Regional setting of vein-style gold mineralization around the Goldlund mine, Sandybeach Lake area, northwestern Ontario

1990 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 1590-1608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lesley Chorlton

The Sandybeach Lake area was deformed in four stages. Stage 1 produced gently south-southeast-dipping foliations at low angles to bedding. Stage 2 involved draping of these planes and formation of contact-strain aureoles related to the emplacement of granitoid stocks. Stage 3 produced doubly plunging folds, steep foliations, and shear zones, which resulted from regional transpression, with a sinistral lateral shear sense along this arm of the Wabigoon greenstone belt. Stage 4 produced minor folds and shear displacements in some places and final tightening of stage 3 folds in others, compatible with final regional convergence.Regional quartz veins, including those carrying gold, appear to have filled tensional fractures related to bulk belt-perpendicular shortening and belt-parallel extension, sinistral shear, and tightening of folds in sheetlike competent bodies. Veins and mineralization thus coincided with late stage 3 deformation, possibly overlapping stage 4.Auriferous vein occurrences at the Goldlund mine display geometries similar to those of veins in the surrounding region. The main body of auriferous vein mineralization is hosted by a thick, composite metatonalite–metadiorite sheet. The vein system of this zone likely originated during the steepening and axial-plane transposition of the southeast-dipping limb near the southwest-plunging end of a stage 3 fold.

2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (12) ◽  
pp. 1453-1471
Author(s):  
Bruno Lafrance ◽  
Larry M Heaman

The La Ronge Domain is a granite–greenstone belt in the Saskatchewan segment of the ca. 1.9–1.8 Ga Trans-Hudson Orogen. The La Ronge volcanic arc was accreted to the Archean Hearne craton from ca. 1.87 to 1.86 Ga. Subduction of oceanic lithosphere beneath the accreted La Ronge – Hearne margin produced a voluminous suite of continental-arc intrusions. In the Waddy Lake area, the 1852.6 ± 1.5 Ma Corner Lake stock and 1859 ± 4 Ma and 1861 ± 2 Ma feldspar porphyry dykes crystallized from magmas generated from melting of the subducted oceanic slab. During the ca. 1.83–1.80 Trans-Hudson collision of the Hearne craton with the Archean Sask and Superior cratons, a penetrative regional foliation and a steeply plunging lineation formed within the La Ronge Domain. During further contraction across the domain, the deformation became localized in dextral and oblique-slip shear zones that generally follow contacts between more competent and less competent rock units. Orogenic gold mineralization is associated with quartz veins that are surrounded by hypozonal potassic and sulfidic alteration zones. The Komis gold deposit, the only past-producing gold mine in the Waddy Lake area, formed in the strain shadow of the Round Lake stock during the development of the regional foliation and lineation. Mineralization is associated with quartz veins that cut through tonalite dykes that behaved more brittlely than the surrounding metavolcanic rocks. The Golden Heart and Corner Lake gold deposits are hosted by south-side-up oblique-slip shear zones, which belong to a regional system of structures that extend from Saskatchewan to Manitoba.


2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (5) ◽  
pp. 494-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi-hui Cheng ◽  
Jiu-hua Xu ◽  
Jian-xiong Wang ◽  
Qing-po Xue ◽  
Hui Zhang

