in greenfield province selection, which has become a greater imperative given the Net Zero scenario addressed above. This chapter does not address district to deposit targeting at the brownfield scale.

10.2 The role and appropriate scale of conceptual targeting Current available data on discovery and resource inventories for metals indicate that since 2015 (Schodde, 2014; Zhang et al., 2015), discovery rates are declining, the cost per discovery is rising steeply (Figs. 10.1 and 10.2), and it takes an increasing amount of time to bring mines into production. The current exploration and mining industry structure, with largely acquisitiondriven well-funded majors and poorly resourced juniors and a historically low proportion of mid-tier companies, makes redress of this situation difficult (Groves and Trench, 2014). Several studies have shown that the industry

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as an entity is in a low base-rate situation, with close to zero return (Kreuzer et al., 2008), with Wood et al. (2019) terming it wealth destructive. There is little economic geologists can do to influence the overall structure and philosophy of a largely risk-averse industry driven by business principles. The mineral exploration horizon is also becoming more limited because potential global search spaces are declining due to external factors such as Islamic terrorism, increasing civil unrest against corrupt governments, and the threat of nationalization of resources by specific jurisdictions. At the mineral province to district scale, there are also restrictions to land and increasing costs due to the land rights of indigenous populations. What is possible is to influence the nature of greenfield exploration to provide the next group of significant discoveries required to replenish declining resources. As the oil industry has done over the past several decades, there is a need for the minerals industry to increase the percentage of discovery successes by significantly decreasing the number of low-potential targets that are drilled, after careful consideration of their economic potential in terms of a regional geological framework (Groves and Trench, 2014; Groves and Santosh, 2015; Wood and Hedenquist, 2019). Fig. 10.4 shows the exploration process as a logical temporally staged process at increasingly smaller scales, with rigorous assessments at each stage before key decision points are reached and ‘gates’ are opened to the

FIGURE 10.4 Key stages and decision points in a mineral exploration program. Province selection is a low-cost but high geological risk phase. Poor decisions at the global-to-province scale mean that mineral exploration will never reach the feasibility stage. Adapted from Groves, D.I., Santosh, M., 2015. Province-scale commonalities of some world-class gold deposits: implications for mineral exploration. Geosci. Front. 6, 389 399. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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next stage. For pragmatic reasons, exploration tenements may be acquired without going through this rigorous process but logically should be assessed in terms of it before an intensive exploration and drilling campaign is mounted. As emphasized by Hronsky and Groves (2008) and McCuaig and Hronsky (2014), the first stage of concept planning for province selection is the most cost-effective portion of a mineral exploration campaign involving low cost but requiring significant experience and predictive expertise of the human input into province selection (Wood and Hedenquist, 2019). The subsequent discussion deals with those parameters defined in the relevant chapters in this book that are considered helpful in this process of conceptual global targeting at the potential mineral province scale. They are summarized in Tables 10.2 10.4 and discussed in the text. Although prospectivity mapping (Yousefi and Nykanan, 2015) and artificial intelligence (Woodhead and Landry, 2021) are increasingly used in exploration targeting, they are most effective where comprehensive databases are available at within-province to district scale. They are less effective at the province selection scale where data are heterogeneous and therefore they are not discussed further here.

10.3 Most productive time periods for specific mineral systems The time periods represented by mineral systems that can be discovered close to the Earth’s surface depend largely on both the nature of tectonic events and related geodynamic settings at specific times in Earth history and the preservation potential of those individual mineral systems. Relevant figures that show temporal variations in specific mineral systems are Figs. 5.5 5.6, 5.9, 5.10, 6.1, 7.2, and 8.1 with summary diagrams in Figs. 5.11, 6.6 and Fig. 10.5. Subduction-related convergent margins have existed from the Mesoarchean to the Cenozoic, so mineral systems that formed in this geodynamic setting would be expected to show the greatest longevity in terms of Earth history. This is the case for the orogenic gold systems that formed deep in the crust and, to a lesser extent, the deep submarine volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) base-metal systems with their later sediment cover. These reflect the periods of assembly of the supercontinents and most orogenic events in Earth history. The mineral systems that have deposits that formed at progressively higher crustal levels from greisen/vein Sn, through porphyry Cu Au Mo, to epithermal Au Ag, have much shorter time spans. Peak periods for these mineral systems are summarized in Table 10.2. The gradually cooling Earth is best represented by mineral systems of varying proportions of Ni, Cu, and platinum group elements (PGEs) (Table 10.3). The earliest are represented by Neoarchean to lesser Paleoproterozoic Ni-dominant deposits associated with komatiites, the highest temperature mantle-derived magmas in Earth history. The same period from ca. 2.7 to 2.2 Ga saw the emplacement of the giant layered intrusions dominated by PGEs but also containing giant deposits of Cr, Fe, Ti, and V.

