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Science 6 February 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5915, pp. 764 - 767
DOI: 10.1126/science.1164436
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Reports

Anomalously Metal-Rich Fluids Form Hydrothermal Ore Deposits

Jamie J. Wilkinson,1,2*{dagger} Barry Stoffell,1{ddagger} Clara C. Wilkinson,1,2{dagger} Teresa E. Jeffries,2 Martin S. Appold3

Hydrothermal ore deposits form when metals, often as sulfides, precipitate in abundance from aqueous solutions in Earth's crust. Much of our knowledge of the fluids involved comes from studies of fluid inclusions trapped in silicates or carbonates that are believed to represent aliquots of the same solutions that precipitated the ores. We used laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to test this paradigm by analysis of fluid inclusions in sphalerite from two contrasting zinc-lead ore systems. Metal contents in these inclusions are up to two orders of magnitude greater than those in quartz-hosted inclusions and are much higher than previously thought, suggesting that ore formation is linked to influx of anomalously metal-rich fluids into systems dominated by barren fluids for much of their life.

1 Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK.
2 Department of Mineralogy, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK.
3 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri–Columbia, 101 Geological Sciences Building, Columbia, MO 65211, USA.

{dagger} Present address: Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits (CODES), Private Bag 126, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia.

{ddagger} Present address: Rio Tinto Mining and Exploration Limited, 2 Eastbourne Terrace, London W2 6LG, UK.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: j.wilkinson{at}imperial.ac.uk

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Replacement Dolomites and Ore Sulfides as Recorders of Multiple Fluids and Fluid Sources in the Southeast Missouri Mississippi Valley-Type District: Halogen-87Sr/86Sr-{delta}18O-{delta}34S Systematics in the Bonneterre Dolomite.
K. L. Shelton, J. M. Gregg, and A. W. Johnson (2009)
Economic Geology 104, 733-748
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