scholarly journals Genetic Environments of the Eunjeok Au–Ag Deposit in the Yeongam District: Implications for Cretaceous Epithermal Au–Ag Mineralization in South Korea

Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1088
Author(s):  
Chul-Ho Heo ◽  
Seong-Yong Kim ◽  
Il-Hwan Oh

Eunjeok Au–Ag deposits are situated in the Yeongam district, Cheollanamdo-province, South Korea. They are genetically related to the Bulgugsa magmatic event (ca. 110–60 Ma), caused by the transition in the subduction direction and style of the Izanagi Plate. Three gold- and silver-bearing hydrothermal veins filled the fractures of the Cretaceous rhyolitic tuff. The major ore minerals were arsenopyrite (31.47–32.20 at.% As), pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite (8.58–10.71 FeS mole%) and galena with minor amounts of electrum (62.77–78.15 at.% Au), native silver, and argentite. Sericitization was dominant in the alteration zone. The various textures of quartz veins (i.e., breccia, crustiform, comb, and vuggy) may indicate the formation of an epithermal environment. The auriferous fluids with the H2O–NaCl system have homogenization temperatures and salinities of 204 °C to 314 °C, less than 10 wt.% equiv. NaCl, and experienced mixing (dilution and cooling) events during mineralization. Considering the characteristics of the geologic setting, major fault system, and host rock, the Eunjeok Au–Ag deposit within the Yeongam district tends to share the general geologic characteristics of Haenam–Jindo epithermal mineralization episodes. However, the age of gold–silver mineralization (86.0 Ma) is older than that of Haenam–Jindo epithermal mineralization episodes (<70.3 Ma), implying some differences exist in the genetic sequence of extensional characteristics caused by transcurrent Gwangju–Yeongdong faults.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. Kalinin ◽  
◽  
Ye. E. Savchenko ◽  
V. Yu. Prokofiev ◽  
◽  
...  

Data on geology of the Oleninskoe deposit, and results of mineralogical and geochemical investigations of ores and altered rocks are presented. Mineralization is connected with granite porphyry sills, an end member of gabbrodiorite-diorite-granodiorite complex of minor intrusions. The main alteration processes are diopsidization and biotitization, formation of quartz-muscovite-albite, quartz-aresenopyrite-tourmaline, and quartz metasomatic rocks. More than 50 ore minerals (sulfides, sulfosalts, tellurides, and native metals) were identified in the ore, including 20 minerals of silver and gold. Mineral associations in the ore and sequence of mineral formation are defined. Five generations of gold-silver alloys are identified, its composition covers spectrum from native silver to high-grade gold. Mineralized fluids in the deposit are of high salinity (sodium and calcium chlorides), and rich in As, Sb, Pb, Cu, Zn, and Ag. The Oleninskoe deposit is classified as an epithermal metamorphosed gold deposit.The book is of interest for specialists in economic geology, mineralogy and geochemistry of ore deposits.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-12
Author(s):  
Diana Barrera ◽  
Juan Carlos Molano

At El Chucho creek, located to the west of the Valle del Cauca department in Colombia, some hydrothermal alterations affecting the Buga Batholith rocks and dykes of porphyritic quartz-dioritic and tonalitic composition were identified. These lithological units host mineral occurrences of pyrite, chalcopyrite, and molybdenite that occur disseminated in the rocks or associated with quartz veinlets. The hydrothermal alterations identified were phyllic, propylitic, and, in minor quantity, potassic. The two firsts alterations’ distribution is related to structures and pervasive, whereas the last one seems restricted to contact zones of porphyritic dykes on tonalite. Microthermometric data were acquired i) on quartz veinlets of 1 cm thick over a phyllic alteration zone, and ii) on quartz veinlet of 1 cm thick with chalcopyrite ± molybdenite and copper silicates, both veinlets cutting the phaneritic tonalite. Those data suggest that the mineralizing fluids have an aqueous-saline chemical system and were trapped under low volatile content. The microthermal data allowed authors to identify two mineralizing events. One of them of higher temperature, with homogenization temperatures between 275°C-480°C; as the second event is characterized by lower homogenization temperatures that range from 100°C to 139°C.


Author(s):  
H. BARCELONA ◽  
G. PERI ◽  
D. WINOCUR ◽  
A. FAVETTO

The present research explores the Bañitos-Gollete geothermal field located in the Frontal Andes Cordillera over the Pampean flat-slab. We carried out an audiomagnetotelluric survey in order to define the underground geoelectrical structure and to understand the link between the geothermal fluid flow path and the main geological structures. 2-D audiomagnetotelluric models suggest that the deep-rooted N-S fault system controls the geothermal flow path. We propose a conductive heat-driven system, taking into consideration the geologic setting and the supposed low geothermal gradient of this tectonic environment. The mature Na-Cl waters from Gollete and an estimated reservoir temperature of ~140ºC are consistent with this conceptual model. Further investigations are required to assess the geothermal potential of the study area, and the present work likely represents only the first but necessary step in the exploration process.


