Discovery and exploration of the Gosowong epithermal gold deposit, Halmahera, Indonesia

Abstract

The Gosowong epithermal gold deposit, on the island of Halmahera in eastern Indonesia, is located in an area of primary tropical rain forest with no previous history of gold mining or record of gold mineralisation. The deposit occurs in a newly recognised mineral district which contains a number of epithermal vein systems and at least two centres of low-grade porphyry style Cu–Au mineralisation. Several zones of argillic and advanced argillic alteration have been noted which may be related to additional centres of mineralisation. Gosowong is classified as a low-sulphidation epithermal quartz vein. Bonanza-grade gold–silver mineralisation is developed in shoots over a 400-m strike section of the vein system. Three types of veining are recognized; quartz–adularia veins and breccias; quartz–chlorite–illite veins and breccias; and crystalline or chalcedonic quartz vein stockworks. The area was targetted using a simple geological concept and the deposit was discovered and tested using basic exploration techniques commonly applied in the rugged tropical terrains of Indonesia. Sequential exploration methods comprised reconnaissance drainage sampling of stream sediment, BLEG and float media, ridge and spur soil sampling, prospect scale grid soil sampling, hand trenching and diamond drilling. Lapse time from identification of the initial reconnaissance anomaly to an inferred resource estimate of almost 1 million ounces of gold was less than 3.5 years. This case history illustrates that very detailed exploration is necessary to locate high-grade vein-type gold deposits in a tropical environment, but demonstrates that such resources still remain to be discovered in the relatively under-explored Neogene magmatic arcs of Indonesia.