The Hamadi gold deposit is located in North Sudan, and occurs in the Neoproterozoic metamorphic strata of the Arabian–Nubian Shield. Two types of gold mineralization can be discerned: gold-bearing quartz veins and altered rock ores near ductile shear zones. The gold-bearing quartz veins are composed of white to gray quartz associated with small amounts of pyrite and other polymetallic sulfide minerals. Wall-rock alterations include mainly beresitization, epidotization, chloritization, and carbonatization. CO2-rich inclusions are commonly seen in gold-bearing quartz veins and quartz veinlets from gold-bearing altered rocks; these include mainly one-phase carbonic (CO2 ± CH4 ± N2) inclusions and CO2–H2O inclusions with CO2/H2O volumetric ratios of 30% to ∼80%. Laser Raman analysis does not show the H2O peak in carbonic inclusions. In quartz veins, the melting temperature of solid CO2 (Tm,CO2) of carbonic inclusions has a narrow range of −59.6 to −56.8 °C. Carbonic inclusions also have CO2 partial homogenization temperatures (Th,CO2) of −28.3 to +23.7 °C, with most of the values clustering between +4.0 and +20 °C; all of these inclusions are homogenized into the liquid CO2 state. The densities range from 0.73 to 1.03 g/cm3. XCH4 of carbonic fluid inclusions ranges from 0.004 to 0.14, with most XCH4 around 0.05. In CO2–H2O fluid inclusions, Tm,CO2 values are recorded mostly at around −57.5 °C. The melting temperature of clathrate is 3.8–8.9 °C. It is suggested that the lowest trapping pressures of CO2 fluids would be 100 to ∼400 MPa, on the basis of the Th,CO2 of CO2-bearing one-phase (LCO2) inclusions and the total homogenization temperatures (Th,tot) of paragenetic CO2-bearing two-phase (LCO2–LH2O) inclusions. For altered rocks, the Tm,CO2 of the carbonic inclusions has a narrow range of −58.4 to ∼−57.0 °C, whereas the Th,CO2 varies widely (−19 to ∼+29 °C). Most carbonic inclusions and the carbonic phases in the CO2–H2O inclusions are homogenized to liquid CO2 phases, which correspond to densities of 0.70 to ∼1.00 g/cm3. Fluid inclusions in a single fluid inclusion assemblage (FIA) have narrow Tm,CO2 and Th,CO2 values, but they vary widely in different FIAs and non-FIAs, which indicates that there was a wide range of trapping pressure and temperature (P–T) conditions during the ore-forming process in late retrograde metamorphism after the metamorphism peak period. The carbonic inclusions in the Hamadi gold deposit are interpreted to have resulted from unmixing of an originally homogeneous aqueous–carbonic mixture during retrogress metamorphism caused by decreasing P–T conditions. CO2 contributed to gold mineralization by buffering the pH range and increasing the gold concentration in the fluids.


2000 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Neumayr ◽  
S G Hagemann ◽  
J -F Couture

In the Val d'Or camp, Archean Abitibi greenstone belt, Canada, numerous gold-mineralized second- and third-order fault zones are spatially associated with the transcrustal Cadillac Tectonic Zone (CTZ). This situation is used to test whether fluid systems in the CTZ have a similar structural timing to those in the gold-hosting structures, and hence the CTZ could represent the main fluid conduit in the camp. The transcrustal CTZ at Orenada No. 2 contains structurally complex vein systems, with mineralized quartz-tourmaline veins related to both D2 oblique-reverse faulting and F3 dextral asymmetric folding, both of which have been overprinted by unmineralized subhorizontal and subvertical quartz veins. Quartz ± tourmaline veins within second- and third-order shear zones at Paramaque and Rivière Héva also formed during D2 deformation and have been, at least at Rivière Héva, deformed by F3 asymmetric folding. In contrast, mineralized quartz vein systems at Cartier Malartic are controlled by F3 folding and overprinted by late-stage D3 faults which host late quartz-tourmaline veins. Quartz vein textures are consistent with these timing relations, because D2-controlled veins contain deformed quartz grains, whereas quartz in D3-controlled veins is unstrained. The D2 and D3 timing of mineralized quartz veins in the transcrustal CTZ and in second- and third-order structures is consistent with the notion that the CTZ represents the main fluid conduit and that mineralization occurred in linked second- and third-order structures. The different timing of quartz-tourmaline veins in different shear zones indicates that the veins were probably hydraulically linked to the CTZ during at least two different episodes. The location of Cartier Malartic structurally below the CTZ indicates that fluids travelled either downward from the main conduit or that the shear zone was part of the CTZ.