Author(s):  
Yuriy V. Erokhin ◽  
Kirill S. Ivanov ◽  
Anatoliy V. Zakharov ◽  
Vera V. Khiller

The results of studying the mineralogy of metamorphic schists from the Pre-Jurassic base of the Arctic part of the West Siberian plate are presented. The accessory and ore mineralization of schists from the Zapadno-Yarotinsky license area located in the southern part of the Yamal Peninsula is studied. The schists was uncovered by the Zapadno-Yarotinskaya No. 300 well at a depth of 2762 m. Above the section, the metamorphic rocks are overlain by a young Meso-Cenozoic cover. The schists are mainly composed of quartz, plagioclase (albite), carbonates (dolomite and siderite), mica (muscovite) and chlorite (donbassite). The discovered accessory and ore minerals in the metamorphic schists of the Zapadno-Yarotinsky area can be divided into two groups. The first group includes minerals that were formed during the metamorphism of schists, or were preserved as detrital matter. These minerals include zircon, fluorapatite, and rutile as the most stable compounds. The remaining mineralization (pyrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, cubanite, galena, cobaltite, barite, xenotime-(Y), goyazite, synchysite-(Nd), native silver and copper) is clearly secondary and was formed as a result of superimposed metasomatic processes. Judging from the described mineralogy, the schists underwent changes as a result of superimposed propyllitization. The temperature range of this process is determined by the formation of cubanite in association with chalcopyrite at a temperature of 200-210 оС.


SEG Discovery ◽  
1999 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
MOIRA SMITH ◽  
JOHN F.H. THOMPSON ◽  
JASON BRESSLER ◽  
PAUL LAYER ◽  
JAMES K. MORTENSEN ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT The Liese zone is a recently discovered high-grade gold deposit on the Pogo claims, approximately 90 miles (145 km) southeast of Fairbanks. A conservative geologic resource for the Liese zone is 9.98 million tons at an average grade of 0.52 oz/t, for a total of 5.2 million contained ounces. The region is underlain by highly deformed, amphibolite-grade paragneiss and minor orthogneiss of the Late Proterozoic(?) to middle Paleozoic Yukon-Tanana terrane, which has been intruded by Cretaceous felsic granitoid bodies thought to be related to gold mineralization in the Fairbanks area and elsewhere along the Tintina gold belt. The Liese zone is hosted primarily in gneiss, and lies approximately 1.5 km south of the southern margin of the Late Cretaceous Goodpaster batholith. Mineralization occurs in three or more tabular, gently dipping quartz bodies, designated L1 (uppermost), L2, and L3 (lowermost). The thickness of the quartz bodies ranges from 1 to 20 m, averaging approximately 7 m. The quartz contains approximately 3 percent ore minerals, including pyrite, pyrrhotite, loellingite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, bismuthinite, various Ag-Pb-Bi ± S minerals, maldonite, native bismuth, and native gold. Early biotite and later quartz-sericite-stockwork and sericite-dolomite alteration are spatially associated with the Liese zone, which shows characteristics of both vein and replacement styles of mineralization. Geochemical data indicate a strong correlation between gold and bismuth, and weaker correlations between gold, silver, and arsenic. Based on U-Pb dating of intrusive rocks, the Liese zone was formed between 107 and 94.5 m.y. ago, although 40Ar/39Ar cooling ages on alteration minerals return younger ages of 91 Ma, suggesting a protracted or multiphase thermal history. The Liese zone may represent a deep-seated manifestation of the "intrusion-related" gold deposit type.


SEG Discovery ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
Paul D. Wittwer

Abstract The gold and silver endowment of Korea has historically been well known, with records alluding to production as far back as 1122 BC. The main gold production period was from 1925 to 1943 during the Japanese occupation of Korea, with more than 1 Moz recorded in 1939. Muguk was the most productive gold mining operation, located within the central region of South Korea, with a recorded 590 koz of gold produced from 1934 to 1998 (first mined in AD 912). The majority of the historical mining operations were closed by government order in 1943 during the Second World War and never reopened. A number of small mines operated between 1971 and 1998, with limited production during a period of gold prices generally lower than at present (~25–50% of current inflation adjusted prices, apart from a four-year period 1979–83). It is likely that significant resources remain within these historical mining areas. Gold-silver deposit types historically recognized and exploited in Korea include placers and orogenic and intrusion-related vein systems. Only more recently have epithermal vein and breccia systems been recognized. This is not surprising, given that the geologic and tectonic setting of the Southern Korean peninsula is prospective for epithermal precious metal deposits, spatially associated with basin-scale brittle fault systems in Cretaceous volcanic terranes. South Korea is an underexplored jurisdiction, with limited modern exploration and drilling until the mid-1990s, when Ivanhoe Mines Ltd. discovered the Gasado, Eunsan, and Moisan epithermal gold-silver deposits, all of which became mines. Exploration was limited for another 20 years until Southern Gold Ltd., an Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)-listed company, commenced regional-scale exploration for epithermal deposits, using a strategy similar to that successfully employed by Ivanhoe.