TABLE 10.2 Parameters for regional targeting of major mineral systems on convergent margins. Mineral system

Geodynamic setting

Periods of major deposits

Relation to craton or lithospheric margins

Deposit distribution

Orogenic gold

Convergent margin Collisional belt

All periods except 1.8 1.0 Ga (exception Homestake) Most important Neoarchean, Paleoproterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic

,100 km for many Mesozoic Chinese deposits but cryptic relationships with others. May lie on paleo-craton margins

Commonly in linear belts with 30 50 km spacing of world-class to giant deposits

Similar distribution to orogenic gold deposits. Gold-rich VMS deposits in Neoarchean and late Neoproterozoic

No systematic study but parallel thick lithosphere blocks as accreted to them

Variable clusters, linear belts, and isolated deposits. Variable spacing 1 30 km

Predominantly Phanerozoic with possible peaks in Devonian, Triassic, and Paleogene

No systematic study but as formed in back-arc settings should be close relationship

Commonly clustered in tin districts related to anomalous fractionated granites. Variable spacing

Porphyry Cu Au Mo

Mostly Phanerozoic with major deposits generally late Triassic or younger

No systematic study but deposits formed in continental arcs lie parallel to thick lithosphere margins

In linear zones along arcs and/or transfer faults. Deposit spacing commonly 50 200 km, but many deposits isolated

Epithermal Au Ag

All major deposits younger than Lower Cretaceous with most Eocene or younger

Similar relationship to porphyry deposits in continental arcs.

Similar variable distribution to porphyry deposits

VMS Zn Pb Cu

Greisenvein Sn (W)

Decreasing preservation potential

TABLE 10.3 Parameters for regional targeting of major magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal mineral systems. Mineral system

Geodynamic setting

Periods of major deposits

Relation to craton or lithospheric margins

Deposit distribution

Komatiiteassociated Ni Cu

Greenstone belts

Most Neoarchean but some Paleoproterozoic

Unclear but possibly related to paleo-craton margins

Some isolated but normally clusters of deposits 1 10 km apart

Mafic intrusionhosted Ni Cu

Variable settings and host rocks

Paleoproterozoic to PermoTriassic in evenly spaced episodes

All ,200 km from craton margins with many ,100 km from those margins

Normally isolated mafic intrusions with deposits clustered at 1 5 km spacing

Large layered intrusion PGE Cr Fe Ti V

Intracratonic settings

Tight range from Neoarchean to Paleoproterozoic

Distant from craton margins. Emplaced in older Archean crust

Continuous layers with on-strike sections with thicker and highergrade deposits

Spondumene pegmatites (Li)

Greenstone belts

Mesoarchean to Neoproterozoic but most common in Neoarchean

No direct correlation but no statistical study

Isolated deposits or deposit clusters with deposits spaced at 1 5 km

Kimberlite-hosted diamonds

Intracratonic settings. Variety of host rocks

From Mesoproterozoic to early Eocene. Most postearly Cambrian

Distant from craton margins

May be isolated or in clusters within a 10 100 km circumference district

Lamproite-hosted diamond

Argyle situated in mobile belt

Mesoproterozoic in Boring Billion

Within 50 km of Kimberley Block

Complex pipe in possible maar

Kiruna-type Fe P

Variable generally metamorphic belts

Paleoproterozoic to dominant Mesoproterozoic in Boring Billion

Probably about 100 km from craton margins but poorly defined

Based on Kiruna and Malmberget deposits, occur at 1 2 km intervals in linear to curvilinear trends

Carbonatite-related REE-P Cu deposits

Craton and paleo-craton margins

Paleoproterozoic to Cenozoic with largest REE depositMesoproterozoic

Adjacent to craton or paleo-craton margins. Normally ,50 km

Normally isolated giant deposits but with individual ore lenses. Some clusters

IOCG Cu Au

Intracratonic setting

Neoarchean and Mesoproterozoic dominant but also Neoproterozoic and Cretaceous

Precambrian deposits ,100 km from craton margins

Deposit spacing 50 150 km within IOGC provinces

Intrusion-related Au

Deformed continental shelfs

Neoproterozoic (Telfer?) to Cretaceous

Craton not well defined. ,100 200 km from margin?

