KEA709 Ore Deposit Geochemistry, Hydrology and Geochronology

Ore deposits through time

Dr Sheree Armistead
sheree.armistead@utas.edu.au

(with some slides adapted from Sally Pehrsson and Bruce Eglington)
 Earth’s supercontinent cycles and plate tectonics through time

Important for understanding..

• Earth’s climate variability
• Locations of ancient mountain belts
• Evolution of life on Earth
• Earth’s geodynamic evolution
• The global distribution of mineral
deposits
 Why should we care about plate tectonics and Earth’s supercontinent cycles?

Understanding ore deposits

• Ore deposits related to:
• Long-term changes in the Earth – Chemical
changes in atmosphere and hydrosphere
• Supercontinent cycle 
• Changes in palaeolatitude for continents
• Certain tectonic settings for certain deposit types
• VMS deposits  mid-ocean ridges
• Porphyry deposits  ocean-continent collision
• Sedimentary Cu  intra-continental basins (rifts)
 Changes in Earth processes through time

Secular
• Long-term cooling of the planet
• Changes in atmospheric composition
• Ore deposits

Cyclical
• Supercontinent cycles
• Wilson cycles
• Ore deposits
Secular changes in ore deposit formation
Porphyry Cu-Au
Sedimentary Cu

VMS
 Links between tectonics and ore deposits

• Ore deposit formation correlates with the supercontinent cycle

• Most modern ore deposits form near a plate boundary
• Plate tectonic processes help to explain how ore deposits form on
the modern Earth
• We can use the location of ancient ore deposits to understand
where plate boundaries might have been in the past
 Certain tectonic settings for certain deposit types

VMS deposits  mid-ocean ridges Porphyry deposits  ocean-continent collision Sedimentary Cu  continental rift zones

(Aïfa 2021; Geological

Society of London)
Goldfarb and Groves 2015 Lithos
Timescales for cyclicity in
ore deposit formation

• Long-term
supercontinent scale

• But also orogenic-

cycle timescales
• Early vs late stage
orogenesis
Understanding mineral endowment in the Archean
If Precambrian geodynamic environments and processes are different from those operating today, what are the
processes that resulted in early Earth’s metal endowment and how can they be recognized?

• Not all Archean terranes created equally

• Superior Province vs other Archean terranes
• Not all time periods have the same metal
endowment

Global database (DepIso)

Data from DepIso database

 Archean Today

Anoxic atmosphere Oxygen rich atmosphere

Craton assembly Supercontinent cycle

Drip tectonics Subduction zones

High mantle temperatures Lower mantle temperatures

Bacteria and Archaea Complex lifeforms

Cawood et al., 2022

Archean Cratons

• 4000 Ma to 2500 Ma
• Occur in all continents on
the modern Earth
• Australian Archean
cratons:
• Yilgarn
• Pilbara
• Gawler
The Archean was hotter

Original/primordial heat is the heat

remaining in the Earth from when
formed, around 4.56 Ga

Due to radioactive decay of elements

like U, K and Th, the Heat Flux during
the Archean was much higher

Arevalo Jr. et al., 2009 EPSL

 Archean crust

• Higher heat flow meant that the

Earth’s crust and mantle looked
different to what it does today
• Different types of rocks existed
• Archean cratons  bimodal SiO2
• Modern convergent margins 
more even distribution of SiO2

Cawood et al., 2022

Earliest known rock types: TTG

• TTG – tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite
• TTGs have similar compositions to granite,
but only minor amounts of K feldspar
• TTG belts are very common in Archean
cratons. A possible origin is through melting
of the protocrust as it was subducting
• Palaeozoic trondhjemites only known as a
very rare rock in the oceanic crust
Archean rock types: Komatiite
• Komatiite – likely analogues of modern basalts
• Very magnesium (MgO) rich lavas, which contain abundant
olivine and pyroxene
• Formed at very high temperatures (1500˚C)
• Found mostly in Archaean rocks
• Spinifex texture indicates quenching during fast cooling
• High-Mg volcanic rock with (Le Bas 2000, Le Maitre et al.
2002):
• 52 % > SiO2 > 30 %
• MgO > 18 %
• (NaO2 + K2O) < 2 %
• TiO2 < 1 %

Spinifex komatiite. Komati River Valley, South Africa. From James St. John.
Archean ore deposits correlated with isotope signature

• Archean cratons with

juvenile crust (young,
mantle-like) are more
endowed in VHMS
deposits
• Archean cratons with
evolved crust (old,
reworked crust) are more
endowed in komatiite-
associated nickel sulphide
deposits

Huston et al., 2014

Well endowed VHMS provinces

Poorly endowed VHMS provinces

Huston et al., 2014

The Nuna supercontinent cycle
20 ‘Nuna’ Nuna was formed by closure of the
Manikewan ocean and other seaways

segments

??
Pilbara
Evans and Mitchell, 2011
Yilgarn
Kaapvaal
54known orogens welded 17 Archean cratons,
25 microcontinents, and dozens of
microcontinental fragments and arcs
 Deposit type

1 2 3 4 5

Peripheral

Interior

Pehrsson et al., 2015

Birimian gold
district
>250 MT ore
>20 major Ni-Cu-PGE
deposits worldwide
over 250 MT ore

>85 major VMS

deposits globally
1520 MT ore
• Terminal closure of the
interior ocean was
complete by 1.78 Ga…
• Rapid contraction
resulted in numerous
successor arcs and
clustering of deposit
types
Accretion focused in Aus-
India-NCC sector, with a long
lived Andean style margin
through SW
US/Baltica/Amazonia
Isa, McArthur basins
•World class
Range of IOCG and Unconformity U
Athabasca Districts
intrusion-related deposits U district
localized along periphery •World’s oldest
and in interior MVT deposits
transtensional basins with and evidence
formation of major Cu-Au for hydrocarbons
epithermal deposits
 Olympic Dam
IOCG

NW Tasmania
Rocky Cape
Element Sullivan Pb-Zn: 160 MT
Cu-Pb-Zn
Latitude control on sedimentary ore deposits

• SEDEX, Sed Cu deposits require

saline brines that extract,
transport and precipitate
mineralisation
• Modern day examples: Salar de
Atacama Li brines
• Neoproterozoic example: Central
African copperbelt

Leach et al., 2005

Distribution of modern evaporite basins
• Occur ± 30o

Warren 2010, Earth Sci Reviews

Paleolatitude constraints

Leach et al., 2005

Combining plate reconstructions and ore deposit database

• Recently published the first full-

plate model for the last 1000
Ma of Earth history

• Extending full-plate tectonic

models into deep time: Linking
the Neoproterozoic and the
Phanerozoic (Merdith et al.,
2021 Earth-Science Reviews)
Distribution of SEDEX, Sed Cu and MVT deposits
Distribution of SEDEX, Sed Cu and MVT deposits

Animation
Summary
• Ore deposits are linked to:
• Tectonic style (orogenesis, rifting)
• Supercontinent cycles (peaks in supercontinent assembly)
• Secular changes (Archean lots of orogenic Au; Phanerozoic lots of
porphyry deposits)
• Location of tectonic plates (paleolatitude) for sedimentary related
deposits