Comparison with Other Archean-Hosted Gold Provinces

Abstract

The amount of research and published information on mesothermal vein-type gold deposits in general, and in Archean terranes especially, has increased dramatically in recent years. The intention of this chapter is not to review the nature of mesothermal gold deposits in general, but simply to point out some important similarities and differences between the Archean-hosted gold deposits in eastern Hebei province and the well-known Archean-hosted gold deposits of the Canadian shield, Western Australia, and Southern Africa. For information on the latter areas we depend heavily on previous reviews by Hutchinson and Vokes (1987), Groves et al. (1988), Card et al. (1989), Foster (1989), Vearncombe et al. (1989), and Groves and Foster (1991). Before discussing individual features of the Chinese deposits, it is worth stating that there are far more similarities than differences between these deposits and other Archean-hosted mesothermal gold deposits. In fact, Nesbitt (1991) and Kerrich and Wyman (1990) have stressed that mesothermal gold deposits of all ages share a great many features and should perhaps be treated as a single class of ore deposit.