Clusters around major deposits with clusters up to 500 km apart

TABLE 10.4 Parameters for regional targeting of major sediment-hosted mineral systems. Mineral system

Geodynamic setting

Periods of major deposits

Relation to craton or lithospheric margins

Deposit distribution

Zambian-type Cu (Co)

Continental margin basins

Range Paleoproterozoic to Permian but largest groups—in late Neoproterozoic, Cambrian, and Carboniferous-Permian

Within 200 km of craton or thick lithosphere margins. Zambian deposits at craton triple point

Strongly clustered deposit groups, commonly in linear trends with spacing of 5 40 km

SEDEX Cu Pb Zn

Continental rift or marginal basins

Predominantly Mesoproterozoic in Boring Billion. Younger examples in the Silurian to Permian

90% within 200 km of thick lithosphere or craton margins. Several ,100 km

May be isolated but world-class deposits may be 300 400 km apart in linear trends

MVT Pb Zn

Normally continental margin basins

Range from Paleoproterozoic to Cenozoic but major concentration in the Middle Paleozoic

Highly variable but 70% within 200 km of thick lithosphere margin

May be isolated but commonly occur in districts with variable spacing. (commonly approx. 100 km) between districts

BHT Pb Zn Ag

Intracontinental rifts: high-grade metamorphism

Consistently Mesoproterozoic in Boring Billion

No obvious consistent relationship to craton margins

Normally isolated giant deposits although South African deposits ,20 km apart

BIF-hosted Fe

Deformed continental margin basins

BIFs largely before GOE at 2.4 2.2 Ga Most 2.6 2.4 Ga. iron ores formed later

Adjacent to craton margins, commonly around basement domes

Commonly in clusters with worldclass deposits 30 50 km apart

Unconformitytype U

Intracontinental rifts

Exclusively Mesoproterozoic in Boring Billion

Adjacent to thick lithosphere margins

Commonly clustered in districts with world-class deposits 10 50 km spacing

Carlin-type Au

Continental margin basins

Possibly Permian to Eocene but Eocene deposits dominant

Adjacent to craton margins. Maximum distance 80 km

In linear belts (trends) with spacing of ,5 25 km between world-class deposits

FIGURE 10.5 Temporal distribution of a variety of important mineral systems in relationship to mantle-overturn or superplume events, the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), the Boring Billion, and Cambrian explosion of multicellular life. Compiled from a wide variety of sources including Hedenquist et al. (Eds. 2005) by (with adaptations) Santosh, M., Groves, D.I., 2022. Global metallogeny in relation to secular evolution of the Earth and supercontinent cycles. Gondwana Res. 107:395 422. Published with permission from Elsevier.

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These may reflect magmas derived from mantle involved in early Earth mantle-overturn events that had incorporated anomalous concentrations of core-enriched metals. The subsequent period from ca. 2.2 to 0.25 Ga is represented by the periodic formation of mafic intrusion-hosted Ni Cu (PGE) systems with the largest formed at Sudbury at ca. 1.9 Ga related to a meteorite impact and the youngest Pd-rich Noril’sk at ca. 0.25 Ga related to a supergiant large igneous province (LIP) where basic magmas assimilated Phanerozoic carbonaceous and sulfide-rich sedimentary rocks that were absent as hosts to Precambrian intrusions. Lithium- and tantalum-bearing spodumene pegmatites may also be most abundant in the hotter Mesoarchean and Neoarchean Earth as they occur specifically in amphibolite facies terranes that formed under high geothermal gradients. Some giant mineral systems (listed in Table 10.4) are restricted to specific time periods, including the ca, 2.6 2.4 Ga banded iron formation (BIF) provinces that formed before the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) and host the world’s largest iron ores. The 1.8 0.8 Ga period known as the Boring Billion is a particularly important time for temporally restricted mineral systems. This period represented a time of tectonic, atmospheric, and biogenic statis in which convergent margins were absent together with associated orogenic gold and VMS systems except for the enigmatic Homestake gold deposit. Instead, the period was dominated by accordion-style tectonics with an abundance of continental rift environments that hosted mineral systems including giant Mesoproterozoic unconformity-type U, Broken Hill-type (BHT), and lamproitehosted diamond deposits that are essentially unique to this period. Giant Mesoproterozoic SEDEX Pb Zn Cu, carbonatite-related REE-Nb, and Kirunatype Fe P deposits were most abundant at this time in Earth history, although giant SEDEX deposits also occur in the Paleozoic terranes of North America. The world’s largest iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) deposit at Olympic Dam also formed at this period although arguably the most widespread IOCG province formed in the Southern Amazon craton in the latest Neoarchean. Interestingly, these giant IOCG deposits formed in Archean cratons with extensive A-type granite provinces and no evidence of earlier major orogenic gold provinces. Although sediment-hosted Cu (Co) systems range in age from late Paleoproterozoic to Permian, the dominant Zambian Copperbelt deposits formed at the Neoproterozoic Cambrian boundary close to the second oxidation event, the Neoproterozoic Oxidation Event (NOE), and the Kazakhstan and Kupferchiefer deposits of western Asia and Europe formed in the Cambrian and Permo-Carboniferous. These relied on metal- and S-rich carbonaceous sedimentary rocks, which became more abundant at this time in Earth history, for their source and deposition. Similarly, the increasing abundance of reactive carbonate rocks, particularly reefal limestones, following the NOE led to a proliferation of Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) deposits

