Electrum-sulfide mineralization of the Jinan-Jeongeup Au-Ag area was deposited in three stages of structurally controlled quartz and calcite veins that fill N-S and NW-SE-trending shear zones. Radiometric dating indicates that mineralization is Late Cretaceous age (75-80 Ma). Fluid inclusion and sulfur isotope data show that ore mineralization was deposited between 330°C and 250°C from fluids with salinities of 1 to 8 wt.% equiv. NaCl and a δ
34S
Σ value of 3 to 6 per mil. Evidence of fluid boiling indicates a range of pressures from ?? 40 to 110 bars, corresponding to a depth of ?? 500m in a hydrothermal system which alternated from lithostatic toward hydrostatic conditions. Gold was carried as a thiosulfide complex in slightly acidic, chemically reducing fluids. Au-Ag deposition was likely a result of cooling coupled with boiling.
Measured and calculated hydrogen and oxygen isotope values of ore-forming fluids indicate a significant meteoric water component in the Jinan-Jeongeup ore fluids. Comparison reveals that all Korean Au-Ag deposits display various degrees of
18O-enrichment relative to meteoric water, produced by exchange with hot igneous rocks. However, individual mines and districts have relatively narrow ranges of hydrogen and oxygen isotope compositions which are directly related to their gold/silver ratios and which reflect their depths of formation. Silver-rich epithermal deposits display the smallest
18O shifts, indicating a lesser degree of water-rock interaction at shallow depths of formation (<750m). Korean-type gold-silver deposits display intermediate
18O shifts, indicating a moderate degree of water-rock interaction at intermediate depths of formation (750 to 1, 500m). Gold-rich mesothermal deposits display the largest
18O shifts, indicating the highest degree of water-rock interaction at relatively great depths of formation (>4.5km). This suggests a relationship between depth and degree of water-rock interaction in Korean deposits. All of these gold-silver-bearing deposits have fluids which are dominantly evolved meteoric waters, but only deeper systems with higher degrees of igneous rock interaction are exclusively gold-rich.
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