Lead-isotope study of the sulphide ore and alteration zone, Bleikvassli zinc-lead deposit, northern Norway

Abstract

The Bleikvassli Zn-Pb deposit is located in the Uppermost Allochthon of the northern Norwegian Caledonides and is enclosed in amphibolite facies, multiply deformed supracrustal rocks. The stratiform orebody occurs stratigraphically above a sequence of gneiss and amphibolite and below a thick carbonate unit. The orebody, spatially associated with a footwall microcline gneiss that contains as much as 12 wt% K20, occurs in the lower part of the Mine Sequence which also comprises (kyanite-) mica schist and quartzo-feldspathic to siliceous rocks. The host rock lithology and the metal content of the Bleikvassli orebody are consistent with a SEDEX origin of the deposit. Field relationships and chemistry suggest that the microcline gneiss represents a potassic alteration of pelitic sediments related to the ore-forming process. A 464 + 22 Ma Rb-Sr isochron for the microcline gneiss is interpreted to be a metamorphic age resulting from resetting of the Rb-Sr isotopic system during the Caledonian orogeny. The U-Pb in the whole rock shows evidence of recent mobilization of uranium and a partial or total resetting of the system during peak metamorphism. As with most SEDEX deposits, the lead isotope composition of the Bleikvassli ore plots close to the orogen growth curve. The geological setting of the ore and the lead isotope compositions of the galenas indicate a Cambrian age of mineralization. However, the slope of the lead isotope data indicate an age of about 1000 Ma, which is also a maximum age of ore deposition. The lead isotope data for the galena, in conjunction with the compositions of the microcline gneiss during peak metamorphism, support a model whereby the microcline rock was formed as an alteration product by the ore forming fluid and the initial lead isotope composition of the microcline rock was similar to that of the galenas during ore deposition.