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globally in the Paleozoic. Carbonate rocks also provided important hosts for Eocene Carlin-type systems and probable Cretaceous equivalents. They also provided reactive host rocks for a variety of skarns, many associated with Mesozoic to Cenozoic porphyry Cu Au Mo systems, and for the anomalous Devonian dolomite-replacement or skarn tin deposits of western Tasmania. The Cenozoic witnessed widespread weathering and erosion to produce a variety of placer deposits, with gold, cassiterite, and diamonds of particular significance, bauxites and nickeliferous laterites, supergene enrichment of copper, nickel, and gold deposits, and regolith-hosted REE deposits, among many others. It also resulted in alluvial and glacial cover and thick regolith profiles that obscure the surface expression of mineral deposits and hinder mineral exploration.

10.4 Association with craton and thick lithosphere margins An important question is if the association of specific mineral systems with craton and thick lithosphere margins discussed in Chapter 9 impacts the province- to belt-scale ground selection process in mineral exploration (Hronsky and Groves, 2008). From a qualitative viewpoint, it limits the choice of prospective ground for a variety of mineral systems, particularly those of Precambrian age. However, an important constraint is whether it represents a statistically valid enhancement of potential success in terms of regional-scale ground selection and targeting. The major problems facing such a calculation are that, if only well-accepted craton margins are considered, the extent of the cratons and their margins vary between authors (Santosh, 2010a,b; Zhai and Santosh, 2011; Malleswari et al., 2019; Song et al., 2020). More extensive lithosphere thickness (LAB) portrayals vary in quality between continents and regions (Hoggard et al.: their Fig. 2B, S13). Some regions have high-quality published data (Begg, 2010; Jessell et al., 2016) whereas others have few data in the public domain. From the viewpoint of an exploration program and estimation of exploration-project potential endowment (Kreuzer et al., 2008), it would be necessary to calculate the total area encased in buffer zones around cratons or continental blocks with deep mantle lithosphere roots. However, this is very difficult to achieve in practice. A minimum buffer zone can be calculated if it is assumed that the continental crust that comprises cratons with deep mantle lithosphere roots has evidence of rocks older than 3 Ga. The estimate of Dhuime et al. (2018) that 25% of the continental crust is composed of such cratons is a starting point. Through examination of several continental-scale geological maps, a diameter of 1000 km, enclosing an area of B800,000 square km, for an individual craton appears a reasonable mean estimate. By buffering such a mean craton margin to 100 km and 200 km on each side, the areas of the buffer are B315,000 square km and B625,000 square km, respectively. On this model, most deposits of a variety of mineral systems discussed earlier would lie

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within B10%, with all lying within B20%, of the margin of the continental crustal mass. Using a LAB model, Hoggard et al. (2020) calculate that B35% of the continental crust would include most giant sediment-hosted Pb Zn-Cu deposits (B90% of sedimentary copper; B90% of SEDEX Zn Pb Cu; and B70% of MVT Pb Zn resources) within a 200 km-wide buffer either side of the 170 km LAB thickness contour (Hoggard et al., 2020: their Fig. 3B) . Importantly, from an exploration viewpoint, Huston et al. (2023) demonstrate that the zinc-rich SEDEX deposits they consider are not only associated with LAB gradients, but also with Pb-isotope gradients, gradients in upwardcontinued gravity anomalies, major steps in Moho depth that define major crustal boundaries, and linear mid-to-lower-crustal resistivity anomalies from magnetotelluric data, as described above from Olympic Dam and some orogenic gold deposits. More quantitative values for the areas with higher potential endowment to host world-class to giant mineral deposits must await a global reference model. However, it appears that deposits belonging to most mineral systems described in Chapter 9 would lie within ,20% of the continental crust because they lie on Archean craton or thick lithosphere margins. Specific craton margins, such as the western margin of the composite North American Craton from Alaska to Arizona, the eastern margin of the Southern Amazon Craton, all margins of the North China and Yangtze Cratons of China, and thick lithosphere margins such as the western margin of the 170 km LAB margin of northern Australia appear to have anomalous metal endowments. In itself, the above may not appear to be a substantial advantage in exploration targeting. However, these search areas could be significantly reduced for exploration for magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal deposits because most require the presence of alkaline, high-K, or hybrid intrusions and most have distinct geophysical signatures. For example, IOCG, Kiruna-type Fe P, carbonatite-related rare earth element (REE), and intrusion-related Ni Cu PGE deposits will most likely have both high magnetic and gravity signatures (Dentith and Mudge, 2014), and intrusion-related gold deposits (IRGDs) will have doughnut-shaped magnetic anomalies related to reducedgranite intrusions surrounded by pyrrhotite-rich hornfels rims (Hart et al., 2002). Lamproites will normally be typified by reversed polarity compared to a nonmagnetic background in aeromagnetic surveys (Macnae, 1995). At a more local scale, sulfide-rich orebodies such as intrusion-related Ni Cu PGE and SEDEX deposits may have associated transient electromagnetic (TEM) or IP anomalies (Dentith and Mudge, 2014). Although not specifically about craton margins, the study by Lindsay et al. (2019) is a good publicly available example of integration of geological and geophysical data at all scales to assess potential targets in the eastern Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. From an Australian perspective, it is interesting that two of the most recent world-class deposit discoveries have been Tropicana (. 8 Moz gold:

