147612_Staged formation of the supergiant Olympic Dam uranium deposit, Australia.pdf (2.09 MB)
Staged formation of the supergiant Olympic Dam uranium deposit, Australia
journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-21, 03:55 authored by Kathy EhrigKathy Ehrig, Vadim KamenetskyVadim Kamenetsky, Jocelyn McPhieJocelyn McPhie, Macmillan, E, Thompson, J, Maya KamenetskyMaya Kamenetsky, Mass, RThe origins of many supergiant ore deposits remain unresolved because the factors responsible for such extreme metal enrichments are not understood. One factor of critical importance is the timing of mineralization. However, timing information is commonly confounded by the difficulty of dating ore minerals. The world's largest uranium resource at Olympic Dam, South Australia, is exceptional because the high abundance of U allows U-Pb dating of ore minerals. The Olympic Dam U(-Cu-Au-Ag) ore deposit is hosted in ca. 1.59 Ga rocks, and the consensus has been that the supergiant deposit formed at the same time. We argue that, in fact, two stages of mineralization were involved. Paired in situ U-Pb and trace element analyses of texturally distinct uraninite populations show that the supergiant size and highest-U-grade zones are the result of U addition at 0.7–0.5 Ga, at least one billion years after initial formation. This conclusion is supported by a remarkable clustering of thousands of radiogenic 207Pb/206Pb model ages of Cu sulfide grains at this time. Upgrading of the original ca. 1.59 Ga U deposit to its present size at 0.7–0.5 Ga may have resulted from perturbation of regional fluid flow triggered by global climatic (deglaciation) and tectonic (breakup of Rodinia) events.
Funding
Australian Research Council
BHP Billiton Olympic Dam Corporation
History
Publication title
GeologyVolume
49Issue
11Pagination
1312-1316ISSN
0091-7613Department/School
School of Natural SciencesPublisher
Geological Soc AmericaPlace of publication
Inc, Po Box 9140, Boulder, USA, Co, 80301-9140Rights statement
© 2021 The Authors. Gold Open Access: This paper is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)Repository Status
- Open