2016 ◽  
Vol 53 (9) ◽  
pp. 950-978 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lijuan Liu ◽  
Jeremy P. Richards ◽  
Robert A. Creaser ◽  
S. Andrew DuFrane ◽  
Karlis Muehlenbachs ◽  
...  

The Morrison porphyry Cu–Au–Mo deposit is genetically and spatially related to Eocene plagioclase–hornblende–biotite porphyry intrusions. One porphyry intrusion yielded a U–Pb age of 52.54 ± 1.05 Ma. Mineralization occurs in three stages: (1) vein-type and disseminated chalcopyrite and minor bornite (associated with potassic alteration and gold mineralization); (2) vein-type molybdenite (associated with weak phyllic alteration); and (3) polymetallic sulfide–carbonate veins (dolomite ± quartz–sphalerite–galena–arsenopyrite–chalcopyrite, associated with weak sericite–carbonate alteration). Re–Os dating of molybdenite yielded ages of 52.54 ± 0.22 and 53.06 ± 0.22 Ma, similar to the age of the host porphyry intrusion. Stage 1 vein fluids were predominantly of magmatic origin: Th = 400–526 °C; salinity = 39.8–47.8 wt.% NaCl equiv.; δ18Ofluid = 3.7‰–6.3‰; disseminated chalcopyrite–pyrite δ34SCDT = 0.2‰ and −0.8‰ (CDT, Canyon Diablo Troilite). Stage 2 fluids were a mixture of magmatic and meteoric water: Th = 320–421 °C; salinity = 37.0–43.1 wt.% NaCl equiv.; δ18Ofluid values range from 0.3‰ to 3.4‰; molybdenite and pyrite δ34SCDT = −2.1‰ and −1.2‰. Stage 3 fluids were predominantly of meteoric water origin: Th = 163–218 °C; salinity = 3.1–3.9 wt.% NaCl equiv.; δ18Ofluid = −2.3‰ to 3.9‰ for early vein quartz, and 1.1‰ to 6.1‰ for late vein dolomite; sphalerite and pyrite δ34SCDT = −7.1‰ to −5.6‰. Morrison is interpreted to be a typical porphyry Cu–Au–Mo deposit related to a calc-alkaline to a high-K calc-alkaline diorite to granodiorite intrusive suite, generated in a continental arc in response to early Eocene subduction of the Kula–Farallon plate beneath North America.


2020 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
Musab Awad Ahmed HASSAN ◽  
◽  
Aleksandr Evgen’yevich KOTEL’NIKOV ◽  

Relevance and purpose of the work. The study area is located in Gedarif state in Sudan. The ongoing work is aimed at solving fundamental problems of the geological structure of the Qala En Nahal-Um Saqata Ophiolitic Complex and applied tasks of mineral exploration. Detailed studies are being conducted for the first time in this area. The purpose of the investigation is to study the geological and structural features of the region, as well as to obtain information about the localization of gold mineralization. Methods of research. Within the study area, a geological mapping of the ophiolitic complex was carried out. It’s included an analysis of structural elements for investigation of the structural evolution and the phases of deformation. Chemical analysis of the mineralized quartz veins to determine the gold was carried out by Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS) technique at the ALS Laboratory in Saudi Arabia. Results of the work. The investigation of the structural evolution revealed at least three phases of deformation. The gold mineralization occurs in auriferous quartz veins, which are hosted in metavocano-sedimentary, sheared synorogenic granites and listvenites. The auriferous quartz veins are structurally controlled by dominantly NE main shear directions. Conclusions. The gold mineralization in the area can be classified shear zone related mineralization, which is formed during the final event accomplished by crustal cooling, and formation of auriferous quartz vein along shear zones. Gold concentration were recorded in both quartz veins and associates alteration rocks. The area is promising for the presence of a gold deposit.


