Zircon U-Pb dating and its geological implications for the diorites from the Phu Lon skarn-type copper-gold deposit in Thailand

The Phu Lon skarn-type copper-gold deposit is one of the large-sized skarn-type copper-gold deposits in the northern Luang Prabang-Loei copper-gold polymetallic metallogenic belt in Thailand. The LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb isotopic dating give a weighted average age of 240.6±1.2 Ma for the formation of the diorites associated with the skarnization within this copper-gold deposit. This age should represent the mineralization age of the Phu Lon copper-gold deposit, i. e., the Middle to Late Triassic. The Luang Prabang-Loei copper-gold polymetallic metallogenic belt once recorded an important porphyry-skarn-hydrothermal copper-gold mineralization event during the Late Permian to the Early Triassic.