Petrology of the Kureika Graphite Deposit in the Roof of the First-Rapid Trap Intrusion (Siberian Platform)

Abstract

––The leading role of lithostratigraphic, structural/tectonic, magmatic, metamorphic, and fluid geologic factors in the formation of a graphite deposit is substantiated. We present the petrographic and chemical compositions of rocks and minerals of igneous rocks, the δ13С values of graphites and calcitites, the δ18O values of carbonates, the δ34S values of sulfides, and the 87Sr/86Sr and 87Rb/86Sr ratios in calcitites and microdolerite injections. The thermal effect of magmatic melt on coal led to its degassing and graphitization. The steaming of microdolerite injections with hydrocarbon fluids was probably accompanied by the removal of iron from them and the crystallization of low-Fe clinopyroxene, and the interaction of fluids with basaltic melt in the upper endocontact zone of the intrusion led to the segregation of the melt and the formation of a globular structure of rocks. The presence of a calcitite lens and a sulfide vein between the roof of the intrusion and the graphite bed is due to the earlier intrusion of sulfate salt melt and its subsequent interaction with hydrocarbon fluids, which resulted in sulfate reduction and the formation of calcitites. The sulfate reduction terminated with iron sulfurization in the basaltic melt and the formation of a sulfide vein. Sulfate salt melt was a source of heavy sulfur isotope (δ34S = 14.9–17.5‰) for sulfides and of calcium for calcitites. The similar isotope compositions of calcitites (δ13СPDB = –22.5 to –23.5‰), coals (–22.6 to –25.5‰, n = 25), and graphites (–23.5 to –25.0) suggest that coal is a source of carbon for calcitites. In the isotopic compositions of strontium (87Sr/86Sr ≈ 0.70834–0.70885) and oxygen δ18O ≈ 15‰) the calcitites are similar to the Devonian evaporites of the Siberian Platform. The isotope data (δ34S, δ18O, δ13С, and 87Rb/86Sr) point to the participation of the coal seam and anhydrite as sources of substance in the formation of calcitite and sulfide mineralization.