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Incorporation mechanism of structurally bound gold in pyrite: Insights from an integrated chemical and atomic-scale microstructural study

  • Lei Meng , Sanyuan Zhu , Xiaochun Li , Wei Terry Chen , Haiyang Xian , Xinyu Gao and Taiping Zhao
Published/Copyright: March 28, 2022
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American Mineralogist
From the journal American Mineralogist Volume 107 Issue 4

Abstract

Pyrite is one of the most important carriers for Au in hydrothermal deposits, but the incorporation mechanism of structurally bound Au has long been a matter of debate. This is due to a poor understanding of the chemical state and coordination environments of Au in the pyrite structure. Arsenian pyrite is the dominant Au-hosting mineral from the Shanggong Au deposit (130 t Au) in the southern margin of the North China Craton. Our EPMA and LA-ICP-MS results show that the arsenian pyrite has remarkably high Au (0.05–0.78 wt%) and As (0.39–4.60 wt%) contents. Au is negatively correlated with Fe but positively correlated with As. Z-contrast HAADF-STEM imaging reveals that Au atoms sit at the Fe atom sites in the arsenian pyrite structure. Our μ-XANES results and previously reported data suggest that Au and As in arsenian pyrite are predominant of chemically bound Au+ and As–, respectively. We thus propose that Au+ and As– are both structurally bound and sit at the Fe and S atom sites of pyrite, respectively. As may not be necessary but favorable for the incorporation of structurally bound Au in pyrite. These results have significant implications for understanding the enrichment mechanism of Au from ore-forming fluids with low-Au and low-As concentrations into arsenian pyrite and for revealing the role of As in Au mineralization of hydrothermal deposits.

Keywords: Arsenian pyrite; μ-XANES spectroscopy; Z-contrast HAADF-STEM image; Au incorporation mechanism

Funding statement: The authors thank the SSRF for the beamtime allocation under the proposal no. 2018-SSRF-PT-005554. This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant nos. 2016YFC0600106 and 2016YFC0600408).

Acknowledgments

We thank Qiang Wu, Qiang Zhan, Yifan Qiu, Yiping Yang, and Junming Zhou for their assistance with the field and the laboratory work. We are grateful to Meifu Zhou, Jianxi Zhu, and Alexandra Yang for their help with the preparation of this paper. The authors acknowledge Fang-Yue Wang for his help with LA-ICP-MS analyses. Rosa Anna Fregola, Michalis Fitros, Louis J. Cabri, and an anonymous reviewer are greatly appreciated for their constructive reviews. Sasa Bajt is gratefully acknowledged for his editorial handling.

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Received: 2020-09-16
Accepted: 2021-03-20
Published Online: 2022-03-28
Published in Print: 2022-04-26

© 2022 Mineralogical Society of America

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https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2021-7812
Keywords for this article
Arsenian pyrite; μ-XANES spectroscopy; Z-contrast HAADF-STEM image; Au incorporation mechanism

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Perspectives
  2. Resolving the conundrum of equilibrium solubility of smectites
  3. Manjiroite or hydrous hollandite?
  4. Petrologic evolution of boninite lavas from the IBM Fore-arc, IODP Expedition 352: Evidence for open-system processes during early subduction zone magmatism
  5. Coupled hydrogen and fluorine incorporation in garnet: New constraints from FTIR, ERDA, SIMS, and EPMA
  6. Incorporation mechanism of structurally bound gold in pyrite: Insights from an integrated chemical and atomic-scale microstructural study
  7. The electrical conductivity of albite feldspar: Implications for oceanic lower crustal sequences and subduction zones
  8. A high-pressure, clinopyroxene-structured polymorph of albite in highly shocked terrestrial and meteoritic rocks
  9. Water in the crystal structure of CaSiO3 perovskite
  10. Release of chromite nanoparticles and their alteration in the presence of Mn-oxides
  11. The absorption indicatrix as an empirical model to describe anisotropy in X-ray absorption spectra of pyroxenes
  12. Atomistic mechanism of cadmium incorporation into hydroxyapatite
  13. Copper isotope evidence for a Cu-rich mantle source of the world-class Jinchuan magmatic Ni-Cu deposit
  14. Gamma radiation effects on quartz Al and Ti center electron spin resonance signal intensity: Implications for quartz provenance discrimination
  15. A new high-pressure experimental apparatus to study magmatic processes at precisely controlled redox conditions
  16. Effect of structural water on the elasticity of orthopyroxene
  17. Cryogenic heat capacity measurements and thermodynamic analysis of lithium aluminum layered double hydroxides (LDHs) with intercalated chloride
  18. A theoretical and experimental investigation of hetero- vs. homo-connectivity in barium silicates
  19. Radiation-induced changes in vanadium speciation in basaltic glasses: Implications for oxybarometry measurements using vanadium K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy
  20. The crystal structure of Fe2S at 90 GPa based on single-crystal X-ray diffraction techniques
  21. Hydration-driven stabilization and volume collapse of grain boundaries in Mg2SiO4 forsterite predicted by first-principles simulations
  22. Kinetics of dehydrogenation of riebeckite Na2Fe23+Fe32+Si8O22(OH)2: An HT-FTIR study
  23. Ferro-tschermakite with polysomatic chain-width disorder identified in silician magnetite from Wirrda Well, South Australia: A HAADF STEM study
  24. New Mineral Names: High-Pressure and Precious Minerals
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