Genesis and tectonic setting of the Late Devonian Tawuerbieke gold deposit in the Tulasu ore cluster, western Tianshan, Xinjiang, China

ABSTRACTThe Tawuerbieke deposit is one of the important mining gold deposits in the Tulasu basin, which is known as an epithermal gold ore cluster in the Boluokenu Polymetallic Belt (BPB), western Tianshan, China. The orebodies of this deposit are hosted by late Palaeozoic volcanic rocks and granitic porphyries. LA-ICP-MS U–Pb dating on zircons from a hosting andesite gave a weighted average age of 367.1 ± 3.2 Ma. Geochemical characteristics of the Late Devonian volcanic rocks are similar to those of arc-type magma, which could be formed in a continental arc due to the North Tianshan oceanic plate southward subduction under the Yili-Central Tianshan plate. Diorite aplite dike crosscutting orebody has a late Carboniferous crystallization age (315.2 ± 3.5 Ma), constraining the mineralization age within the range of 367 ~ 315 Ma. Considering that all the other deposits with various types of mineralization in the BPB are products of the Late Devonian–early Carboniferous magmatism, we further suggest that the ...