Abstract This contribution explores the petrogenetic relationships between silicate and carbonatitic rocks in the Crevier Alkaline Intrusion (CAI, Québec, Canada). The CAI is located in the Proterozoic Grenville Province and is composed of a suite of undersaturated peralkaline rocks from ijolite to nepheline syenite and carbonatites. Petrogenetic relationships between different undersaturated alkaline igneous rocks, carbonate-bearing and carbonate-free nepheline syenite and carbonatites observed in the CAI suggest that (1) carbonate-bearing and carbonate-free silicate rocks are comagmatic with carbonatite, and that (2) both silicate and carbonatitic liquids are fractionated from an ijolitic parental magma that has undergone liquid immiscibility. One of the observed facies is characterized by spectacular ocelli of carbonate-bearing nepheline syenite in a matrix of carbonatite. The younger nepheline syenite facies can be divided into two groups based on the presence or absence of magmatic carbonates. Both groups are characterized by the presence of pyrochlore-group minerals that carry the Nb–Ta mineralization. We specifically use accessory minerals such as zircon, pyrochlore and apatite to constrain the temporal and physicochemical parameters of the immiscibility process. By coupling (1) mineral textures, (2) trace elements, (3) Ti-in-zircon thermometry, and (4) oxygen isotope compositions, we have traced the crystallization of zircon before, during and after the immiscibility process. The results allowed us to constrain the minimum temperature of this process at ∼815–865°C. In addition, two magmatic populations of pyrochlore are identified through their petrographic and geochemical characteristics within the younger nepheline syenite facies. Pyrochlore from the earlier ocelli facies of carbonate-bearing nepheline syenite follow a Nb–Ta differentiation trend, whereas pyrochlore from the younger carbonate-free nepheline syenite follow a more classical Nb–Ti trend. Following the complete immiscibility between the silicate and carbonatitic liquids, the fractionation between Nb and Ta stopped while a new generation of Nb-rich pyrochlore grew, displaying a more classical Nb–Ti fractionation trend and a higher Nb/Ta ratio in the nepheline syenite.
The Crevier alkaline intrusion (CAI, QC) is located in the Proterozoic Grenville Province and is composed of a suite of undersaturated alkaline rocks from ijolite to nepheline syenite and carbonatites. We present (i) field relationships; (ii) comagmatic carbonatite, carbonate-free nepheline syenite and carbonate-rich syenite; (iii) textures of interstitial carbonates in nepheline syenite, silicate rims around carbonates in carbonatite, primary carbonates at the edges of nepheline and feldspar or as inclusion in albite in the carbonate-rich syenite, an orbicular facies with spheres of carbonate-bearing nepheline syenite in a carbonatitic matrix; (iv) coupled to LA-ICP-MS U-Pb geochronology on zircon from nepheline syenite and apatite from carbonatite, that argue in favor of a coeval emplacement of the silicate rocks and the carbonatites, and of their parental linkage from liquid immiscibility. The (i) petrography, (ii) textures and (iii) trace elements contents of pyrochlore provide evidence for the coexistence of these two magmatic differentiation trends. In the early carbonate-rich syenite, pyrochlore defines a Nb-Ta differentiation trend, whereas they follow a more classical Nb-Ti trend in the younger nepheline syenite. The later crystallization of Nb-rich pyrochlore with more constant Nb/Ta ratio and a correlative classic Nb-Ti trend in the nepheline syenite suggests that the Nb and Ta fractionation has stopped in response to the end of the immiscibility between the two liquids. In addition, the (i) textures, (ii) trace elements, (iii) Ti-in-zircon thermometry, and (iv) oxygen isotope compositions of zircon grains from the CAI, allows to constrain the temperature range of ca. 1000-815°C at which the immiscibility process occurred. Accordingly, the deposit to microscopic multiscale evidence provided by petrographic textures, whole rock, accessory mineral geochemical signatures and isotopic compositions of the various lithologies demonstrate the petrogenesis of the CAI through a silicate-carbonate liquid immiscibility from a parental silicate liquid of ijolite composition.
