Abstract

The Mazowe group of mines (principal mines Mazowe, Bernheim and Stori's Golden Shaft) is situated within the Harare-Bindura-Shamva greenstone belt of the Zimbabwean Archaean craton, west of the Chinamora batholith. Gold mineralization in the form of quartz (±sulfide) reefs is structurally controlled in reverse shear zones that dip moderately north at Mazowe mine, and conjugate steep strike-slip shear zones striking WNW (dextral) and NE (sinistral) at Bernheim and Stori's Golden Shaft mines. The syn-mineralization deformation (D2/3) in all the mines has a northerly shortening direction. This deformation is compatible with the regional late Archaean D2/3 event, which agrees with late Archaean ages determined for the host rocks and for the mineralization. The mineralization cannot be related to any major regional scale shear zones, and it is incompatible with strains related to the intrusion of either the Chinamora batholith or internal granitoid suites. These observations show that significant gold deposits can form in relatively minor deformation events, unrelated to either major shear zones or granitoid intrusions.

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