Early Silurian Wuchuan–Sihui–Shaoguan exhalative sedimentary pyrite belt, South China: constraints from zircon dating for K-bentonite of the giant Dajiangping deposit

The Wuchuan–Sihui–Shaoguan (WSS) exhalative sedimentary pyrite belt in the southwestern part of the Qinzhou–Hangzhou (Qin–Hang) belt is the most important sulfur industry base in China. However, a wide range of metallogenetic ages spanning from Ediacaran to Devonian has been reported in the literature. This age range does not support the idea that the typical character of “coeval mineralization” in an exhalative sedimentary mineralization belt in China and worldwide. Therefore, the precise determination of mineralization ages of representative deposits is necessary to provide guides for exploration and metallogenetic models. The Dajiangping pyrite deposit is a typical example of this kind of deposits and is also the largest deposit with a proven reserve of 210 Mt. This deposit was thought to have formed in Ediacaran or Devonian. In this study, 2–3 layers of 10–25 cm thick 2M1-type microcrystalline muscovite slate abruptly embedded in the No. IV massive orebody of the deposit has been identified to be low-grade metamorphic K-bentonite. A Concordia zircon LA–ICP–MS U–Pb age of 432.5 ± 1.3 Ma (mean standard weighted deviation of concordance and equivalence = 1.2; N = 11) has been yielded for the low-grade metamorphic K-bentonite. This age is distinctly different from the Rb–Sr isochron age of 630.1 ± 7.3 Ma for siliceous rock at the top of the No. III banded orebody and the Re–Os isochron age of 389 ± 62 Ma for pyrites from a laminated orebody. Instead, it is close to the intercept age (429 Ma) of the youngest detrital zircons from sandstone interlayers of the No. III banded orebody. The Concordia age is also coincident with those of the Late Caledonian (400–460 Ma) magmatism-metamorphism events which are widely distributed in Cathaysia Block. Particularly, it agrees well with that of the Early Silurian extensional volcanism (434–444 Ma) which have been revealed in the Dabaoshan, Siqian–Hekou, and Nanjing volcanic basins in northern Guangdong Province and southern Jiangxi Province. Hence, the dating result in this study confirms that the sedimentary time of the ore-host Daganshan Formation is Early Silurian, and implies that the mineralization age of the Dajiangping pyrite deposit should also be Early Silurian. In combination with the Early Silurian age of Shezui pyrite deposit and the Dabaoshan volcanic basin along the WSS pyrite belt, it could be inferred that the WSS pyrite belt provides a record of the northern expanding of Qinzhou–Fangcheng trough in Early Silurian and that the exhalative pyrite mineralization was triggered by the post-collisional extension of the margin of Cathaysia Block after the intracontinental collision between Cathaysia Block and Yangtze Block during Late Caledonian stage.