The Mayo Salah pluton, which is located in the North-Cameroon domain of Central African Bold Belt (CAFB), is emplaced as a laccolith in volcano-sedimentary schists of Poli series, and displays features of Rare-metal Granite (RMG). It is made of two main rock groups: (1) the metaluminous barren muscovite granite (MsG) and (2) the Nb-Ta bearing peraluminous leucogranite (MsL) which expresses four subtypes. The evolved Rare-element MsL is subalkaline, slightly peraluminous (ASI = 1.01–1.21), and it displays flat REE chondrite-normalized patterns with a strong negative Eu anomaly (Eu/Eu* = 0.02–0.20). It belongs to the peraluminous low phosphorus Rare-element Granites and L-type igneous rocks, as shown by the relatively low Zr/Hf (4.8–14) and Nb/Ta (1.4–9.0) ratios and the positive slope of the Zr-Hf-Nb-Ta profile in spider diagrams. The rare-element-bearing mineral is represented by columbite-group minerals (CGM) and other Nb-Ta-oxides (Nb-rutile and pyrochlore supergroup minerals). The CGM is classified as Mn-columbite, with Ta# and Mn# ratios increasing from core to rim. Two stages of mineralization are identified; the earliest stage (CGM-I) consists in scattered tabular or prismatic euhedral grains that were related to magmatic fractionation. The latest stage (CGM-II) is expressed as a Ta-rich Mn hydrothermal CGM episode represented as rims and/overgrowths around and/or as veinlet crosscutting CGM-I or in cleavage planes of muscovite. The U-Pb dating of columbite and monazite of the Mayo Salah leucogranite indicates a late-Neoproterozoic magmatic-hydrothermal mineralization event from 603.2 ± 5.3 to 581.6 ± 7.2 Ma, as consistent with both late D2 to D3 events that were recorded in the CAFB in Cameroon, and the associated continental collision environment. The Nb-Ta mineralization of the Mayo Salah pluton provides evidence for the presence of RMG in Northern Cameroon of CAFB, and its temporal association with the youngest period of metallogenic epoch of Nb-Ta-ore formation in Africa associated to Pan-African times.
Abstract The univariate statistics of Potassium (K), thorium (Th), and uranium (U) concentrations, in the Earth’s oceanic and continental crust are examined by different techniques. The frequency distributions of the concentrations of these elements in the oceanic crust are derived from a global catalog of mid‐ocean ridge basalts. Their frequency distributions of concentrations in the continental crust are illustrated by the North Pilbara Craton, and the West Africa Craton. For these two cratons, the distributions of K, Th, and U derived from geochemical analyses of several thousand whole rock samples differ significantly from those derived from airborne radiometric surveys. The distributions from airborne surveys tends to be more symmetric with smaller standard deviations than the right‐skewed distributions inferred from whole rock geochemical analyses. Hypothetic causes of these differences include (a) bias in rock sampling or in airborne surveys, (b) the differences between the chemistry of superficial material and rocks, and (c) the differences in scales of measurements. The scale factor, viewed as consequence of the central limit theorem applied to K, Th, and U concentrations, appears to account for most of the observed differences in the distributions of K, Th, and U. It suggests that the three scales of auto‐correlation of K, Th, and U concentrations are of the same order of magnitude as the resolution of the airborne radiometric surveys (50–200 m). Concentrations of K, Th, and U are therefore generally heterogenous at smaller scales.
The Archean-Proterozoic craton of West Africa hosts numerous gold deposits, which are spatially and temporally related to the Eburnean orogeny that took place between 2250 and 1980 Ma, and included multiple deformation events. The majority of these gold deposits are located along shear zones. The structural history is relatively well established for most gold deposits, but absolute timing of the mineralization is commonly lacking. Five deposits hosted in the Baoule-Mossi domain, located in the southwestern part of the West African craton, were studied to better constrain timing of gold events: Nassara and Kiaka in Burkina Faso and Wassa, Damang, and Obuasi in southern Ghana. Gold mineralization was structurally characterized at each deposit, and dated by the Re-Os method on pyrite, arsenopyrite, and pyrrhotite grains that were coeval with the gold deposition. Combined structural and Re-Os geochronological constraints allow two groups of gold deposits to be distinguished. Early orogenic gold formed during the Eoeburnean orogeny, i.e., between 2190 and 2125 Ma, as represented by Kiaka1 at 2157 ± 24 Ma, and Wassa1 at 2164 ± 14 Ma. These early gold occurrences are expressed as early disseminated gold enrichment (1–3 g/t Au) at Kiaka, and gold hosted in folded and boudinaged quartz veins that are transposed along the primary S₁ foliation at Wassa. These Re-Os ages on the early sulfides at Wassa and Kiaka are significant because they definitively provide the first direct age constraints on gold-only Eoeburnean mineralization in the Birimian of West Africa. Late orogenic gold, hosted by brittle structures and with higher gold grades (up to 60g/t at Kiaka), formed during late Eburnean deformation (D₃–D₅ events) between 2120 and 2000 Ma, as represented by the Re-Os dating of these ores at Wassa at 2055 ± 18 Ma and Obuasi at 2045 ± 40 Ma. Similar-style ores dated at Nassara at 2131 ± 99 Ma and Damang at 2080 ± 135 Ma, but both with large uncertainties, and an undated younger event at Kiaka, are also suggested to be part of this later mineralizing episode. The high uncertainties on the Nassara and Damang ages may be directly linked to the low rhenium and osmium contents of the studied samples. These results highlight the polyphase character of the widespread gold mineralization in the West African craton. Although the late stages of the Eburnean orogeny constitute a prolific period for the formation of high-grade gold mineralization, identification of less well-studied early-stage gold deposits, which can also contain large quantities of gold, is critical for mineral exploration in the West African craton.
