Abstract
ABSTRACTThe Reefton Goldfield is well known for its orogenic style of Au mineralisation although the timing remains largely unconstrained. Here, a first unequivocal occurrence of igneous-related mineralisation is documented and it is suggested to place a lower age constraint on when orogenic Au mineralisation occurred. Emplacement of the 118.5 ± 1.3 Ma (U-Pb zircon) Blackwater granitoid dike into Early Paleozoic Greenland Group caused contact metamorphism up to hornblende hornfels facies temperatures (>500°C) at low pressures (<3.75 kbar). A hydrothermal convective system that developed during cooling led to propylitic and phyllic alteration associated with the precipitation in order of decreasing abundance of: pyrite, chalcopyrite, molybdenite, arsenopyrite-galena-sphalerite-millerite. Quartz veins and stockworks containing combinations of pyrite, chalcopyrite and molybdenite are common within several hundred metres of the dike. This igneous-related mineralisation overprints Greenland Group metasedimentary rocks displaying evidence for a phase of ductile deformation and associated with the occurrence of pyrite and ankerite-cored siderite porphyroclasts, chalcopyrite and cobaltite. Au-in-pyrite trace element data indicate that these pyrite porphyroclasts are more enriched in Au than the pyrite associated with dike emplacement. Quartz lodes containing Au occur within zones of ductile deformation elsewhere in the goldfield, and therefore Early Cretaceous emplacement of the Blackwater dike provides a lower age constraint for the ductile mineralisation event.
Published Version
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