U–Pb dating of hydrothermal zircon from the Dongping gold deposit in North China: Constraints on the mineralization processes

The Dongping gold deposit is a large deposit with total gold reserves of > 100 tons. It is located at the northern margin of the North China Craton, northwestern Hebei province, China. The ore-bodies are hosted by the Devonian Shuiquangou syenite complex and consist mainly of auriferous quartz veins and disseminated ore in the altered and silicified syenite. U–Pb dating of zircon from hornblende syenite on the western margin of the complex yields a crystallization age of 400 ± 3.5 Ma (MSWD = 0.018). Morphology, cathodoluminescence imaging and geochemical classifications of zircon from the first stage of disseminated ore and gray auriferous quartz veins, and from later stage, low grade quartz veins point to their newly crystallized hydrothermal origin. The hydrothermal zircon from the disseminated ore and auriferous gray quartz vein are dated at 389 ± 1.0 Ma and 385 ± 5.7 Ma, respectively, which are detectably younger than but close to the crystallization age of the syenite complex and might have been formed by post-magmatic hydrothermal processes. Both types of ore are dominant in the ore deposit, and we propose that the pervasive, post-magmatic hydrothermal alteration is the main ore forming stage. Hydrothermal zircon from a low grade auriferous quartz vein yields a U–Pb age of ~ 140 Ma, interpreted as forming during a younger period of superimposed Yanshanian hydrothermal mineralization. Thus, the ore of the Dongping gold mine represents a post-magmatic Devonian hydrothermal ore deposit with Jurassic–Cretaceous hydrothermal overprinting.