Immiscibility of magmatic fluids and their relation to Mo and Cu mineralization at the Bangpu porphyry deposit, Tibet, China

•Silicate melt and brine fluid inclusions coexisted in quartz phenocrysts.•Immiscibility of magmatic fluids can lead to different metal partioning behaviors.•Brine fluids were directly exsolved by a crystallizing melt.•Cu partitioned preferentially into the brine phase.

The coexistence of aqueous fluid inclusions and silicate melt inclusions in quartz phenocrysts from porphyrites at the Bangpu porphyry Mo–Cu deposit, Tibet, China were examined to characterize the immiscibility processes during the magmatic to hydrothermal transition. The physical and chemical environment during crystallization of the magmas has been reconstructed on the basis of microthermometric experiments and trace element microanalysis. Compositions of melt and brine fluid phases are determined using Synchrotron radiation X-ray fluorescence analysis, SEM–EDS and Laser Raman spectroscopy analyses. Brine fluids were directly exsolved by a crystallizing melt, and the simultaneous entrapment of volatile-rich (brine fluid) and volatile-poor immiscible phases (silicate melt) occurred at 670–700 °C and 1.6–1.95 kbar when the magma had H2O contents between 5 and 6 wt% and crystal contents of 60–80%. A later low-density fluid with a higher Mo concentration exsolved after about 80–90% crystallization had occurred. This fluid contained significant concentrations of Cl, Na, K, Ca, Fe, Cu, Zn, Rb, and small amounts of Mn, Br and Pb. Immiscibility of magmatic fluids can lead to different metal partitioning behaviors between residual melt and volatile phases, which generate variable metal ratios. Copper was partitioned preferentially into the brine phase, in contrast to the behavior observed in other porphyry Cu deposits. Ore deposition by a dense brine could explain the partially deep Cu mineralization. Condensation of brine from a later low-density parental fluid could be an efficient mechanism to concentrate shallow Cu mineralization and broadly distributed Mo mineralization. The source of the Mo mineralizing fluids probably was a particularly large magma chamber that crystallized and fractionated at depth greater than upper continental crust level.