2020 ◽  
pp. 251-274
Author(s):  
Jordan A. McDivitt ◽  
Steffen G. Hagemann ◽  
Matthew S. Baggott ◽  
Stuart Perazzo

Abstract The Kalgoorlie gold camp in the Yilgarn craton of Western Australia comprises the supergiant Golden Mile and the smaller Mt. Charlotte, Mt. Percy, and Hidden Secret deposits. Since the camp’s discovery in 1893, ~1,950 metric tons (t) of Au have been produced from a total estimated endowment of ~2,300 t. The camp is located within Neoarchean rocks of the Kalgoorlie terrane, within the Eastern Goldfields superterrane of the eastern Yilgarn craton. Gold mineralization is distributed along an 8- × 2-km, NNW-trending corridor, which corresponds to the Boulder Lefroy-Golden Mile fault system. The host stratigraphic sequence, dated at ca. 2710 to 2660 Ma, comprises lower ultramafic and mafic lava flow rocks, and upper felsic to intermediate volcaniclastic, epiclastic, and lava flow rocks intruded by highly differentiated dolerite sills such as the ca. 2685 Ma Golden Mile Dolerite. Multiple sets of NNW-trending, steeply dipping porphyry dikes intruded this sequence from ca. 2675 to 2640 Ma. From ca. 2685 to 2640 Ma, rocks of the Kalgoorlie gold camp were subjected to multiple deformation increments and metamorphism. Early D1 deformation from ca. 2685 to 2675 Ma generated the Golden Mile fault and F1 folds. Prolonged sinistral transpression from ca. 2675 to 2655 Ma produced overprinting, NNW-trending sets of D2-D3 folds and faults. The last deformation stage (D4; &lt; ca. 2650 Ma) is recorded by N- to NNE-trending, dextral faults which offset earlier structures. The main mineralization type in the Golden Mile comprises Fimiston lodes: steeply dipping, WNW- to NNW-striking, gold- and telluride-bearing carbonate-quartz veins with banded, colloform, and crustiform textures surrounded by sericite-carbonate-quartz-pyrite-telluride alteration zones. These lodes were emplaced during the earlier stages of regional sinistral transpression (D2) as Riedel shear-type structures. During a later stage of regional sinistral transpression (D3), exceptionally high grade Oroya-type mineralization developed as shallowly plunging ore shoots with “Green Leader” quartz-sericite-carbonate-pyrite-telluride alteration typified by vanadium-bearing muscovite. In the Hidden Secret orebody, ~3 km north-northwest of the Golden Mile, lode mineralization is a silver-rich variety characterized by increased abundance of hessite and petzite and decreased abundance of calaverite. At the adjacent Mt. Charlotte deposit, the gold-, silver-, and telluride-bearing lodes become subordinate to the Mt. Charlotte-type stockwork veins. The stockwork veins occur as planar, 2- to 50-cm thick, auriferous quartz-carbonate-sulfide veins that define steeply NW- to SE-dipping and shallowly N-dipping sets broadly coeval with D4 deformation. Despite extensive research, there is no consensus on critical features of ore formation in the camp. Models suggest either (1) distinct periods of mineralization over a protracted, ca. 2.68 to 2.64 Ga orogenic history; or (2) broadly synchronous formation of the different types of mineralization at ca. 2.64 Ga. The nature of fluids, metal sources, and mineralizing processes remain debated, with both metamorphic and magmatic models proposed. There is strong evidence for multiple gold mineralization events over the course of the ca. 2.68 to 2.64 orogenic window, differing in genesis and contributions from either magmatic or metamorphic ore-forming processes. However, reconciling these models with field relationships and available geochemical and geochronological constraints remains difficult and is the subject of ongoing research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-429
Author(s):  
N. Egesi ◽  
J.I. Nwosu

