Precambrian gold mineralization at Djamgyr in the Kyrgyz Tien Shan: Tectonic and metallogenic implications

Abstract

The Djamgyr gold deposit is located within the Neoproterozoic basement of the Middle Tien Shan terrane immediately west of the Talas-Fergana fault. The deposit comprises a system of auriferous quartz veins cross-cutting the Beshtor plagiogranite. The veins are surrounded by hydrothermal alteration aureoles and are oriented parallel to the Talas-Fergana fault. The Beshtor granite sampled in the vicinity of the deposit yielded a Neoproterozoic (Tonian) U-Pb zircon age of 815±6Ma, which is the first single grain zircon age of the Middle Tien Shan basement west of the Talas-Fergana fault. Ar-Ar dating of two muscovite fractions from the alteration aureoles of the auriferous quartz veins yielded ages of 804±3 and 805±3Ma suggesting that the mineralization in the Djamgyr deposit occurred during the Neoproterozoic ca. 10m.y. after emplacement of the Beshtor granite. The structural pattern of the auriferous quartz veins and the new geochronological data, combined with the results of previous structural studies, may tentatively constrain the age of pre-existing major fault possibly marking an inherited terrane boundary in the northern part of the present-day Talas-Fergana strike-slip fault. The discovery of Precambrian gold mineralization in the Middle Tien Shan suggests re-evaluation of the metallogenic potential of its Precambrian basement that occupies significant areas west and east of the Talas-Fergana fault.