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Doyle et al., 2015), and Nova-Bollinger (14.3 Mt @ 2.3% Ni and 0.9% Cu: Parker et al., 2017) both in the Albany-Fraser Orogen within 50 km of the south-eastern Yilgarn Craton margin (Figs. 9.21). The discovery in March 2020 by Chalice Gold of the probable world-class Julimar Pd Ni Cu deposit (discovery hole with B8 g/t Pd) in the Gonneville Intrusion under cover, near Perth, about 50 km east of the western margin of the Yilgarn Craton attests to the high prospectivity and hidden potential of craton margins as does the discovery by Rio Tinto in 2019 of the world-class to giant Winu Cu Au deposit near the eastern margin of the Pilbara Craton.

10.5 Detection of lithosphere scale structures connected to mineral systems Magnetotelluric surveys have the ability to identify mantle lithosphere and lithosphere scale structures, either in isolation or in combination with seismic tomography or Nd isotope geochemistry in a variety of tectonic settings (Curtis and Thiel, 2019; Malleswari et al., 2019). They have been used for some time in mineral exploration (Dentith et al., 2013; Dentith and Mudge, 2014) but two factors now make their implementation in mineral exploration essential. The first is the growing acceptance that many mineral systems, including those that involved partial melting of mantle (intrusion-related Ni Cu PGE systems) and partial melting (carbonatite-related REE and Cu and Kiruna-type Fe P, and IRGD systems) or devolatilization (IOCG, lamproite-hosted diamond systems, and even orogenic gold and Carlin-type systems) of metasomatized mantle are connected to the lithosphere via deep faults or shear zones. The second factor is the magnetotelluric survey from the Gawler Craton IOCG province from Heinson et al. (2018) reproduced as Fig. 2.16 in Chapter 2. Figs. 2.16A,B show a high conductivity structure C3 (possible high fluid-flux alteration zone) sited on the Gawler Craton margin at 15 40 km depth (down to top of mohorovicic discontinuity (MOHO)). Low resistivity pathways C2 extend from C3 to the surface, pointing to known IOCG deposits. The strongest central pathway points to the giant Olympic Dam deposit. These anomalies have been termed ’The Fingers of God’ (Brand and Thiel, 2019). Fig. 2.16C is a modified lower definition magnetotelluric section across the greenstone belts and crustal-scale faults of the Yilgarn Block from the Geological Survey of Western Australia (2011). This shows the lithosphere structures related to greenstone belts with suggestion of low conductivity pathways resembling “Fingers of God” below the most gold mineralized greenstone belt, situated at the eastern end of the survey line, that contains the giant Golden Mile orogenic gold deposit to the north of that line. Thus magnetotelluric surveys provide the opportunity to identify structures that extend from the continental crust to the mantle and have evidence of high fluid flux along them. A survey by Hou et al. (2023) across the Ailaoshan Orogen in Tibet shows magnetotelluric profiles (Fig. 10.6) like

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FIGURE 10.6 Magnetotelluric 3D resistivity model projected on a profile near 24 N along the Ailaoshan Orgen of Tibet. Low-resistivity anomalies beneath the Red-river Fault (RRF) and Xiaojiang Fault (XJF) that resemble “Fingers of God” below the Zhenjuan and Chang’an gold deposits (yellow circles) trend steeply through the Moho and LAB into the asthenosphere. Mafic dykes in the faults are shown by green triangles above the geophysical image. Modified after Hou, Z., Wang, Q, Zhang, H., Xu, B., Yu. N., Wang, R., Groves, D.I., Zheng, Y., Han, S., Gao, L, Yang, L., 2023. The control of lithosphere architecture characterized by crust-mantle decoupling on the formation of orogenic gold deposits. National Science Review, 10(3), p.nwac257.