Gold mineralization in Adi Gozomo area in northwestern Ethiopia was studied through petrographic analysis from both surface and core rock samples. Mineralization is associated with Neoproterozoic basement rocks comprised of metavolcanic, metasedimentary rocks and intrusives. Four phases of deformation and development of NE-SW foliation and shear zones were some of the common geological structures. The hydrothermal gold deposit s cramped to shear zones, 2nd generation quartz veins, 4th phase of deformation, silisifed and carbonatized alteration zone. Based on decreasing order of abundance the ore assemblage of the area includes pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite and gold. The petrographic data indicates that the deposit is hydrothermal vein related type and an island arc tectonic setting. The mineralization is comparable with other known orogenic sulfide deposit types of the country in particular and Arabian-Nubian Shield in general.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 2122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Basem Zoheir ◽  
Mohamed Abd El-Wahed ◽  
Amin Beiranvand Pour ◽  
Amr Abdelnasser

Multi-sensor satellite imagery data promote fast, cost-efficient regional geological mapping that constantly forms a criterion for successful gold exploration programs in harsh and inaccessible regions. The Barramiya–Mueilha sector in the Central Eastern Desert of Egypt contains several occurrences of shear/fault-associated gold-bearing quartz veins with consistently simple mineralogy and narrow hydrothermal alteration haloes. Gold-quartz veins and zones of carbonate alteration and listvenitization are widespread along the ENE–WSW Barramiya–Um Salatit and Dungash–Mueilha shear belts. These belts are characterized by heterogeneous shear fabrics and asymmetrical or overturned folds. Sentinel-1, Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR), Advanced Space borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), and Sentinel-2 are used herein to explicate the regional structural control of gold mineralization in the Barramiya–Mueilha sector. Feature-oriented Principal Components Selection (FPCS) applied to polarized backscatter ratio images of Sentinel-1 and PALSAR datasets show appreciable capability in tracing along the strike of regional structures and identification of potential dilation loci. The principal component analysis (PCA), band combination and band ratioing techniques are applied to the multispectral ASTER and Sentinel-2 datasets for lithological and hydrothermal alteration mapping. Ophiolites, island arc rocks, and Fe-oxides/hydroxides (ferrugination) and carbonate alteration zones are discriminated by using the PCA technique. Results of the band ratioing technique showed gossan, carbonate, and hydroxyl mineral assemblages in ductile shear zones, whereas irregular ferrugination zones are locally identified in the brittle shear zones. Gold occurrences are confined to major zones of fold superimposition and transpression along flexural planes in the foliated ophiolite-island arc belts. In the granitoid-gabbroid terranes, gold-quartz veins are rather controlled by fault and brittle shear zones. The uneven distribution of gold occurrences coupled with the variable recrystallization of the auriferous quartz veins suggests multistage gold mineralization in the area. Analysis of the host structures assessed by the remote sensing results denotes vein formation spanning the time–space from early transpression to late orogen collapse during the protracted tectonic evolution of the belt.


2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 745-773 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Neumayr ◽  
S G Hagemann ◽  
D A Banks ◽  
B WD Yardley ◽  
J -F Couture ◽  
...  

Detailed fluid geochemistry studies on hydrothermal quartz veins from the Rouyn-Noranda and Val-d'Or areas along the transcrustal Cadillac Tectonic Zone (CTZ) indicate that unmineralized (with respect to gold) sections of the CTZ contained a distinct CO2-dominated, H2S-poor hydrothermal fluid. In contrast, both gold mineralized sections of the CTZ (e.g., at Orenada #2) and associated higher order shear zones have a H2O–CO2 ± CH4–NaCl hydrothermal fluid. Their CO2/H2S ratios indicate H2S-rich compositions. The Br/Cl compositions in fluid inclusions trapped in these veins indicate that hydrothermal fluids have been equilibrated with the crust. Oxygen isotope ratios from hydrothermal quartz veins in the CTZ are consistently 2‰ more enriched than those of associated higher order shear zones, which are interpreted to be a function of greater fluid/rock ratios in the CTZ and lower fluid/rock ratios, and more efficient equilibration of the hydrothermal fluid with the wall rock, in higher order shear zones. An implication from this study is that the lower metal endowment of the transcrustal CTZ, when compared with the higher metal endowment in higher order shear zones (ratio of about 1 : 1000), may be the result of the lack of significant amounts of H2O–H2S rich fluids in most of the CTZ. In contrast, gold mineralization in the higher order shear zones appear to be controlled by the high H2S activity of the aqueous fluids, because gold was likely transported in a bisulfide complex and was deposited during sulfidation reactions in the wall rock and phase separation in the quartz veins.


