Gold-bearing sulfide and gossan mineralisation systems of the Myriophyto Region, northern Macedonia, Greece

Abstract

Circum Rhodope Belt marbles, thrusted over the Vertiskos mica gneiss basement and the Mesozoic Myriophyto granite, develop complex shear and fault structures, incorporating fragmented sequences of metamorphosed mafic and ultramafic rocks. The strongly sheared marble-gneiss contact zones and the post-shear subvertical faults and related breccia zones host gold-bearing sulfide and gossan mineralisations and accompanied silicification, dolomitization and ankeritization. Gold forms numerous Ag and Bi-bearing grains in arsenopyrite-pyrrhotite-pyrite-chalcopyrite assemblages and finely dispersed microscopic grains in limonite gossans. The restricted areal and volumetrical development of carbonate rock sequences is unabre to host economic deposits, though the later supergene system shows a potential Au-enrichment development.