Abstract:
The widespread intermediate-felsic intrusions in the Biezhentao-Boluokenu area along the northern margin of the Western Tianshan, Xinjiang, are genetically associated with a series of porphyry–skarn Cu-polymetallic deposits. The Aide copper deposit, recently discovered in the central Sailimu Micro-Block, is hosted in the contact zone between limestones and granodiorite intrusions. This study reports zircon U–Pb dating, whole-rock geochemical and zircon Hf isotopic analyses of the ore-related granodiorite, together with in situ S–Pb isotopic analyses of sulfides from the ores. The granodiorite was emplaced during the Early Carboniferous (357.9 ± 4.6 Ma) and belongs to the peraluminous high-K calc-alkaline series. It is enriched in large-ion lithophile elements (Rb, Th, U, K, Pb) and depleted in Ba and high-field-strength elements (Nb, P, Ti). Zircon
εHf(t) values range from −1.6 to +2.6 (average −0.2), suggesting that the magma was derived from partial melting of Mesoproterozoic crustal materials with the involvement of mantle-derived magmas. The granodiorite were formed in a continental arc setting related to the southward subduction of the North Tianshan Ocean beneath the Yili Block during the Late Paleozoic. The sulfides in the ores yield total
δ34S values of 7.28 ‰–8.92 ‰, with
206Pb/
204Pb=18.320–18.400,
207Pb/
204Pb=15.612–15.625, and
208Pb/
204Pb=38.518–38.571, indicating that the ore-forming materials have a mixed crust-mantle source with the addition of strata-derived components. The Aide copper deposit shares a consistent timing of magmatism and mineralization and similar ore-material sources with other porphyry–skarn copper deposits along the northern margin of the Yili Block, Western Tianshan, showing a close spatiotemporal and genetic coupling. It is interpreted as part of a Late Devonian–Early Carboniferous porphyry–skarn Cu metallogenic system associated with intermediate-felsic intrusions in a continental arc setting.