A Study of the Rhenium‐Osmium Geochronometry of Molybdenites1

Abstract This study deals with the first application of the isotope dilution‐inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in the rhenium‐osmium geochronometry in China. The chemical separation procedure included decomposition of samples by means of alkali fusion, extraction of rhenium by acetone and extraction of osmium by distillation. The recovery of both elements in the entire process was more than 90% . The blanks of analyses were 0.07 ng for rhenium and 0.01 ng for ¹⁸⁷Os. The mineralization ages of molybdenites from four molybdenum deposits in China were determined by using this method, with a precision (2σ) of about ±3% . These results agree satisfactorily with their geological backgrounds. The Re‐Os method can directly determine ages of metal deposits and reflect the true ages more reliably than other dating methods that only determine the ages of country rocks from which mineralization ages are inferred. As many hydrothermal sulphide deposits usually contain molybdenites, this method has bright prospects of wide application.