Abstract
Lateritic gold deposits are emerging as a substantial reservoir of precious metals. The growing demand and escalating gold price have focused on lateritic gold and other supergene deposits due to their potential for low-cost production. The occurrence of gold in economic concentrations has been described in supergene-enriched mineralization in many regions dominated by intensely weathered terrains of the humid tropics and sub-tropics, such as equatorial rainforests, savannas, and some Mediterranean regions. Lateritic gold deposits also occur in semi-arid belts with historically similar climates. These deposits form through the physical accumulation and biological and chemical redistribution of Au during the weathering of primary mineralization. This study focuses on the upper ferruginous part of a lateritic profile known as Ferruginous Gravels and Duricrust (FGD) deposits, which includes lateritic residuum and/or similar ferricrete, overlying the ferruginous saprolite or mottled zone. The FGD and saprolite are separate systems with different physical and chemical conditions for Au mobilization. Intense artisanal mining in areas considered barren by geochemical surveys reveals disparities in sampling and analytical methods, such as panning for coarse gold versus geochemical analysis of fine fractions. Coarse gold in FGD significantly contributes to total gold content. Still, small drill samples fail to represent gold distribution accurately—the friable nature of lateritic materials results in low sample recovery rates (55%-70%). This paper synthesizes information from diverse deposits in Africa, South America, and Australia, drawing on academic papers and technical reports from industry to provide a comprehensive global overview of the supergene gold metallogeny and exploration strategies leading to enhance the success of new discoveries or the re-assessment of known deposits.
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