Diagenetic Controls on the Formation of the Anarraaq Clastic-Dominated Zn-Pb-Ag Deposit, Red Dog District, Alaska

Merilie A. Reynolds; Sarah A. Gleeson; Robert A. Creaser; Betsy A. Friedlander; Jenny C. Haywood; Danny Hnatyshin; Jim McCusker; John W.F. Waldron

doi:10.5382/econgeo.4849

journal article Open Access Dec 01, 2021

Diagenetic Controls on the Formation of the Anarraaq Clastic-Dominated Zn-Pb-Ag Deposit, Red Dog District, Alaska

Merilie A. Reynolds Sarah A. Gleeson Robert A. Creaser Betsy A. Friedlander Jenny C. Haywood Danny Hnatyshin Jim McCusker John W.F. Waldron

Economic Geology Vol. 116 No. 8 pp. 1803-1824 · Society of Economic Geologists, Inc.

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Abstract

AbstractThe Anarraaq clastic-dominated (CD) Zn-Pb-Ag deposit (Red Dog district, Alaska, USA) has an inferred mineral resource of 19.4 Mt at 14.4% Zn, 4.2% Pb, and 73 g/t Ag and is spatially associated with a separate ~1 Gt barite body. This study presents new cross sections and petrographic evidence from the Anarraaq area. The barite body, previously shown to have formed in a shallow subsurface environment akin to a methane cold seep, contains multiple generations of barite with locally abundant calcite masses, which are discordant to sedimentary laminae, and is underlain by an interval of massive pyrite containing abundant framboids and radiolarians. Calcite and pyrite are interpreted to have formed by methane-driven diagenetic alteration of host sediment at the sulfate-methane transition (SMT). The sulfide deposit contains two zones of Zn-Pb mineralization bounded by faults of unknown displacement. The dominant hydrothermal minerals are marcasite, pyrite, sphalerite, quartz, and galena. The presence of hydrothermal pseudomorphs after barite, early pyrite resembling diagenetic pyrite associated with the barite body, and hydrothermal quartz and sphalerite filling voids formed by dissolution of carbonate all suggest that host sediment composition and origin was similar to that of the barite body prior to hydrothermal mineralization. Rhenium-osmium isochron ages of Ikalukrok mudstone (339.1 ± 8.3 Ma), diagenetic pyrite (333.0 ± 7.4 Ma), and hydrothermal pyrite (334.4 ± 5.3 Ma) at Anarraaq are all within uncertainty of one another and of an existing isochron age (~338 Ma) for the Main deposit in the Red Dog district. This indicates that the Anarraaq deposit formed soon after sedimentation and that hydrothermal activity was approximately synchronous in the district. The initial Os composition of the Anarraaq isochrons (0.375 ± 0.019–0.432 ± 0.025) is consistent with contemporaneous seawater, indicating that a mantle source was not involved in the hydrothermal system. This study highlights the underappreciated but important role of early, methane-driven diagenetic processes in the paragenesis of some CD deposits and has important implications for mineral exploration.

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Published: Dec 01, 2021
Vol/Issue: 116(8)
Pages: 1803-1824
License: View

Authors

M

Merilie A. Reynolds

Northwest Territories Geological Survey, Government of Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, Canada

S

Sarah A. Gleeson

GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, 14473 Potsdam, Germany; Institute of Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Malteserstrasse 74-100, Berlin 12249, Germany

R

Robert A. Creaser

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E3, Canada

B

Betsy A. Friedlander

Teck Resources Limited, Suite 3300, Bentall 5, 550 Burrard Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 0B3, Canada

J

Jenny C. Haywood

Teck Resources Limited, Suite 3300, Bentall 5, 550 Burrard Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 0B3, Canada

D

Danny Hnatyshin

Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences (iCRAG), University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland; UCD School of Earth Sciences, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

J

Jim McCusker

Teck Resources Limited, Suite 3300, Bentall 5, 550 Burrard Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6C 0B3, Canada

J

John W.F. Waldron

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E3, Canada

Cite This Article

Merilie A. Reynolds, Sarah A. Gleeson, Robert A. Creaser, et al. (2021). Diagenetic Controls on the Formation of the Anarraaq Clastic-Dominated Zn-Pb-Ag Deposit, Red Dog District, Alaska. Economic Geology, 116(8), 1803-1824. https://doi.org/10.5382/econgeo.4849

Diagenetic Controls on the Formation of the Anarraaq Clastic-Dominated Zn-Pb-Ag Deposit, Red Dog District, Alaska

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