Mineral system analysis

of SEDEX deposits
By Enkhzaya Davaadorj
21383648
Outline
 SEDEX deposit characteristics
 Geodynamic settings
 Depositional sites
 Hydrothermal fluid characteristics and movements
 Metal source
 Fluid source
 Alteration
 Mineralization
 Conclusion
 SEDEX deposit characteristics
 Constrained to Phanerozoic and Proterozoic
in age
 Proterozoic – Failed continental rift (rift-sag
basins)
 Phanerozoic – Passive continental margins
 No direct association with igneous activity, but
tuffs related to synchronous distal volcanism
may be present
 Single or multiple wedge- or lens-shaped, or
sheeted/stratiform morphology
 Hosted within, or intercalated with, preferred
sedimentary horizons: Carbonaceous shales
in basin sag phase carbonate rock, shale or (Leach et al 2005)
siltstone facies mosaics that were deposited
on thick sequences of rift fill conglomerates,
red beds, sandstones or siltstones, and mafic
or felsic volcanic rocks
 Geodynamic settings of
SEDEX
 SEDEX deposits occur in two
broad settings:
 Intracontinental rifts or failed
rifts;
 Atlantic-type continental
margins (passive).
 Currently viewed as:
 intracontinental extensional
 Transtensional basins related to
a subduction system

(Leach et al 2005)
Depositional site (district scale)
 Extensional fault-bounded, first-order epicontinental and
intracratonic basins with dimensions more than 100 kilometers

(McMechan, 2012)
 Depositional site (deposit scale)
 Mineralization typically
located in the hanging
wall of second- or
third-order structures
within the syn-
sedimentary faults.
 Carbonaceous shales,
shale or siltstone
facies mosaics that
were deposited on
thick sequences of rift
fill conglomerates, red
beds, sandstones or
siltstones, and mafic or
felsic volcanic rocks Source:
https://www.google.com.au/search?
q=sedex+deposits&espv=2&biw=1440
&bih=693&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa
=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI7on
Y357txwIV4iymCh2jJgEi#imgrc=oSJc
zOzBTVtddM%3A
 Heat and Fluid source

 Fluid
 Basinal brine derived from its host basin
 Dissolution of evaporites in the flow path of meteoric/marine waters
 Connate fluids trapped in sediments during burial
 Gravitational influx of residual brines of evaporated seawater

 Heat
 The natural geothermal gradient within a basin drives convection
 Igneous intrusions may provide additional heat
 Metal source
 Oxidized clastic packages and/or volcanic rocks
 Evolved metalliferous ore fluids of the interaction between crustal
rocks and evaporative brines (Sr isotope data from barite and
carbonates)
 No igneous addition

 Size of the host rock is important

 We need 6,000 cubic kilometers (km3) of continental red beds with a density of
2.2 g/cm3, for Zn content of 22 percent %(15ppm) out of 70 ppm to be
extracted.
 Sulfur is the most enriched mineral in SEDEX.
 Originates from marine sulfate, which is reduced to sulfide by
bacterial or thermogenic reduction
 Fluid transport, plumbing system
 Syn-sedimentary faults
and associated
fractures and breccia
zones
 Active and deeply
penetrating normal
faults in the rift basin
 Extending passive
margin settings that can
provide cross-
formational permeability
pathways for both
descending and
ascending fluids.
Source:
https://www.google.com.a
u/search?
q=sedex+deposits&espv=
2&biw=1440&bih=693&so
urce=lnms&tbm=isch&sa
=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAW
oVChMI7onY357txwIV4iy
mCh2jJgEi#imgrc=EGfQr
vv-jnG0RM%3A
Source:
https://www.google.com.
au/search?
q=sedex+deposits&espv
=2&biw=1440&bih=693&
source=lnms&tbm=isch&
sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUo
AWoVChMI7onY357txwI
V4iymCh2jJgEi#imgrc=o
SJczOzBTVtddM%3A
 Fluid flow mechanism
 Buoyancy-driven free convection
 Compactional and gravity effects
are minimized in slowly
subsiding extensional submarine
basins.
 Favored by:
 Thick, relatively permeable rift
packages
 Elevated heat flow
(accompany crustal extension
and igneous activity)
 Important additional factors:
 Generation of brines at surface
cool, dense fluids at the top of the (Leach et al 2005)
system that encourage much faster • Brines form in a seawater evaporative
convective overturn environment within shelf carbonates sequences.
 Deeper penetrating faults act as • Infiltrate – basement rocks
discharge faults, while shallow • Extract heat and metals
• Discharge into the reduced sed (Passive margin)
penetrating faults act as recharge
• High evaporation climatic environment
faults.
 Ore fluid composition

