Mercury isotope evidence for the importance of recycled fluids in collisional ore systems

The sources of fluids and metals in porphyry systems of continental-collision settings are poorly constrained. Mercury isotopes display unique mass-independent fractionation (expressed as Δ¹⁹⁹Hg) and may provide important constraints on metal and volatile sources given that Hg is a highly volatile metal. Here, we report Hg isotope data on ore-forming porphyries, barren magmatic rocks, and mantle-derived mafic magmas from southern Tibet. The fertile porphyries and coeval mafic magmas display mainly positive Δ¹⁹⁹Hg values (up to +0.25 per mil), while Δ¹⁹⁹Hg values in barren magmatic rocks and mafic magmas are largely negative (-0.54 to 0.00 per mil). The positive Δ¹⁹⁹Hg values observed here are consistent with seawater and marine sediments, suggesting that the ultimate source of fluids involved in the genesis of post-subduction porphyry copper deposits was the mantle lithosphere metasomatized by previous oceanic plate subduction. Our Hg isotope data provide an alternative view to current metallogenetic models on collisional porphyry systems that focus on melting of the lower continental crust.