Johnson, James Patrick
Description
The Olympic Dam Cu-U-Au-Ag deposit is a syngenetic orebody hosted by the Olympic
Dam Breccia Complex, a high level, hematite-rich hydrothermal breccia system. The
breccia complex occurs entirely within, and clearly post-dates, the Roxby Downs
Granite. _Cu-Fe sulphide distribution within the deposit is zoned from pyrite-rich
assemblages at depth, upwards to chalcopyrite-rich ores, ultimately to bornite-chalcocite ores. Mlnor proportions of paragenetically early magnetite are widely...[Show more] distributed. Felsic
and mafic/ultramafic dykes are broadly coeval with ore deposition.
The Roxby Downs Granite has an age of 1588 ± 4 Ma. Prior to this study the age of the
breccia complex was unclear. SHRIMP U-Pb isotopic data for zircons from three
igneous rock units constrain the minimum age for the bulk of the mineralisation. Twb
autobrecciated felsic dykes that intrude hematite-rich sedimetitary rocks and·hydrothermal breccias have ages of 1592.± 8 Ma and 1584 ±- 20 Ma respectively. An ashfall tuff
horizon from within a diatrerne that cross-cuts hematite-quartz breccias contains zircons
with an age of 1597 ± 8 Ma. These three minimum age constraints are within error of the
age of the host granite, meaning that the breccia complex has an age of -1590 Ma. This
age determination allows confident correlation of ore deposition with a major regional
magmatic episode, the Gawler Range/ Hiltaba-volcano-plutonic event.
Pb isotopic measurements of hydrated U-Th-Y-REE~rich hydrothermal zircon-xenotime
overgrowths on magmatic zircons yielded evidence of complex Pb mobility histories, and
provided no strong evidence regarding the age of the deposit. SHRIMP analyses of
Olympic Dam pitchblende indicate that U and Pb mobility has reset isotopic systematics
heterogeneously, even on a microscopic scale. This open system behaviour is also
apparent from the data of earlier workers. An earlier U-Pb concordia upper intercept
"age" of 1400 Ma for Olympic Dam pitchblende, calculated by regression analysis of
averaged isotopic analyses, should therefore be regarded with caution.
Sm-Nd isotopic data indicate that the different hematite-sulphide assemblages share an
initial ENd signature of -2.5. This suggests that these ore types are cogenetic at 1590
Ma. This signature also indicates that ore fluids received contributions of Nd from
crustal rocks such as the host granite (£Nd -5) and from rocks or magmas derived from
the mantle at 1590 Ma. In contrast, the volumetrically minor magnetite-rich assemblages
have the same initial Nd signature as the host granite, suggesting that they are possibly
cogenetic. The hematitic ores and breccia~ yield a fourteen point Sm-Nd isochron age of
1572 ± 99 Ma consistent with the age constraints provided by zircon geochronology.
The least altered mafic/ultramafic dykes within the deposit have an initial isotopic
signature of eNd +4 and are therefore a plausible source of the primitive Nd component
in the hematitic rocks. With progressive alteration, these dykes have become depleted in several of the elements that are enriched in the Olympic bam ores and breccias,
particularly Cu, Cr, Ni, V, Mn, Nb and Y. The trace element and Nd isotopic
relationships strongly implicate the mafic/ultramafic dykes, or their plutonic or extrusive
equivalents, as metal sources. Interpreted primary enrichments in incompatible elements
suggest a strongly alkaline affinity for the mafic/ultraniafic rocks.
Rb-Sr isotopic systematics of the Olympic Dam breccias and mafic/ultramafic dykes
show evidence of open system behaviour after ore deposition. No firm conclusions
regarding ore genesis are drawn from these data.
In view of the data presented, plausible hypotheses of ore genesis include: a) fluid mixing involving a hypogene, granite-related fluid, and a saline meteoric fluid transporting
metals of economic interest that have been leached from the Gawler Range volcanic pile,
and b) the sequential activity of a granite-related fluid that produced magn-tite-rich
mineralisation, and a fluid derived by late-stage exsolution of magmatic volatiles from an
alkaline mafic or ultramafic pluton .
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