Magnetite–hematite, oxygen fugacity, adakite and porphyry copper deposits: Reply to Richards
Magnetite–hematite, oxygen fugacity, adakite and porphyry copper deposits: Reply to Richards
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DOI:
10.1016/j.gca.2013.07.037
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发表时间:
2014-02
影响因子:
5
通讯作者:
Weidong Sun;Ruifang Huang;Huaying Liang;M. Ling;Cong-ying Li;Xing Ding;Hong Zhang;Xiaoyong Yang
中科院分区:
文献类型:
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作者:
Weidong Sun;Ruifang Huang;Huaying Liang;M. Ling;Cong-ying Li;Xing Ding;Hong Zhang;Xiaoyong Yang
1. The title of Sun et al.(2013) is based on the observation that sulfate is the dominant S species in the parental magma, but sulfides are dominant in porphyry deposits. Richards claims that sulfidedominant porphyry deposits are more oxidized than their sulfate-dominant parental magmas, which does not make sense. The S6+/Stotal ratio is sensitive to oxygen fugacity (Matthews et al., 1994; Metrich and Clocchiatti, 1996; Jugo et al., 2005). The porphyry Cu system (both parental magmas and deposits) is rich in sulfur, such that its oxygen fugacity is usually controlled by sulfur speciation. Sulfate is the dominant sulfur species in magmas but is very rare in sulfide ores, with scarce isolated anhydrite inclusions. We take this as a clear sign that parental magmas are much more oxidized than the ore bodies. We also would like to point out that the magnetite–pyrite boundary lies above the SO2–H2S (not sulfate) boundary at temperatures higher than 650 C, which is much higher than the mineralization temperature. More importantly, both magnetite, pyrite are solid states, whereas SO2 and H2S are not, such that the SO2–H2S boundary assumes 1 unit concentrations of both species.When talking about the mechanism of porphyry mineralization, we are dealing with three things, parental magmas, ore bodies and the linkage between them (mineralization process). In general, the redox reactions of Fe and S are the key controlling factors of porphyry Cu deposits (Sun et al., 2004, 2013; Liang et al., 2009). The most optimal oxygen fugacity of parental magmas is higher than DFMQ+ 2 (Mungall, 2002), such that there is sufficient sulfate in the magmas to obtain high initial Cu contents, and lower than the HM buffer to maintain ferrous iron for the reduction of sulfate during the mineralization process (Sun et al., 2013). As discussed in detail in Sun et al.(2013), the oxidation potential of sulfate increases with decreasing pH during the mineralization process, which eventually reaches the HM buffer (Sun et al., 2013). We would like to point out also that the hematite-magnetite assemblage is quite common in porphyry systems, which has also been reported by many others, including (Sillitoe, 2010). Nevertheless, the pH values increase during alterations that consume H+, consequently, the oxidation potential of sulfate decreases. The very low S6+/Stotal ratio in porphyry ore bodies (sulfide rich) indicates oxygen fugacity much lower than the FMQ buffer. Nevertheless, the reac-