Regional metamorphic controls on alteration associated with gold mineralization in the Eastern Goldfields province, Western Australia: Implications for the timing and origin of Archean lode-gold deposits

Abstract

Alteration assemblages associated with Archean epigenetic gold mineralization in the Menzies-Kambalda area of the Yilgarn craton, Western Australia, vary systematically with regional metamorphic grade, up to and including upper amphibolite facies rocks. K-metasomatism is recorded by the presence of muscovite, biotite, and K-feldspar at progressively higher metamorphic grades. High metamorphic grades are commonly developed in broad thermal aureoles around fate syntectonic granitic intrusions. Metamorphic recrystallization of alteration assemblages is common in the thermal aureoles. These relations suggest broad contemporaneity among granitoid intrusion, regional metamorphism, and mineralization during the final stages of the tectonic evolution of the granite-greenstone terrain. Late syntectonic granitoids acted as centers of heat and fluid flux in large-scale, synmetamorphic hydrothermal systems that deposited gold, possibly from modified mantle-derived fluids.