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Metallogenic potential of komatiites from the Shankaraghatta Complex, Western Dharwar Craton (Southern India)
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DOI：10.1007/s00126-026-01469-w.png)
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Abstract
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The Shankaraghatta Complex in the Dharwar Craton (Southern India) hosts highly serpentinized komatiites containing minor disseminated nickel-sulfides as blebs of millerite–pyrite–violarite ± chalcopyrite, locally enriched in a range of semi and precious metals. This study shows that these rocks, yielding a Sm-Nd age of 2718 ± 107 Ma, are broadly coeval with the highly nickel-sulfide mineralized komatiites of the Yilgarn Craton (Western Australia), but significant mineralization is absent in the Shankaraghatta Complex and across the Dharwar Craton. This discrepancy is addressed through systematic multiple sulfur isotope characterization of the sulfides, which reveals a predominant mantle-like signature that rule out significant crustal assimilation during komatiite emplacement in the complex. It is proposed that sulfide saturation was unlikely achieved through dynamic processes typical of economically mineralized komatiite systems, such as, turbulent magma flow and interaction with sulfur-rich crustal reservoirs. Instead, sulfide formation is attributed to fractionation within a cooling magmatic system, with subsequent serpentinization-driven remobilization locally enhancing semi and precious metal concentrations, as supported by detailed sulfide trace-element geochemistry, and study of platinum-group minerals and their textures. In addition, review of regional radiogenic isotope data suggests the absence of significant lithospheric structures capable of channelizing and focussing magma flow during emplacement, indicating a stable, partially cratonized crust that hindered widespread komatiite emplacement in the Dharwar Craton. This study therefore suggests that although Dharwar komatiites may be unfavourable for nickel-sulfide mineralization, widespread serpentinization may have remobilized and locally concentrated a range of metals, leading to previously unknown styles of non-conventional mineralization.
Keywords:
Western Dharwar Craton
Komatiite
Nickel-sulfide mineralization
Multiple sulfur isotope
Serpentinization
Metal remobilization
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