Host rocks of kuroko deposits in the northern and eastern parts of Odate city, Hokuroku district have been investigated with respect to their sulfur isotopic composition and the distribution of iron minerals. Some 40 samples were selected from the drill cores obtained by the Metal Mining Agency to cover a range of a few hundred meters each above and below the kuroko ore horizon in the stratigraphic column. Although the host rocks contain, in part, sulfate minerals such as gypsum and anhydrite, most of the sulfur in the examined specimens is found to be in pyrite.
δ
34S (CDT) values of the host rocks and the ores are in a wide range of -35 to +20‰. Based on the rock type, the morphology of pyrite and the relationship of host rocks to mineralized zone, these values can be classified into three principal groups as follows:
(i) δ
34S=-30±5‰, framboidal pyrite in mudstone;
(ii)δ
34S=-5-+20‰, euhedral pyrite in dacite lava and its pyroclastics referred to as the "green tuff"; and
(iii)δ
34S=+3-+10‰, pyrite in mineralized zone (+3-+5‰ in massive ores and +6-+10‰ in footwall rocks with disseminated pyrite).
Intermediate values between (i) and (iii), and between (i) and (ii) are observed in footwall mudstones with disseminated pyrite, and in green tuffs having both euhedral and framboidal pyrites, respectively.
Origin of sulfur in both mudstone (i) and green tuff (ii) may have been in seawater of the Miocene age. The sulfide sulfur of mudstone (i) was produced by bacterial reduction, whereas that of green tuff (ii) was probably the pro-duct of inorganic reduction involving Fe2+ and/or C in the host rocks, partly assisted by bacterial reduction. Contribution of "igneous sulfur" to the group (ii) sulfur may also be warranted, though its direct recognition would be difficult to achieve.
The sulfur in mineralized zones (iii) can be easily distinguished by its concentrated δ34S values from the sulfur in the surrounding green tuff rocks. This characteristic value is known to occur in the whole Hokuroku district and other "green tuff mineralization" areas in the Japanese Islands as well. The fact suggests that the ore sulfur concerned must have been derived from a certain large-scale reservoir by a common process.
In spite of ubiquitous "green tuff alteration", magnetite persists as the most common iron mineral in the kuroko country rocks. However, in the ore horizon as well as the mineralized footwall pyrite becomes the principal iron mineral. Variation in the relative abundance of the two minerals expressed in Py/(Py+Mt) ratio in mode ("P ratio") correlates well with the mineralization halo. Distribution of the P ratio in the host rocks would therefore be a useful pros-pecting guide to kuroko ores in the green tuff region.
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