Crustal melting recorded by dykes along the gold-bearing Melanson Brook Fault, northern New Brunswick Appalachians

Abstract

Dykes intruding along the Melanson Brook Fault record two magmatic episodes in northern New Brunswick. Dykes at the South Gold Zone of the Elmtree gold deposit are aphanitic and magnesian-calcic, whereas those at Ellis Brook (2.5 km to the west) are ilmenite-series and weakly peraluminous with hornblende- and plagioclase-porphyritic phases. Elevated 147Sm/44Nd generated by partial melting, titanium depletion, absence of rare earth element fractionation, and trondhjemite-like compositions indicate the South Gold Zone dykes were sourced from low-volume fluid fluxed melting of gabbroic crust. A Sm-Nd depleted model mantle age of 1.1 Ga for the Ellis Brook dykes suggests that they were sourced from melting of Ganderian crustal rocks rather than the sinking Acadian slab. 143Nd/144Nd evolution curves for the South Gold Zone dykes intersect that of the Ellis Brook dykes at 432 Ma and 427 Ma. This suggests that the magma from which the South Gold Zone dykes crystallized was extracted from a similar source area as the magma that generated the Ellis Brook dykes. Evidence of fluid exsolution in the Ellis Brook dykes indicates they could be a potential source for reduced intrusion-related gold mineralization. The Ellis Brook dykes yielded a U-Pb zircon age of 391 ± 5 Ma, which is consistent with the timing of oceanic slab break-off at the end of the Acadian orogenic cycle. Extraction of South Gold Zone magma occurred up to 40 Myr earlier, likely during the Salinic orogenic cycle.