The study area Lokoja is the home to the confluence between Rivers Niger and Benue. Dimension stone is cut or quarried stone in accordance with specific dimensions, generally more abundant and are used in greater quantities than ore minerals in pavement and several other constructional activities. The objective of the paper is to present prospects and a lead of rocks in Lokoja area for the production of dimension stone. The rocks in the area are being quarried as aggregates or mined as dimension stone and they met quality parameters of the rocks which includes, must be durable, easy to quarry, work, cut and polish. The particular stones selected depend upon the local weathering conditions which can be determined by amounts of industrial gases present and availability of the rocks locally. The rocks identified are marbles, granite gneisses, migmatites and biotite granites. The granites are being quarried for aggregates, marbles are powdered for cement production while migmatites and granite gneisses were mined for dimension stone.The results of Rock Strength (MPA), Rock Class Factor and Swell Factor are within acceptable standard limits except for migmatites with RS 36%, RCF 7% and SF 1.25%, which is above the limit when compared with previous analysis of AAV 22.0%, ACV23.3%, AIV18%and Absorption 0.54% in Boki area. The dimension stone were separated by more precise and delicate techniques, such as diamond wire saws, diamond belt saws, in the mine the cut dimension stone width are 1m, while many are rectangular in shape. They occur in the same geologic setting of the basement complex of Northcentral Nigeria. In the area investment has been at relatively low stage more investment will significantly increase production of the dimension stone for local usage, export and economic growth. Keywords:Dimension stone, durable, available, maintenance, migmatite, Lokoja


1990 ◽  
Vol 54 (375) ◽  
pp. 289-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Giamello ◽  
F. Riccobono ◽  
G. Sabatini

AbstractThe Pb–Zn deposit at Sant'Antonio di Val d'Aspra in the Farma Valley (Southern Tuscany) is hosted by Lower Moscovian carbonate rocks and shows many characters commonly found in Mississippi Valley type (MVT) deposits. Ore minerals (essentially sphalerite and galena) are closely confined to dolomitized portions of an only partly preserved black limestone. Mineralized carbonate rocks appear to have been eroded before the deposition of the overlying Upper Moscovian (Late Podolskian) shales. The diffuse presence of structures frequently found in internal sediments of karstic cavities indicates that supergene mechanisms have played an important role in the history of the deposit. A fluid inclusion study carried out on ore and gangue minerals revealed the presence of two different types of inclusions. The homogenization temperatures ranged from 120°C to 225°C but the most frequently found values were around 170°C. Salinity ranged from moderately low values up to 20 eq. wt. % NaCl. Lead isotopic composition rules out any relationship between the Sant'Antonio mineralization and Tertiary hydrothermal base metal occurrences in the same area. When all the data are taken together, a contrast is evident between geo-petrographic and isotopic data on the one hand, and fluid-inclusion microthermometry on the other.


1992 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas G. Mueller

The Norseman mining district in the Archean Yilgarn Block, Western Australia, has produced 140 t of gold and about 90 t of silver from 11.24 × 106 t of ore. The district is located within a metamorphic terrane of mafic and minor ultramafic greenstones, intruded by granite cupolas and swarms of porphyry dykes. The orebodies consist of laminated quartz veins, controlled by narrow (0.5–5 m) reverse shear zones that, in general, follow the contacts of metapyroxenite or porphyry dykes. Petrological studies of four shear zones, exposed on the Regent shaft 14 level, Ajax shaft 10 level, and in the stope above the North Royal shaft 5 level, show that the host rocks were metamorphosed to hornblende–plagioclase amphibolites and actinolite–chlorite rocks at temperatures of 500–550 °C prior to mineralization.At the localities studied, intense wall-rock replacement and low-grade (0.5 g/t) gold mineralization are confined to ductile or brittle–ductile shear structures. Alteration is similar in both ultramafic and mafic greenstones, and consists of an inner zone of biotite–quartz–calcite–plagioclase rock with minor actinolitic hornblende and quartz–calcite–actinolite veinlets, and an outer zone, locally developed, of chlorite–calcite–quartz rock. At an estimated pressure of 3 kbar (300 MPa), fluid temperatures during wall-rock alteration are constrained by the hydrothermal mineral assemblages to 480 ± 30 °C in two shear zones on the Regent shaft 14 level, and to 450 ± 20 °C in one shear zone in the North Royal shaft 5 level stope. The mole fraction of CO2 of the fluids is estimated at [Formula: see text], and the sulphur fugacity at 10−6 bar (10−1 kPa) (at 450 °C), based on the assemblage pyrrhotite + pyrite ± arsenopyrite. The development of an outer chloritic alteration zone at North Royal is related to the lower fluid temperature at this locality.High-grade (up to 75 g/t Au, 283 g/t Ag) veins formed within three of the shear zones studied at fluid temperatures of 400 °C and less, by the successive accretion of quartz laminae, separated by films of retrograde chlorite and sericite. The assemblage of ore minerals in the veins differs from that in the altered wall rocks, and includes disseminated galena, Pb–Bi–Ag tellurides, and native gold, which coprecipitated with the quartz. The orebodies at Norseman show affinities to Phanerozoic and Archean gold skarn deposits.


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