Hydrothermal alteration in metasedimentary rock-hosted orogenic gold deposits, Reefton goldfield, South Island, New Zealand

Abstract

Orogenic or mesothermal quartz lodes in lower Palaeozoic Greenland Group metasedimentary rocks of the Reefton area have produced 67 tonnes (t) of gold prior to 1951, and recent exploration has identified new gold resources in several deposits, including the largest past producers, Blackwater and Globe-Progress. The metasedimentary rocks consist of alternating sandstone and mudstone beds that were metamorphosed to lower greenschist facies prior to being hydrothermally altered adjacent to the quartz lodes. The sandstones are feldspathic litharenites averaging Q65–F10–R25, with detrital grains of quartz, rock fragments, muscovite, and plagioclase and biotite that were altered to albite and chlorite, respectively, during metamorphism. Accessory minerals are graphite, apatite, zircon, tourmaline and titanite. Hydrothermal alteration of the sandstones has developed a mineral assemblage of K-mica, carbonate (dolomite, ankerite, ferroan magnesite and magnesian siderite), chlorite, pyrite and arsenopyrite. The abundance of hydrothermal chlorite is greater at Blackwater than at the other prospects studied. Hydrothermal alteration associated with the quartz lodes is marked by bleaching, magnesian siderite spots, disseminated arsenopyrite and pyrite and thin carbonate, quartz and sulphide veins. These trends are accompanied by increasing concentrations of S, As and Sb and decreasing Na, and a decrease of Fe and Mg in K-mica. The alkali alteration indices 3K/Al (representing K-mica) and Na/Al (representing albite) generally show antipathetic trends, with 3K/Al increasing near the lodes and Na/Al decreasing. These trends reflect the replacement of albite by K-mica. Carbonate alteration indices CO2/(Ca + Mg +Fe) and CO2/[Ca + Mg + Fe –0.5(S + As)] quantify the abundance of hydrothermal carbonates, but they show variable correlation with the lodes. They increase the width of the alteration halo in the hanging wall of the lodes at the Globe-Progress and General Gordon prospects, but the peak values are as far as 150 m from the lodes. By contrast, peak values of the carbonate alteration indices are within 10 and 2 m of the lodes, respectively, at the Merrijigs and Blackwater deposits. Data show that for deposits with wide hydrothermal alteration halos, such as at the Globe-Progress and General Gordon prospects, the use of a suite of geochemical indicators can assist exploration by indicating trends in hydrothermal alteration that provide vectors to mineralisation. They also increase the size of the exploration target. By contrast, the alteration halo of the Blackwater deposit is restricted to within less than 5 m of the quartz lode and, therefore, the geochemical indicators are of more limited assistance to exploration.