Multistage development of a hydrothermal tungsten deposit during the Variscan late-orogenic evolution: the Puy-les-Vignes W breccia pipe (Massif Central, France)

The Puy-les-Vignes W deposit, located in the northwestern French Massif Central (FMC), is a rare occurrence worldwide of a wolframite-mineralized hydrothermal breccia pipe hosted in high-grade metamorphic gneisses. We present here an integrated study of this deposit aiming to characterize the ore-forming hydrothermal system in link with the Variscan late-orogenic evolution of the FMC. Based on a set of representative samples from the host rocks and mineralization, we describe a detailed paragenetic sequence and we provide the major and trace element geochemistry of the host rocks and W-Nb-Ta-Sn-Ti oxide minerals, in situ U-Pb and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology, and a fluid inclusion study in quartz and wolframite. We demonstrate that the formation of this W-mineralized breccia pipe results from a multistage development between ca. 325 and 300 Ma related to four major episodes during the late Carboniferous. The first episode corresponds to the emplacement of an unexposed peraluminous granite at ca. 325 Ma, which generated microgranite dykes exposed at the present-day surface. The second episode is the formation of the quartz-supported breccia pipe and wolframite mineralization at ca. 318 Ma at a paleodepth of 7 km. The mineralizing fluids have a H2O-NaCl-CO2-CH4-N2 composition, a moderate-salinity (