The role of sulfur in the formation of magmatic–hydrothermal copper–gold deposits

Essential resources of many rare metals including copper, zinc, molybdenum, silver and gold occur in natural sulfide mineral deposits. Understanding the origin of these metal resources has been limited by a lack of data about the geochemistry of sulfur, the most important and abundant element of ore deposits. We report the first directly measured sulfur concentrations in high-temperature fluids, together with their ore-metal contents, using a new method for sulfur quantification in fluid inclusions by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS).Co-genetic brine and vapor inclusions from magmatic–hydrothermal ore deposits and granitic intrusions show an excess of sulfur over ore metals, as required for efficient ore-mineral precipitation. The results demonstrate that S, Cu and Au are highly enriched in vapor-like magmatic fluids, implying that such low-salinity fluids are the key agent for the formation of porphyry copper and epithermal gold deposits.