Strike-slip fault reactivation as a control on epithermal vein-style gold mineralization

Abstract

Epithermal precious metal mineralization develops within contemporaneously active tectonic and volcanic terranes in which co-active faults focus fluids from deep high-temperature reservoirs and magmas into shallower environments. Recognition of such structural controls through analysis of the architecture of prospective volcanic belts and basins is therefore important in the exploration for epithermal gold deposits. Field and high-resolution aeromagnetic data suggest that gold mineralization at Bimurra and Wirralie in the late Paleozoic Drummond Basin (northeast Queensland, Australia) is primarily controlled by reactivation of a northeast-striking strike-slip fault array that may have developed as a transfer fault in the early history of the basin. Gold mineralization is hosted by volcaniclastic and sedimentary rocks whose distribution was also controlled by this reactivated structure.