Large volumes of Devonian-Carboniferous granites were emplaced across Tasmania in southeast Australia, which was along the easternmost boundary of mid-Palaeozoic Gondwana. Some of these granites are associated with world class Sn–W deposits. Previous studies have focused mainly on relationships between granite petrogenesis and source rocks, and rarely on geochemical controls on Sn mineralisation. New zircon U-Pb ages of 405 to 396 Ma reveal that the George River Granodiorite, Grant Point Granite and Mt. Pearson Granite from eastern Tasmania intruded prior to the Tabberabberan Orogeny. The Coles Bay Granite has a U-Pb age of 388 ± 7 Ma, implying that it was emplaced simultaneously with the Tabberabberan Orogeny in Tasmania. The western Tasmanian granites mostly intruded from 374 to 360 Ma, after the Tabberabberan Orogeny. Granites associated with Sn–W deposits are moderately to strongly fractionated, including the Housetop, Meredith, Pine Hill and Heemskirk granites. Lead isotopic compositions of K-feldspars from the analysed granites, combined with isotopic evidence from other studies, suggest that differentiated granites in Tasmania had been highly contaminated by a crustal (sedimentary) component, and that western Tasmanian granites had a crustal source with substantially different isotopic characteristics to that of eastern Tasmania, which has a character similar to the Lachlan Orogen in southeast Australia. Tin-mineralised granites in Tasmania formed in a post-collisional extensional margin, a favourable environment for the production of Sn-rich melts from the lower crust. Prolonged fractional crystallisation, low oxygen fugacity and enrichments of volatiles are crucial factors to promote Sn enrichment in magmatic-hydrothermal fluids exsolved from crystallised felsic magmas.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	fractionated granite, Zircon U-Pb dating, K-feldspar, Pb isotopes, tin mineralisation, Tasmania
Research Division:	Earth Sciences
Research Group:	Geology
Research Field:	Geochronology
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding knowledge in the earth sciences
UTAS Author:	Hong, W (Mr Wei Hong)
UTAS Author:	Cooke, DR (Professor David Cooke)
UTAS Author:	Meffre, S (Professor Sebastien Meffre)
UTAS Author:	Thompson, J (Mr Jay Thompson)
UTAS Author:	Zhang, L (Dr Lejun Zhang)
UTAS Author:	Fox, N (Dr Nathan Fox)
ID Code:	121911
Year Published:	2017
Web of Science® Times Cited:	14
Deposited By:	CODES ARC
Deposited On:	2017-10-19
Last Modified:	2022-07-12
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