Relative timing of deformation and two-stage gold mineralization at the Hutti Mine, Dharwar Craton, India

Abstract

Gold mineralization at Hutti is confined to a series of nine parallel, N–S to NNW–SSE trending, steeply dipping shear zones. The host rocks are amphibolites and meta-rhyolites metamorphosed at peak conditions of 660±40°C and 4±1 kbar. They are weakly foliated (S1) and contain barren quartz extension veins. The auriferous shear zones (reefs) are typically characterized by four alteration assemblages and laminated quartz veins, which, in places, occupy the entire reef width of 2–10 m, and contain the bulk of gold mineralization. A <1.5 m wide distal chlorite-sericite (+biotite, calcite, plagioclase) alteration zone can be distinguished from a 3–5 m wide proximal biotite-plagioclase (+quartz, muscovite, calcite) alteration zone. Gold is both spatially and temporally associated with disseminated arsenopyrite and pyrite mineralization. An inner chlorite-K-feldspar (+quartz, calcite, scheelite, tourmaline, sphene, epidote, sericite) alteration halo, which rims the laminated quartz veins, is characterized by a pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, ilmenite, rutile, and gold paragenesis. The distal chlorite-sericite and proximal biotite-plagioclase alteration assemblages are developed in microlithons of the S2–S3 crenulation cleavage and are replaced along S3 by the inner chlorite-K-feldspar alteration, indicating a two-stage evolution for gold mineralization. Ductile D2 shearing, alteration, and gold mineralization formed the reefs during retrograde evolution and fluid infiltration under upper greenschist to lower amphibolite facies conditions (560±60°C, 2±1 kbar). The reefs were reactivated in the D3 dextral strike-slip to oblique-slip environment by fault-valve behavior at lower greenschist facies conditions (ca. 300–350°C), which formed the auriferous laminated quartz veins. Later D4 crosscutting veins and D5 faults overprint the gold mineralization. The alteration mineralogy and the structural control of the deposit clearly points to an orogenic style of gold mineralization, which took place either during isobaric cooling or at different levels of the Archean crust. From overlaps in the tectono-metamorphic history, it is concluded that gold mineralization occurred during two tectonic events, affecting the eastern Dharwar craton in south India between ca. 2550 – 2530 Ma: (1) The assemblage of various terranes of the eastern block, and (2) a tectono-magmatic event, which caused late- to posttectonic plutonism and a thermal perturbation. It differs, however, from the pre-peak metamorphic gold mineralization at Kolar and the single-stage mineralization at Ramagiri. Notably, greenschist facies gold mineralization occurred at Hutti 35–90 million years later than in the western Dharwar craton.