Mineral chemistry and geochemical behavior of hydrothermal alterations associated with mafic intrusive-related Au deposits at the Atud area, Central Eastern Desert, Egypt

Abstract

Vein-type gold deposits in the Atud area are related to the metagabbro–diorite complex that occurred in Gabal Atud in the Central Eastern Desert of Egypt. This gold mineralization is located within quartz veins and intense hydrothermal alteration haloes along the NW–SE brittle–ductile shear zone, as well as along the contacts between them. By using the mass balance calculations, this work is to determine the mass/volume gains and losses of the chemical components during the hydrothermal alteration processes in the studied deposits. In addition, we report new data on the mineral chemistry of the alteration minerals to define the condition of the gold deposition and the mineralizing fluid based on the convenient geothermometers. Two generations of quartz veins include the mineralized grayish-to-white old vein (trending NW–SE), and the younger, non-mineralized milky white vein (trending NE–SW). The ore minerals associated with gold are essentially arsenopyrite and pyrite, with chalcopyrite, sphalerite, enargite, and goethite forming during three phases of mineralization; first, second (main ore), and third (supergene) phases. Three main hydrothermal alteration zones of mineral assemblages were identified (zones 1–3), placed around mineralized and non-mineralized quartz veins in the underground levels. The concentrations of Au, Ag, and Cu are different from zone to zone having 25–790ppb, 0.7–69.6ppm, and 6–93.8ppm; 48.6–176.1ppb, 0.9–12.3ppm, and 39.6–118.2ppm; and 53.9–155.4ppb, 0.7–3.4ppm, and 0.2–79ppm for zones 1, 2, and 3, respectively.The mass balance calculations and isocon diagrams (calculated using the GEOISO-Windows program) revealed the gold to be highly associated with the main mineralized zone as well as sericitization/kaolinitization and muscovitization in zone 1 more than in zones 2 and 3. The sericite had a higher muscovite component in all analyzed flakes (average XMs=0.89), with 0.10%–0.55% phengite content in wall rocks and 0.13%–0.29% phengite content in mineralized quartz veins. Wall rocks had higher calcite (CaCO3) contents and lower MgCO3 and FeCO3 contents than the quartz veins. The chlorite flakes in the altered wall rocks were composed of pycnochlorite and ripidolite, with estimated formation temperatures of 289–295°C and 301–312°C, respectively. Albite has higher albite content (95.08%–99.20%) which occurs with chlorite in zone 3.