Woodcutters goldfield: Gold in an Archaean granite,Kalgoorlie, Western Australia |
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| Authors: | T Zhou G N Phillips S Denn S Burke |
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| Institution: | 1. Sino-QZ Group , PO Box 2424, Mt Waverley, Vic., 3149, Australia;2. CSIRO Exploration and Mining , c/- PO Box 3, Central Park, Vic., 3145, Australia;3. c/- Axis Consulting Pty Ltd , 580 St Kilda Road, South Melbourne, Vic., 3004, Australia |
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| Abstract: | The 43 t (1.4 Moz) of gold in the Woodcutters goldfield 50 km north of Kalgoorlie has wide geological significance in terms of gold in Archaean granite, as well as its local commercial and exploration significance. Woodcutters is already one of the largest Archaean gold systems in granite, and is unusual in being so far laterally from the nearest greenstone belt. Gold in the Federal zone, one of the deposits making up the Woodcutters goldfield, is hosted in hornblende‐biotite granodiorite,6 km from the mapped contact with greenstone. In Federal open pit, the granodiorite is coarse‐grained in the northern half, and a fine‐grained granodiorite in the south, with both hosting gold. These two types of granodiorite are rather similar in both mineralogy and geochemistry. There is also a subordinate fine‐grained monzodiorite. The Federal gold mineralisation is in a northwest‐striking, northeast‐dipping (315° strike/60°E dip) shear zone in the Scotia granite. Variation in grainsize of the host rocks might have affected the style of deformation with more brittle fabrics in the coarse‐grained phase and more ductile fabrics prominent in the fine‐grained granodiorite. Hydrothermal alteration is extensively developed around the Federal deposit and is a useful vector towards gold mineralisation. Distal epidote alteration surrounds a proximal muscovite‐biotite alteration zone that contains quartz‐sulfide veins. The alteration shares some of the common alteration characteristics of Archaean greenstone‐hosted gold, but differs in that carbonate‐chlorite alteration is only weakly developed. This difference is readily explained in terms of host‐rock composition and lower concentrations of Fe, Mg and Ca in the granite compared with greenstone. Fluid‐inclusion studies demonstrate that the fluids associated with the hydrothermal alteration at Woodcutters shared the common characteristics of fluids in Archaean greenstone gold, namely low‐salinity and dominant H2O–CO2. Fluid inclusions with moderate salinity were found in one fresh sample away from mineralisation, and are inferred to represent possible magmatic fluid. There is no evidence of a granite‐derived fluid being responsible for gold mineralisation. The granodiorite host rock had cooled, crystallised and had at least started to undergo deformation prior to gold introduction. The distribution of gold mineralisation in the Woodcutters goldfield has the style, shape and orientation comparable with greenstone‐hosted gold deposits in the same region. The northwest trend, the quartz veining and simple pyrite mineralogy are all features common to other greenstone‐hosted gold deposits near Kalgoorlie such as Mt Pleasant. The alteration fluid appears to have penetrated the granite on the scale of many hundreds of metres, causing large‐scale alteration. Woodcutters gold mineralisation resulted from the same metamorphic fluid processes that led to formation of greenstone gold deposits. In this metamorphic model, granitic rocks are predicted to be less‐favourable gold hosts than mafic rocks for two reasons. Granitic rocks do not generally fracture during regional deformation in such a way as to create large‐scale dilation. Furthermore, with less iron and no carbon, granitic rocks have lower potential to precipitate gold from solution by wall‐rock reaction. The metamorphic model predicts that those granite types with higher Fe should host better gold deposits, all other factors being equal. Accordingly, tonalite‐trondhjemite and hornblende‐bearing granodiorite should provide better environments for major gold deposits compared with monzogranite, and granite sensu stricto, as borne out by Woodcutters, but mafic rocks should be better hosts than any of these felsic to intermediate rocks. |
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| Keywords: | alteration Archaean epidote gold granite Kalgoorlie mineralisation Woodcutters Yilgarn Craton |
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