Gold deposition caused by carbonation of biotite during late-stage fluid flow

Abstract

Alteration reactions associated with gold mineralisation can be used to elucidate the nature of the fluid that transported gold into a deposit. At the Junction gold deposit, Kambalda, Western Australia, gold is hosted in a metamorphosed and hydrothermally altered dolerite. Mineralisation at the deposit scale is associated with zones of K, CO2 and S metasomatism, as is common in many greenstone hosted gold deposits. However, at the thin-section scale gold is not closely associated with sulphide minerals but within zones of carbonate metasomatism and K-loss where pre-existing biotite has reacted to produce chlorite, muscovite and Fe–Mg carbonates. Gold precipitation is intimately associated with biotite breakdown where calcite is locally absent. Quantified mineral modes from detailed microstructural mapping are used to balance reactions describing the breakdown of biotite in the presence and absence of calcite. Using the basic assumption that Al is immobile during metasomatism the reactions are successfully balanced, even in a manifestly open system. Modelling of fluid–rock reactions using HCh constrains the fluid composition (0.11<X(CO2)<0.13) and fluid–rock ratios (<12:1) that can produce the observed mineral assemblage. Additional modelling of solid solution mineral phases using thermocalc estimates alteration conditions of 390°C, 4kbar and also suggests a fluid X(CO2)~0.1. Both these models show that the observed muscovite and chlorite compositions can be produced primarily through the removal of K from the measured precursor biotite. We show that it is not possible to transport and deposit all the gold observed in the alteration zone with the low fluid–rock ratios obtained from modelling of silicate alteration and inferred gold concentrations in these fluids. We suggest that this is typical of greenstone hosted gold deposits and that mechanisms other than aqueous solution, which can transport higher gold concentrations, must be considered.