Sulfur Isotope Evidence for Magmatic Contributions to Submarine and Subaerial Gold Mineralization: Conical Seamount and the Ladolam Gold Deposit, Papua New Guinea

摘要

Conical seamount is a submarine alkali basalt volcano situated 10 km south of Lihir Island in the Tabar-Feni island chain, Papua New Guinea. Polymetallic (Zn-Pb-Ag-Au-As-Sb) veins, pyritic stockwork, and hydrother-mally altered rocks discovered on the summit of Conical seamount represent a unique example of submarine gold mineralization with mineralogical, chemical, and textural characteristics common to some subaerial epithermal systems. The giant Ladolam epithermal gold deposit (42 Moz Au) is situated in the crater of an alkali stratovolcano on Lihir Island. Portions of the epithermal mineralization and alteration assemblages at Ladolam are similar to those observed on Conical seamount. Conical seamount has the lightest, hydrothermal (i.e., nondiagenetic) sulfide delta~(34)S values (-17.5 to +6.1 percent) measured to date from modern sea-floor hydrothermal systems. A previous model for the Conical seamount hydrothermal system suggested a contribution of magmatic volatiles in the earliest stages of mineralization (stage 1), followed by a combination of sulfur leached from the underlying volcanic rocks and reduced seawater sulfate during the main base and precious metal precipitating event (stage 2). New sulfur isotope data allow a reinterpretation of this model that suggests a greater input of magmatic volatiles, plus boiling, throughout both stage 1 and 2 mineralization.