“Fingers of God” below an orogenic gold province that includes the .3 Moz Zhenyuan and .1 Moz Chang’an gold deposits in the surveyed zone and the giant Beiya gold skarn or IRGD along strike to the northwest.

10.6 Summary Mineral systems are nonrenewable and therefore finite resources in terms of deposits that can be mined economically under existing economic conditions. Net Zero policies to combat climate change are providing an unprecedented demand for both conventional and critical metals. This could result in the exhaustion of exploitable mineral resources unless a circular economy that emphasizes the recycling of these metals is implemented soon. This comes at a time when deposit discoveries are declining despite increased exploration expenditure. As an interim measure, before a circular economy is established, economic geologists need to improve their exploration performance and discover more ore deposits. This starts at the province selection scale where exploration involves conceptual targeting before the application of technological methodologies. This chapter identifies some of the critical parameters that should be considered at this conceptual stage in exploration where expenditure is low, geological thought processes precede high-cost geochemical and geophysical exploration, and ultimate success requires superior concepts.

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Index Note: Page numbers followed by “f” and “t” refer to figures and tables, respectively.

A Abundant organisms, importance of, 154 155 Accordion tectonics concept, 120 121 Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), 16, 17f Advent of BioELements (ABEL), 116 Amazon craton, 94, 125 126 Anorthosite-hosted ilmenite deposits, 181 182 Arc-basalt magmas, gold-fertile, 10 11 Archean craton margins, 158, 168 Asthenosphere, 159 160 Australian cratons, 115

B Banded iron formations (BIFs), 44 46 Bayan Obo REE Nb Fe deposit, 166 167 Bimodal magmatism, 134 Biosphere. See Hydrosphere-biosphere system Boring Billion, 100 metallogeny past and present categories of, 121 122, 123t largely confined to, 131 136 mineral systems extension, 128 131 Precambrian mineral systems, 122 128 vs. tectonic evolution, critical conjunction, 138 141 not-so-boring metallogeny of, 136 138 overview of, 116 121 tectonic domains, 142 Brines, 41 Broader-scale mineral systems, 1 Broken Hill-type (BHT) deposits, 42 44, 133 134 Bulwarks, 160

C Cambrian life explosion abundant organisms, importance of, 154 155

hydrocarbons, importance of, 155 hydrosphere biosphere system evolution, 151 152 SEDEX and MVT systems, 152 154 Carbonate-hosted uranium deposits, 149 Carbonate sedimentation, 151 Carbonatite-related Cu P/REE (Nb) deposits, 56 58, 165 166 Carbonatite-related REE Nb deposits, 130 131, 166 168 Carboniferous basin, 41 42 Carlin-type gold deposits, 5, 5f, 52, 75, 174 175 Catastrophic depletion, 194 197 Chinese orogenic gold deposits, 164 165, 175 176 Coherent genetic model, 6 Continental crust, 143 145 Convective fluid flux, 46 Convergent margins, subduction, systems with direct associations back-arc basins, epithermal systems, 72 description of, 68 70 granite-related mineral systems, 71 72 oceanic arcs, porphyry highsulfidation skarn, 70, 70f preservation of, 72 73 volcanogenic massive sulfide, 72 Copper deposits, 42 Craton margins, 207 209 diversity of, 187 190 hydrothermal deposits, 182 183 longevity of, 158 160 orogenic gold deposits on, 176 179 sediment-hosted deposits on, 183 187 structural modification, 160 161 Crustal fracturing, 116 Crustal metamorphic model, 19

247

248

Index

D Dharwar Craton, 94 Distal Carlin-type gold system, 49 52

E Early Earth tectonics, 84 85 coupled metallogenic, 109 113 cratons formation, 89 91 heterogeneous Archean cratons, 92 94 mantle overturns, 85 87 Paleoproterozoic mineral systems, 94 96 plate tectonics, 87 89 Eclogitization, 116

F Fault-controlled deposits, 49 50 Fennoscandian Shield, 93 Fertile porphyry-related systems, 16, 21, 25 30 Fertility, in tin systems, 48 Fertilizing mantle lithosphere, 75 78, 82