 CaCl2 rich brines

 Highly saline (4-23 wt%)
 Cloride complexes

(Modified by Wilkinson from Leach et al

2001, and Lowenstein et al 2003)
 Ore fluid characteristics
 Proterozoic systems (Century –  Paleozoic systems (Red dog, Tom and
Australia) Jason – Selwyn basin)
 From the Sp – bearing veins near  Fluid inclusions in ankerite from
the deposit Tom
 8.9 – 21.5wt % NaCl  5.0–18.3 wt%
 980C – 1800C  1940C–2720C
 From the coarse grained Sp in the  From quartz and carbonates from
ore zone Jason
 15.4 – 23.3wt %  4.1–14.1 wt%
 630C – 1590C  2100C–2820C
 Others  Fluid inclusion data from Red Dog
 8.3 wt%  14–19 wt%
 2060C  1000C–2000C

Salinity Temperature pH Oxidation

4 – 23 wt % 60-2800C Neutral – moderately Oxidized, and
acidic reduced sulfur-
poor

(Modified from Wilkinson, 2014)

 Controls
 Synsedimentary faulting controlling subbasins
 Locally derived fragmental sedimentary rocks are common (Related
to synsedimentary faulting & fluid upwelling)
 debris flows, stratiform and discordant breccias, conglomerates, and
mudflows
 Fractures and breccias associated with synsedimentary faults
 Discharge and recharge faults (localization of ore)
 Hydrothermal alteration
 Hydrothermal alteration assemblages
 Quartz veins and/or silicification, Fe–Mn carbonates, sulfides, barite, muscovite, and
chlorite
 Principal ore minerals
 Sphalerite, galena, pyrite, pyrrhotite, marcasite, minor sulfosalts, chalcopyrite, siderite
 Principal gangue minerals
 Dolomite, ankerite, and quartz. Barite - common to absent; apatite - sometimes common;
fluorite - very rare.
 Mineralization and ore type
 SEDEX ore bodies:
 stratiform, mound, wedge, or lens-shaped, with highly variable aspect ratios.
 The largest lenses are hundreds or thousands of meters in lateral extent
and are typically up to tens of meters thick.
 Multiple stacked lenses inter-bedded with unaltered sediments in some
systems – episodic ore forming events.
 Mound – or lens-shaped ore bodies with low aspect ratios are thought to
represent systems that developed close to a site of hydrothermal
exhalation
 Feeder zones: relatively reduced assemblages of ferroan carbonate and
sulfides, grading out to more oxidized facies, including barite,
hematite/magnetite, and calcic carbonates.
 Metal precipitation
 Ore metals are trapped in
the H2S.
H2S is generated by
sulfur reduction by
bacteria
Correspondence between
organic matter and ore
grades
Sulfides that precipitates
the ore minerals are
formed by sulfur
metabolization by organic
matters.

(Wilkinson 2014)
Conclusion
 Low paleolatitude and the development of evaporitic environments along basin margins.
This provides the brine recharge to enable a multipass convective system to operate, thereby
efficiently stripping metals from deeper source rocks. It also increases flow velocities by
introducing dense, cool brines at the top of the system, thus increasing discharge
temperatures.
 Deep-rooted synsedimentary faults that enable surfacederived brines to penetrate to
significant depths and attain temperatures >1000C and to allow buoyant, metalliferous brines
to flow back to the surface.
 Laterally extensive, thick, permeable clastic packages in the basin sequence, providing
sufficient available metal for leaching by migrating/convecting brines and containing reactive
iron to sequester reduced sulfide to maximize metal transport.
 Anoxic subbasins with low sediment supply allowing organic carbon to accumulate,
enhancing H2S production to make an efficient sulfur trap, and providing topographic lows to
contain exhaled brines.
 Periods of Earth history when CaCl2 seas existed, favoring the generation of low-sulfide
brines via evaporation, which could then evolve into highly metalliferous ore fluids during
convective circulation and with lowered marine sulfate concentrations enhancing the survival
of H2S produced by BSR in the sediments hosting ore.
 Reference
 McMechan, M. and Mahoney, J. (2012). Deep transverse
basement structural control of mineral systems in the
southeastern Canadian Cordillera 1 1 Geological Survey of
Canada Contribution 20110294. Canadian Journal of Earth
Sciences, 49(5), pp.693-708.
 USGS, (2015). Geologic Criteria for the Assessment of
Sedimentary Exhalative (Sedex) Zn-Pb-Ag Deposits. Reston,
Virginia: USGS, p.i-25.
 Wilkinson, J. (2014). Sediment-Hosted Zinc–Lead
Mineralization: Processes and Perspectives. Treatise on
Geochemistry, (2nd Edition), pp.220-245.