Exhumation and Preservation of the Jinchuan Ni‐Cu‐PGE Deposit under the East Longshou Mountain Thermal Evolution, Revealed by Apatite Fission Track Thermochronology

Abstract

AbstractUplift and exhumation are important factors affecting the preservation of deposits. The anatomy of uplift‐cooling evolution and exhumation in the East Longshou Mountain is of significant research value in understanding changes in the Jinchuan Ni‐Cu‐PGE deposit since its formation. This study uses apatite fission track (AFT) thermochronology to reconstruct the thermal history of the East Longshou Mountain, including the Jinchuan mine, revealing the uplift and exhumation history of the East Longshou Mountain and elucidating the preservation status of the Jinchuan deposit. The AFT ages in the East Longshou Mountain are distributed from 62.3 ± 3.0 Ma to 214.7 ± 14 Ma, with significant differences in ages in distinct areas, the central and pooled ages being consistent within the margin of error. Inverse thermal history models reveal two rapid cooling events associated with exhumation from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous (200–100 Ma) and since the Miocene (15–0 Ma), the former attributable to the far‐afield response to the closure of the Paleo‐Tethys Ocean and plate assembly at the southern margin of Eurasia, the latter associated with the initial India‐Eurasia plate collision. A slow cooling event from the Early Cretaceous to the Miocene (100–15 Ma) is thought to be related to the arid environment in northwest China since the Cretaceous. These cooling events have diverse responses and cooling rates in different blocks of the East Longshou Mountain: the southwest and centre of which are mainly cooled over 200–120 Ma and 120–0 Ma, with cooling rates of ~0.25 and ~0.33 °C/Ma (~1.25 and ~0.33 °C/Ma in the centre); the Jinchuan mine primarily cooled over 160–100 Ma, 100–15 Ma and 15–0 Ma, with cooling rates of ~1.33, ~0.25 and ~2.00 °C/Ma. These differentiated coolings imply that the uplift of the East Longshou Mountain before the Miocene (~15 Ma) was integral. Strong uplift then occurred in the vicinity of the mining area, which is a critical period for the uplift of the Jinchuan deposit to the surface, meaning that the Jinchuan deposit was exposed no earlier than the Miocene (~15 Ma). Based on mineralization depth information obtained by previous researchers, in conjunction with the calculation and simulation results of this study, it can be seen that the bulk of the Jinchuan intrusion may still be preserved at depth.