Base-metal and REE anomalies in lower Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks of Amundsen Land, central North Greenland: implications for Zn-Pb potential

Abstract

During the 2013 field season, siliciclastic and carbonate rocks of the lower Palaeozoic sedimentary succession of the Franklinian Basin in Amundsen Land, central North Greenland, were collected for whole-rock geochemical analysis. These data are evaluated here in an attempt to identify possible hydrothermal signatures related to sediment-hosted Zn-Pb mineralisation, similar to that found in correlative strata at the large Citronen Fjord deposit located c. 100 km to the eastnorth-east. In this paper, we use the term Sedex in a broad sense to describe stratiform, sediment-hosted deposits that formed either by syngenetic (exhalative) processes or by subsea-floor replacement coeval with sedimentation (e.g. Emsbo et al. 2016); the term Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) is used for non-stratiform Zn-Pb deposits that formed epigenetically during late diagenesis or tectonism (e.g. Leach et al. 2010).