Pyrite Genesis and Its Implications for Uranium Mineralization at the Yahewan Deposit, Southern Ordos Basin, China

The origin and metallogenic role of pyrite in sandstone-hosted uranium deposits remain difficult to constrain because pyrite may record both early diagenetic reduction and later ore-fluid overprinting. Here, pyrite and associated uranium minerals from mineralized and barren sandstones of the Middle Jurassic Zhiluo Formation in the Yahewan uranium deposit, southern Ordos Basin, were investigated using petrography, SEM-BSE imaging, EPMA, LA-ICP-MS trace-element analysis, and in situ sulfur isotope analysis. Pyrite occurs mainly as framboidal, colloidal, pore-filling, fracture-filling, and massive aggregates and is commonly associated with organic matter and coffinite or coffinite-like U-silicate minerals. Most pyrite domains show low Co/Ni ratios, suggesting a predominantly authigenic to sedimentary–diagenetic origin. High U, Mo, V, W, Se and As occur mainly in pyrite-rich microdomains, but high-U analyses are interpreted cautiously because some signals may include contributions from adjacent coffinite or coffinite-like U-silicate phases, fracture-hosted uranium minerals, or mixed ablation. Together, the petrographic, trace-element and sulfur isotope data support a two-stage model in which early organic matter and authigenic/biogenic pyrite created local reducing microenvironments that were later overprinted by U-bearing basinal fluids.