Curtin University Homepage
  • Library
  • Help
    • Admin

    espace - Curtin’s institutional repository

    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    View Item 
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item

    Geochronological and Stable Isotope Evidence for Widespread Orogenic Gold Mineralization from a Deep-Seated Fluid Source at ca 2.65 Ga in the Laverton Gold Province, Western Australia

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Salier, B.
    Groves, D.
    McNaughton, Neal
    Fletcher, Ian
    Date
    2005
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Salier, Brock and Groves, David and McNaughton, Neal and Fletcher, Ian. 2005. Geochronological and Stable Isotope Evidence for Widespread Orogenic Gold Mineralization from a Deep-Seated Fluid Source at ca 2.65 Ga in the Laverton Gold Province, Western Australia. Economic Geology. 100: pp. 1363-1388.
    Source Title
    Economic Geology
    ISSN
    03610128
    Faculty
    John De Laeter Centre For Mass Spectrometry (JdL
    Faculty of Science and Engineering
    School
    John de Laeter Centre for Mass Spectrometry (COE)
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/9621
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Many gold deposits in the Laverton greenstone belt, in the northeast of the Eastern Goldfields province of the Yilgarn craton, are located adjacent to, or hosted by, granitoids. This has led to controversy over whether the granitoids provided the auriferous fluids from which the deposits formed or were structural traps controlling the siting of the gold deposits. New regional-scale stable isotope data, combined with robust geochronologyon several deposits, resolves this controversy in the Laverton greenstone belt. The median S, C, and O isotope compositions of ore and gangue minerals from nine different gold deposits in the Laverton greenstone belt fall in a very narrow range. The only exceptions to this are the more negatived 34S values of ore sulfides at the Jupiter gold deposit, which were most likely caused by pre existing highly oxidized host rocks and the more negative d13C values of ore carbonate at deposits with reduced black shale hostrocks. Redox conditions and mineralization temperatures for all gold deposits in the Laverton greenstone belt are broadly similar. Therefore, the lack of variation in the isotopic compositions of ore and gangue minerals is consistent with their deposition from a similar ore fluid. There is no convincing evidence to indicate that more than one ore fluid was involved in deposition of gold deposits within the Laverton greenstone belt, although the data do not uniquely define the source of the ore fluid (e.g., whether it was proximal or distal). SHRIMP U-Pb dating of gold-related monazite and xenotime provides a temporal framework for gold mineralization in the Laverton greenstone belt. Synmineralization phosphates have ages of 2650 7 Ma at MountMorgans, 2649 11 Ma at Jubilee, 2657 21 Ma at Jupiter, and probably 2653 6 Ma at Granny Smith. The similarity in age of these four deposits, as well as previously published ages for the Wallaby (2650 5 Ma) and Sunrise Dam and/or Cleo deposits (2654 8 Ma), places three major constraints on the source of auriferous fluids in the Laverton greenstone belt. First, the Wallaby and, most likely, the Granny Smith gold deposits arenot the same age as adjacent granitoids, ruling out the exposed granitic rocks as a proximal magmatic fluid source. Second, the broadly synchronous timing of gold mineralization on a camp scale provides evidence that the deposits have a similar genesis. Third, the range of ages of the gold deposits is not as great as that of the granitoids postulated to be their source. Magmatic activity that has been invoked as the source of ore fluids by various workers is related to several geochemically distinctive granitoid suites that are diachronous over several tens of millions of years in the Laverton greenstone belt and the wider Eastern Goldfields province. In contrast, the consistent age of gold mineralization in the Laverton greenstone belt supports a single fluid source, as implied by the isotope geochemistry. It is concluded that all studied deposits are orogenic gold deposits with a distal and deep source.

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • An atmospheric source of S in Mesoarchaean structurally-controlled gold mineralisation of the Barberton Greenstone Belt
      Agangi, Andrea; Hofmann, A.; Eickmann, B.; Marin-Carbonne, J.; Reddy, Steven (2016)
      The Barberton Greenstone Belt of southern Africa hosts several Mesoarchaean gold deposits. The ores were mostly formed in greenschist facies conditions, and occur as hydrothermal alteration zones around extensional faults ...
    • Metallogenesis of the Paleoproterozoic Piaba orogenic gold deposit, São Luís cratonic fragment, Brazil
      Klein, E.L.; Lucas, F.R.; Queiroz, J.D.; Freitas, S.C.; Renac, C.; Galarza, M.A.; Jourdan, Fred; Armstrong, R. (2014)
      Piaba is an orogenic gold deposit (~ 3.5 Moz) of the São Luís cratonic fragment in north-northeastern Brazil. The deposit is epizonal–mesozonal and associated with the development of a subvertical strike–slip fault that ...
    • A new tectonic and temporal framework for the Tanzanian Shield: Implications for gold metallogeny and undiscovered endowment
      Kabete, J.; Groves, D.; McNaughton, Neal; Mruma, A. (2012)
      The lack of new gold discoveries in recent times has prompted suggestions that Tanzania is mature or approaching maturity, in terms of gold exploration. New tectonic–metallogenic subdivisions proposed in this study are ...
    Advanced search

    Browse

    Communities & CollectionsIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument TypeThis CollectionIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument Type

    My Account

    Admin

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    Follow Curtin

    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 

    CRICOS Provider Code: 00301JABN: 99 143 842 569TEQSA: PRV12158

    Copyright | Disclaimer | Privacy statement | Accessibility

    Curtin would like to pay respect to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of our community by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which the Perth campus is located, the Whadjuk people of the Nyungar Nation; and on our Kalgoorlie campus, the Wongutha people of the North-Eastern Goldfields.