G Geodynamics, 99 100 settings, 7 9 Geological models, 6 Giant-layered intrusion-hosted PGE Cr Fe Ti V system, 62 63 Glacial stagnation, 115 Global exploration, conceptual guidelines towards, 198 200 Global glaciations, 143 145 Gold deposits, 20 Gold province, 49 50 Granite-related mineral systems, 47 48, 71 72 Great oxidation event (GOE), 145 atmosphere evolution, redox reflections of, 149 150 Earth climate and evolution of, 143 145 metallogeny BIF systems, iron deposits in, 146 147 manganese deposits, 147 148 subsequent mineral systems, valency implications for, 145 uranium deposits, 148 149 Greenfield exploration, 3 4

H Heterogeneity, 67 68 Hierarchical approach, 15

Holistic genetic model, 19 21 Homestake, 125 126 Hydrocarbons, importance of, 155 Hydrosphere biosphere system, neoproterozoic to phanerozoic, 151 152 Hydrothermal deposits on craton margins, 182 183 from metasomatized lithosphere Jiaodong and Chinese orogenic gold deposits, 175 176 orogenic gold deposits on craton margins, 176 179 sediment-hosted deposits on, 183 187 Hypogene mineral systems, 158

I Industrial Revolution, 193 Intrusion-related Au Bi Te W deposits (IRGDs), 48 49 Intrusion-related gold deposits (IRGDs), 5, 73 74, 172 174, 208 Intrusion-related nickel copper systems, 179 180 in Boring Billion, 130 Irish-type deposits, 152 153 Iron deposits, 146 147 Iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) deposit, 206 uranium deposits, 148 Iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) deposits, 54 56, 81 82, 169 172 in Boring Billion, 128 129 in supercontinents, 107 108

J Jiaodong gold deposits, 76, 175 176

K Kaapvaal craton, 166 Kimberlites, 159 163, 168 diamond system, 58 60 Kiruna-type deposits, 52 54, 108 109, 168 Kiruna-type magnetite apatite system, 130 Kola Craton, 166

L Lamproite-associated diamonds, 168 169 Lamproite diamond systems, 58 60, 135 136

Index Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs), 130 Lateritic Ni deposits, 150 Layered intrusion PGE Cr Fe Ti V systems, 128 Lithium Cesium Tantalum (LCT) pegmatites, 60 62 Lithosphere, 31 36, 39, 52, 58 Lithosphere asthenosphere-boundary (LAB), 162f, 184 185

M Mafic ultramafic intrusion-hosted Ni Cu PGE system, 64 65 Magma, 116 117, 130, 139 140 Magmatic deposits intrusion via trans-lithosphere structures anorthosite-hosted ilmenite deposits, 181 182 intrusion-related nickel copper PGE systems, 179 180 from metasomatized lithosphere, 165 carbonatite-related Cu and P deposits, 165 166 carbonatite-related REE Nb deposits, 166 168 Carlin-type gold systems, 174 175 intrusion-related gold deposits, 172 174 iron oxide copper gold systems, 169 172 Kiruna-type Fe P deposits, 168 lamproite-associated diamonds, 168 169 Magmatic-hydrothermal mineral systems, 77 82, 202t distal Carlin-type gold, 49 52 granite-related mineral, 47 48 intrusion-related gold, 48 49 IOCG group of deposits, 54 56 Kiruna-type Fe P, 52 54 Magmatic Ni Cu (PGE) systems, 107 Magmatic systems, 60 65 giant-layered intrusions, 62 63 with hydrothermal fluid involvement Cu P and REE Nb, carbonatite-related, 56 58 kimberlite/lamproite diamond, 58 60 lithium pegmatite systems, 60 62 mafic ultramafic intrusions, 64 65 Manganese deposits, 147 148 Mantle lithosphere, 73, 76 80, 78f metasomatic alteration of, 161 165

249

widespread metasomatism and fertilization of, 165 169 Mantle plumes, 67 68 Mesoarchean Witwatersrand Goldfield, 127 Mesoproterozoic Bayan Obo Group, 58 Mesoproterozoic Mountain Pass REE carbonatite, 58 Metallogenic fingerprints, 92 Metallogeny BIF systems, iron deposits in, 146 147 manganese deposits, 147 148 subsequent mineral systems, valency implications for, 145 uranium deposits, 148 149 Metasomatic domains, 161 163 Metasomatized mantle lithosphere, 76 Mineralization processes, mineral systems Broken Hill-type Pb Zn Ag, 42 44 Mississippi Valley type base-metal deposits, 39 paleoplacer gold, 36 37 SEDEX deposits, 40 41 unconformity-type uranium, 38 39 Zambian-type Cu (Co), 41 42 Mineral systems, 83 84 components of, 65 on convergent margins, 201t definition of, 3 4 descriptions of, 31 36, 32t Earth evolution, sensitive indicators of, 109 113 foundation parameters of, 3 4 lithosphere scale structures, 209 210 time periods represented by, 200 Mississippi Valley type (MVT) base-metal deposits systems, 39 Mississippi Valley type (MVT) deposits, 152 153 Monolayers, 148

