Mineralogical study of sediment-hosted gold deposits in the Yangshan ore field, Western Qinling Orogen, Central China

• The zoned textures of gold-hosting sulfides show its complex growth history.
• Au is enriched in the As-rich zone of sulfides, and the dominant state is lattice Au (Au+).
• Nanoparticles of gold may be exsolution of lattice Au due to later hydrothermal event.

The Yangshan gold ore field is located in the southern subzone of the Western Qinling Orogen. Mineralization is confined by the east–west-striking Anchanghe thrust fault zone. These subparallel faults constitute a branch of the regional Mianlue structural zone, crosscutting Middle Devonian carbonaceous carbonate and clastic rock sequences, an ore-bearing unit locally named the Sanhekou Formation. The metasedimentary clastic and carbonate rocks containing fine-grained sulfides are the main host rocks of the deposit, with minor mineralization occurring as coarse-grained pyrite–quartz veinlets in black shale and as dissemination in some plagiogranite dykes. Electron microprobe (EMPA) and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analyses show that arsenian pyrite and arsenopyrite are the major hosts for gold with tens of ppm up to weight percent levels of Au, and the Au contents in arsenopyrite are one order of magnitude higher than those in pyrite. A negative correlation of As and S in arsenian pyrite is consistent with the substitution of As for S in the mineral. Both arsenian pyrite and arsenopyrite in the Yangshan ore field show chemical zonations with middle parts (mantle) enriched in As and Au relative to cores and the outermost rims, reflecting the chemical evolution of ore-forming fluids. High resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) analysis failed to identify any nanoparticle of native gold even in the highest Au parts of arsenopyrite. This observation combined with the relatively homogenous distribution of Au, a positive correlation of As and Au, and Au/As ratios below the solubility limit of gold in arsenian pyrite and arsenopyrite, suggests that invisible gold is likely present as structurally bound Au+1 in sulfides, although our work cannot exclude the existence of Au nanoparticles in arsenian pyrite as identified in American Carlin-type gold deposits. Submicron native gold may be much more easily found in arsenian pyrite than in arsenopyrite, because the later has larger capacity of enrichment of Au+1 than the former due to the substitution of As for S. The mechanism for nanoparticle formation is likely exsolution of native gold from metastable arsenian pyrite caused by later hydrothermal event, which was recorded by the outermost As-, Au-poor overgrowths both in arsenian pyrite and arsenopyrite in the Yangshan gold ore field.