Geology and genesis of the Zhou'an PGE-Cu-Ni deposit, Henan Province

Abstract

The Zhou'an deposit, containing 0.335 × 106 t Ni, 0.180 6 × 106 t Cu and 33.03 t Pt + Pd, is a large blind PGE-Cu-Ni deposit beneath the Nanyang basin. It is located at the suturing zone between the Yangtze and Sinokorea plates,i. e. the northern margin the Sujiahe Precambrian terrane of the southern Qinling Orogen. The ore-bearing ultramafic complex intruded into the Meso-Neoproterozoic metamorphic strata and was strongly altered. The stratiform-like PGE-Cu-Ni orebodies are hosted in the strongly altered shell surround the inner contact zone of the ultramafic intrusion. They mainly occur on the top or at the bottom of the intrusion. All these characters suggest that the ores were formed by post-magmatism hydrothermal alteration. The most important is that the Zhou'an deposit is the fist case of large-size PGE-Cu-Ni deposit discovered in the Qinling Orogen, which implies that the Qinling Orogen is potential for ore deposits of similar types.