The Discovery of the Romero VMS Deposit and Its Bearing on the Metallogenic Evolution of Hispaniola during the Cretaceous

Abstract

The recently discovered Romero deposit, located in the Tres Palmas district, Cordillera Central of the Dominican Republic, has probable reserves of 840,000 oz gold, 980,000 oz silver and 136 Mlb copper. Mineralization is hosted by intermediate volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of the lower stratigraphic sequence of the Cretaceous Tireo formation. The andesitic host rocks yield a U-Pb zircon concordia age of 116 ± 10 Ma. Au–Ag–Cu(–Zn) mineralization is divided into: (1) an upper domain with stacked massive sulfide lenses and sulfide dissemination within a 20-m-thick level of massive anhydrite-gypsum nodules, and (2) a lower domain with a high-grade stockwork mineralization in the form of cm-scale veins with open space fillings of fibrous silica and chalcopyrite, sphalerite, pyrite (+electrum ± Au–Ag tellurides). The γ34S values of sulfides from the upper (-7.6 and +0.9‰) and lower (-2.4 and +5.6‰) domains are consistent with a heterogeneous sourcing of S, probably combining inorganically and organically induced reduction of Albian-Aptian seawater sulfate. Despite this, a magmatic source for sulfur cannot be discarded. The γ34S (+19.2 and +20.0‰) and _18O (+12.5 and +14.2‰) values of anhydrite-gypsum nodules are also consistent with a seawater sulfate source and suggest crystallization in equilibrium with aqueous sulfides at temperatures higher than 250ºC. These data point to a classification of Romero as a volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposit formed in an axial position of the Greater Antilles paleo-arc in connection with island arc tholeiitic magmatism during a steady-state subduction regime. Circulation of hydrothermal fluids could have been promoted by a local extensional tectonic regime expressed in the Tres Palmas district as a graben structure.