2018 ◽  
Vol 156 (4) ◽  
pp. 639-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
YU-LONG YANG ◽  
LIN YE ◽  
TAN BAO ◽  
WEI GAO ◽  
ZHEN-LI LI

AbstractThe Luziyuan Pb–Zn skarn deposit, located in the Baoshan–Narong–Dongzhi block metallogenic belt in SW China, is hosted by marble and slate in the upper Cambrian Shahechang Formation. Three skarn zones have been identified from the surface (1495 m above sea level (asl)) to a depth of 1220 m asl: zone 1 consists of chlorite–actinolite–calcite–quartz, zone 2 of rhodonite–actinolite–fluorite–quartz–calcite, and zone 3 contains garnet–rhodonite–actinolite–fluorite–quartz–calcite. The deposit formed in four distinct mineralization stages: an early anhydrous skarn (garnet, rhodonite and bustamite) stage (Stage 1), a hydrous skarn (actinolite and chlorite) stage (Stage 2), an early quartz (coarse barren quartz veins) stage (Stage 3) and a late sulphide-forming (fine sulphide-bearing quartz veins) stage (Stage 4). The Stage 1 skarn-forming fluid temperature was at least 500 °C according to the geothermometer with rhodonite/bustamite trace elements measured by laser ablation – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). A decrease in ore fluid temperatures with time is consistent with the decreases in the δ18Ofluid and δDfluid values from Stage 3 to 4. This trend suggests that the ore fluid was mainly derived from magmatic water and mixed with large amounts of meteoric water during mineralization. The δ34S values of Stage 4 chalcopyrite, sphalerite and galena are similar to those of an Ordovician gypsum layer, and together with the high-salinity fluids in Stage 4 indicate the dissolution of evaporites in the Luziyuan region. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the Luziyuan deposit is a distal Pb–Zn skarn deposit that formed in response to multi-stage alteration associated with a combination of magmatic water and meteoric water.


2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-183
Author(s):  
Mohamed K. El-Shafei Mohamed K. El-Shafei

Abu Marawat area is considered as a promising site for exploration of gold mineralization, where many ancient gold mines, hydrothermal alteration zones, and intervening quartz veins are present. This study is a field-based structural analysis that aims at revealing the relationship between mineral occurrences and local structural setting. The area is a part of a back-arc volcanosedimentary sequence associated with banded iron formation (BIF) that has undergone extensive ductile and brittle deformation history. This multiple deformation is manifested by four phases. D1 and D2 are the product of compressional stresses and are expressed by F1, F2 and F3 folds in low-grade regionally metamorphosed rocks. D1 was a progressive deformational phase started with F1 folds, which in a later stage were overprinted by F2 folds. It resulted from NW-SE-oriented pure shear and is associated with imbricate thrust stacks, which control the locations of listwanite bearing gold. NE-SW-oriented compressive stress during D2 is displayed by F3-slip folds at the early stage followed by N-S- to NW-trending dip-slip normal faults and related shear zones. Mineralized quartz veins (MQV) were developed post-D2 and pre-D3. Folding and refolding in addition to thrust movement play a significant role in shortening and thickening of the iron formation bands located at the summit of Gebel Abu Marawat. D3 and D4 are expressed by brittle deformation. D3 is displayed by conjugate shear planes represented by sinistral-NW-oriented and dextral-NE–oriented strike-slip faults that led to the dislocation and redistribution of gold mineraliztion associated with both MQV and listwanite. Barren quartz veins trending E-W were also developed along gash fractures formed during this phase of deformation.


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