Timing and metal sources for carbonate-hosted Zn-Pb mineralization in the Franklinian Basin (North Greenland): Constraints from Rb-Sr and Pb isotopes

• Epigenetic carbonate-hosted Zn-Pb mineralization is of Middle to Upper Devonian age.
• Mineralization related to brines circulating in the foreland of the Ellesmerian Orogen
• Metals sourced from Proterozoic basement and Palaeozoic clastic sediments
• Minor metal inputs from lower crustal basement, organic-rich shales or carbonates

Carbonate-hosted Zn-Pb (± barite, fluorite) occurrences in the Franklinian Basin of North Greenland were studied using the Rb-Sr method, applied to sphalerite, and combined Sr and Pb isotope analysis of ore and gangue minerals, to place constraints on their age and genesis. The occurrences are located in the easternmost part of the basin in Peary Land and Kronprins Christian Land, and are hosted by Upper Ordovician to lowermost Silurian dolostones of the Turesø Formation.Sphalerite samples from the Zn-Pb occurrence at Børglum, in Peary Land, reflect undisturbed Rb-Sr systems and return an isochron age of 388 ± 4 Ma (MSWD = 1.6, 87Sr/86Sri = 0.70930 ± 1). Sphalerites and their fluid inclusion fractions from an adjacent Zn-Pb occurrence, at Tvilum, exhibit various degrees of isotopic disturbance caused by secondary fluid overprint. They yield no age, however, reconstructive modelling of their Rb-Sr and Pb-Pb signatures indicates original isotope systematics consistent with the Børglum data. Likewise, due to a lack of suitable samples, no Rb-Sr age could be determined for a third occurrence in southeastern Peary Land at Løgum, however, the time-integrated Pb isotopic evolution of fluorite and calcite from this mineralization over c. 390 Ma is compatible with modelled initial signatures for Tvilum and Børglum ores. Consequently, a contemporaneous formation at c. 390 Ma can be assumed for all studied locations in Peary Land. For the Zn-Pb occurrence in Kronprins Christian Land farther east, a Rb-Sr sphalerite age of c. 360–365 Ma has been obtained through a combined isochron and paleomixing line approach.The absolute ages obtained at the studied occurrences, corresponding to Middle to Upper Devonian ages, are in no conflict with the age of the host dolostones of the Turesø Formation, which placed a maximum age limit for the mineralization. Actually, the fact that mineralization was emplaced at least 50 Ma after deposition of the host rocks, which would have been completely lithified by then, warrants the classification of the studied occurrences as epigenetic Mississippi Valley-Type, rather than diagenetic Irish-type. Furthermore, the obtained ages are contemporaneous to the Middle or Upper Devonian to the Lower Carboniferous Ellesmerian Orogeny, indicating that the mineralization likely formed from basinal brines expelled by tectonism and/or hydraulic head caused by Ellesmerian orogenic uplift, as previously suggested for the Polaris carbonate-hosted Zn-Pb deposit (Cornwallis Island, Canada).Pb isotope systematics of base metal mineralization in the Franklinian Basin point to principal metal sources located in the crystalline basement and in basement-derived clastic sediments. These two reservoirs define radiogenic and unradiogenic end components from which lead was mobilized and mixed in different proportions during discrete periods of hydrothermal activity. Distinct thorogenic Pb isotope signatures indicate that specific local sources (lower crustal basement, carbonate rocks and possibly organic-rich shales) were also involved in mineralization.

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