Mineral types of hydrothermal alteration zones in the Dukat ore field and their relationships to leucogranite and epithermal gold-silver ore, northeastern Russia

The paper considers the localization of potassic and propylitic hydrothermal alteration zones in the domal volcanic-plutonic structure controlling the position of the Dukat ore field with the eponymous unique epithermal Au-Ag deposit. Comprehensive mineralogical and geochemical data on rocks and minerals in hydrothermal alteration zones and associated intrusions have shown that quartz-jarosite-sericite, quartz-pyrite-sericite, and quartz-adularia-chlorite alterations were formed with the participation of fluid flows related to a fingerlike projection of a high-K leucogranite porphyry intrusion with large phenocrysts. These hydrothermal alterations developed in the rifted graben under conditions of divergent plate boundaries, whereas quartz-clinozoisite-calcite, epidote-chlorite, and garnet-calcite-chlorite alterations were linked to K-Na leucogranite intrusive bodies and developed under conditions of convergent plate boundaries reactivated as a result of formation of the marginal Okhotsk-Chukotka volcanic belt. Phase separation and coagulation of specific portions of ascending fluids resulted in the formation and stabilization of small-sized particles of native silver and other ore components, which enabled involvement in flows of secondary geothermal solutions and ore-forming fluids. The Sr, Nd, and Pb isotopic compositions of rocks and minerals from the hydrothermal alteration zones, associated intrusions, and economic orebodies at the Dukat deposit indicate that their components have been derived from the juvenile continental crust, which was altered in pre-Cretaceous periods of endogenic activity. The components of gangue minerals of potassic and propylitic hydrothertmal alterations and associated intrusions have been taken from deep sources differing in 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd at similar U/Pb and Th/Pb ratios. Chalcophile lead in products of hydrothermal activity and melanocratic inclusions in leucogranite has been taken from regions with elevated U/Pb and Th/Pb ratios.