N Neoproterozoic oxidation event (NOE), 145, 151 152, 155 Net Zero policies, 197 198 Nickel Cu PGE systems, 106 North China Craton (NCC), 76, 90 91, 94 96, 167

O Oceanic back-arcs, 83 84 Ocean Plate Stratigraphy (OPS), 89

250

Index

Ore-fluid migration, 3 4 Orogenic-gold mineral systems in Boring Billion, 122 128 Carlin-type gold, 75 components of architecture parameter, 22 23 fertility parameter, 21 geodynamic parameter, 21 22 preservation parameters, 23 24 exploration criteria for, 25 30 holistic genetic model, 19 21 intrusion-related gold, 74 Jiaodong orogenic gold, 76 overview of, 18 19 in supercontinents, 101 103 in transpressional settings, 73

P Paleoplacer gold system, 36 37 Paleoplacer gold (uranium) systems, 127 128 Paleoproterozoic great oxidation event atmosphere evolution, redox reflections of, 149 150 Earth climate and evolution of, 143 145 Earth evolution, 145 metallogeny BIF systems, iron deposits in, 146 147 manganese deposits, 147 148 subsequent mineral systems, valency implications for, 145 uranium deposits, 148 149 Paleoproterozoic mineral systems, 94 96 Phalabowra/Palabora deposit, 56 Porphyry copper gold systems, in Boring Billion, 127 Porphyry Cu Au Mo system, 5 coherent genetic model, 6 deposits of, 6 exploration criteria for, 15 17 mineral system model architecture parameters, 11 13 fertility factors, 10 11 geodynamic factors, 7 9 preservation constraints, 14 15 in supercontinents, 104 105

S Sao Francisco Craton, 94, 166 Seawater-free hypersaline ore fluids, 134 Sedimentary basins, mineral systems mineralization processes

Broken Hill-type Pb Zn Ag, 42 44 Mississippi Valley type base-metal deposits, 39 paleoplacer gold, 36 37 SEDEX deposits, 40 41 unconformity-type uranium, 38 39 Zambian-type Cu (Co), 41 42 Sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) deposits, 40 41, 185 in Boring Billion, 131 132 features of, 152 Sedimentary rocks, 41 42, 45 46, 58, 62 Sediment-hosted manganese systems, 45 46 Sediment-hosted mineral systems, 204t Shallow basins, 151 Solar luminosity, 143 145 Solar panels, 193 194 Subcontinental mantle lithosphere (SCLM), 82 Subduction-related fertilized lithosphere, 75 Submarine hydrothermal systems banded iron formation, iron enrichment in, 44 45 sediment-hosted manganese, 45 46 volcanogenic massive sulfide Cu Zn Pb submarine hydrothermal, 46 47 Supercontinent systems assembly and dispersal of, 96 99 mineral systems and relationship convergent margin environments, 100 105 critical parameters of, 99 100 magmatic and magmatic-hydrothermal systems, 105 109 through Earth history, 99

T Tanzania Craton, 93 Tectonics, early Earth, 84 85 coupled metallogenic, 109 113 cratons formation, 89 91 heterogeneous Archean cratons, 92 94 mantle overturns, 85 87 Paleoproterozoic mineral systems, 94 96 plate tectonics, 87 89 Tectosphere, 89 90 Thick lithosphere margins, 207 209 diversity of, 187 190 sediment-hosted deposits on, 183 187 structural modification, 160 161 Tin systems, fertility in, 48

Index Tonalite trondhjemite granodiorite (TTG), 85 Transpressional orogeny, 160 Transpressional settings, orogenic gold systems in, 73

251

in supercontinents, 103 104 Volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits, 46 47, 72

W

U

Wind turbines, 193 194 Witwatersrand Goldfield, 36

Unconformity-type uranium systems, 38 39, 134 135 Uranium deposits, 148 149

Y Yilgarn Craton, 93 94

V Ventersdorp Contact Reef, 36 Volcanic arcs, 83 84, 99 100 Volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS), 93 94, 200 in Boring Billion, 126 127

Z Zambian copper belt-type deposits, 183 185 Zambian-type Cu Co deposits, 154 155 Zambian-type Cu (Co) systems, 41 42