Gondwana Research, 2009, 16: 227–242

Geochemical signature of porphyries in the Baogutu porphyry copper belt, western Junggar, NW China

Ping Shen, Yuanchao Shen, Tiebing Liu, Lei Meng, Huawu Dai and Yueheng Yang

Abstract

The Baogutu porphyry copper belt lies in the Darbut transitional island arc of the western Junggar, in the western section of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt in NW China. Our new petrographic results for the ore-bearing porphyry stocks in the Baogutu porphyry copper belt recognize them as diorite porphyry stocks rather than the granodiorite porphyry stocks as previously identified. The copper mineralization is hosted in the diorite, diorite porphyries and related breccias of the diorite porphyry stocks.

Geochemical data indicate that the ore-bearing porphyries have a predominantly intermediate composition with a transitional character from tholeiite to calc-alkaline, and are enriched in large ion lithophile elements (LILE) and depleted in high field strength elements (HFSE) with a clear negative Nb anomaly. REE patterns show distinct enrichments in LREE relative to HREE. The rocks also exhibit high initial εNd(t) (+ 2.7 to + 6.3) ratios and low initial 87Sr/86Sr values (0.70359–0.70397). Many samples are chemically similar to adakites (e. g. Yb < 1.9 ppm, Y < 18 ppm, Sr/Yb > 20, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr < 0.7045). These data are consistent with a transitional island arc from immature arc to mature arc and suggest that the ore-bearing porphyry system was derived from the partial melting of multiple sources including oceanic crust and a subduction-modified mantle wedge, with melts undergoing significant crystal fractionation during convergence between the paleo-Junggar ocean and the Darbut arc.