Sulfur isotope ratios of some Japanese skarn deposits

Abstract

Sulfur isotope study of some Japanese skarn deposits of ilmenite-series granitoid affinity shows that sulfide minerals have δ³⁴S values ranging from +0.7 to -12.2‰. The remarkable negative δ³⁴S trend in the studied deposits gives support to an idea by SASAKI and ISHIHARA (in press) that there is a distinct parallelism between the sulfur isotopic data of rock sulfur and ore sulfur from magnetite and ilmenite-series of granitoids in Japan. δ³⁴S values of 25 sulfide samples from the Tsumo mining area fall in a very narrow range from +0.7 to -1.7‰, irrespective of their various occurrences. δ³⁴S values for sulfide sulfur of the Kawayama mine are negative and moderately large, suggesting contact metasomatic origin of the deposit. δ³⁴S values of paired sulfide minerals are sometimes closer to each other than, or have in some cases reverse relation to, those expected from published experimental results.