Full length ArticleDyke swarms and their role in the genesis of world-class gold deposits: Insights from the Jiaodong peninsula, China

- Zircon U-Pb age of 130 Ma for diorite porphyry with inherited zircons of 2450, 2570 and 154 Ma.
- Magma from asthenosphere and lithospheric mantle as well as lower crust.
- Highly oxidized volatile-rich magma emplaced rapidly.
- Ore fluids exsolved from dykes contributed to gold mineralization.

Jiaodong peninsula, located at the southeastern margin of the North China Craton, is well known for its rich endowment of super-large gold deposits. This region is also characterized by hundreds of intermediate - mafic dykes that cluster into several dyke swarms. In this study, we present zircon U-Pb ages which show that the timing of dyke emplacement as ca. 120 Ma, which followed the crystallization of the (quartz-) diorite porphyry at ca. 130 Ma. These ages coincide with the peak ages reported for magmatism and metallogeny in the central North China Craton. The various ages (2450-2570 and 154 Ma) from the inherited zircon crystals in these rocks suggest that substantial lower to middle crustal basement rocks and Jurassic granitoids were involved during dyke emplacement. The dyke swarms, varying between alkaline and subalkaline, are compositionally low-Si low-Ti lamprophyre and low-Si high-Ti dolerite porphyry in the western of the Jiaodong peninsula, whereas those in the eastern part are composed of both high-Si low-Ti and low-Si high-Ti lamprophyres. These features imply multiple sources for the dykes from convective asthenospheric mantle to ancient enriched lithospheric mantle with magma generation at different depths involving mixture of slab-derived hydrous fluids. The source magmas of the dykes were hydrous and enriched in volatiles as well as ore components, and their evolution occurred under high oxygen fugacity conditions. The relatively rapid emplacement and cooling of the dyke systems enabled the migration of fluids into ore-controlling faults or fractures. We envisage that the dyke swarms played an important role in generating the world-class gold mineralization of Jiaodong.