Patterns of fluid-mobile element incorporation in sulfide minerals from the volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits of the Bathurst mining camp, Canada

Several of the Middle Ordovician polymetallic Zn-Pb-Cu-Ag volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits of the Bathurst Mining Camp (BMC), northern New Brunswick, Canada, were investigated using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Quantitative and semi-quantitative analysis of a suite of fluid-mobile elements (As, Bi, Cd, Hg, In, Ga, Ge, Sb, Se, Sn, Te, and Tl) was conducted for pyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, sphalerite, galena, arsenopyrite, and tetrahedrite-tennantite. The occurrence of fluid-mobile elements within different sulfide assemblages shows mineral-specific characteristics and genetically controlled features. Our results show that subsequent metamorphism and deformation modified and redistributed the fluid-mobile elements at the mineral scale, which is texturally controlled. In addition, the fluid-mobile elements within sphalerite and chalcopyrite distinctly differentiate the hydrothermal facies.