The Pogromnoe deposit as an unconventional commercial type of gold mineralization in Transbaikalia

Abstract

We studied the mineralogic and geochemical features of metasomatic rocks and ores from the Pogromnoe gold deposit, which is unconventional for Transbaikalia. The deposit, which formed in the Early Cretaceous, at the rifting stage of the regional evolution, is localized in the dynamoclastic strata of the Mongol-Okhotsk suture, along which the Siberian continent joined the Mongolia-China continent in the Early-Middle Jurassic. Gold mineralization occurs as two morphologic types of ores: stockwork quartz-carbonate-arsenopyrite-pyrite ores in altered volcanics (orebody no. 1) and veinlet-vein quartz ones (with disseminated sulfides) in altered carbonaceous shales (orebody no. 10). The host rocks of the deposit are the highly altered volcanosedimentary rocks of the Butorovskii Formation (Shadoron Group, J2–3), which transformed into metasomatic (by composition) and dynamoclastic (by texture and structure) rocks. It has been found that the formation of the metasomatic rocks and mineralization proceeded in several stages. Propylites formed at the preore stage (J3); tectonic schists and albitophyres, at the late preore stage; and sericitolites and albite-carbonate-sericite-quartz metasomatic rocks (quartzites), at the synore stage. The 40Ar/39Ar age of the stockwork system of ore-bearing fractures and metasomatic rocks which formed at the late preore stage is estimated as 139.5 ± 1.8 Ma. The gold-bearing rocks at the deposit are the late preore and synore metasomatic rocks formed after volcanics with sulfide mineralization (gold concentrators are pyrite II and III and arsenopyrite I and II) and after altered carbonaceous shales (gold concentrators are vein quartz and arsenopyrite II). Gold grade is completely consistent with silicification, saturation with quartz-sulfide and sulfide microveinlets, and fine sulfide dissemination. By genesis, the Pogromnoe deposit belongs to objects which formed in shear zones with the contribution of gold-bearing mantle fluids. The authors presume that the sources of mineralization are the ore-producing granitoids of the Amudzhikan-Sretensk intrusive assemblage within the Aprelkovo ore-magmatic system (OMS) (Os’kina and Urguchan plutons). This is confirmed by Pb isotope compositions (207Pb/204Pb and 206Pb/204Pb) for the pyrite and arsenopyrite of the Pogromnoe gold-bearing ores, which testify to the widespread occurrence of “mantle” Pb isotope signatures. The 40Ar/39Ar age of the ore-producing granitoids of the Aprelkovo OMS is 131.0 ± 1.2 Ma. Gold in the orebodies occurs in native form and is fine and very fine. By gold grade, the Pogromnoe deposit deserves very close attention as a new commercial type of gold mineralization in Transbaikalia.