On the basis of field observations with K-Ar dating on biotite, this paper summarizes discussions of the igneous activities and source granites for three major molybdenum deposits of the Daito molybdenum area. The dating on a few granite masses showed a younger age, 36 to 49 million years, though some of them are batholith-forming granites which had been correlated with those dated as around between 50 and 80 million years in the other parts of the Sanin and Sanyo Districts in the previous studies. Since molybdenum deposits show a distinct local distribution from south (Median Line side) to north, i. e., barren in the Ryoke foliated granites associated with the Median Line, a small scale concentration with tungsten minerals in the Sanyo District, and strong molybdenum concentration in the Sanin District, the biotite ages are plotted across the Median Line (Fig.2). The molybdenum province is located in the youngests among the granites of late Cretaceous to early Tertiary (Chugoku Batholith). Although the Miocene granite among the granites has been reported by some geologists in the Daito area, according to the writer's field work and dating results, the granite is the latest facies (Paleogene) of the Chugoku Batholith.
It has been a puzzling question which granitic masses had brought the ore-fluid that made the major three molybdenum deposits, Daito, Seikyu, and Higashiyama mines. Three possibilities may be considered. They are, 1) the post-intrusive activity of the porphyritic granite (Gp), 2) ascending ore-fluid through steeply dipping faults from a hidden cupola, and 3) molybdenum ore-fluid from aplitic rocks within the present host rocks. Statistically speaking, 10 of very small deposits except Bushoji (though the total production of only about 38 tons molybdenum concentrates) among 111 molybdenum deposits in Japan, are located in intruded rocks near granite masses. This means that major number of the deposits and major quantity of the molybdenum are embedded in granites. Similar geological relations can be observed in such world major deposits as Climax, Questa, Emdako, and porphyry copper deposits. Furthermore, molybdenite occurs in ranging from aplite and pegmatite to hydrothermal deposits. It appears that molybdenum is concentrated (possibly in the quadrivalent state) in a residual magma (probably a hydrothermal granitic magma), and vesiculated and seperated from the melt in the situation where the magma is intruded, and then precipitated. If the molybdenum ore-fluid would have been derived from a much deeper horizon through the chilled crust of the intrusive body (ore bringer), we should have known molybdenum deposits filling a fault or the like in, for example, sedimentary rocks afar from granite masses. Considering these aspects the writer prefers tentatively the third possibility as the genesis of the molybdenum deposits in the Daito area. Finally a history of the igneous activities of this area is schematically presented in Figure 6.
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