Timing and duration of Archean orogenic gold deposits in the Bourlamaque pluton, Val d’Or mining camp, Abitibi, Canada

Abstract

In the Val-d’Or mining district of the Archean Superior Province, the relationship between regional metamorphism/deformation and the timing of orogenic vein-type gold mineralization is debated; some authors arguing that gold mineralization was coeval with the regional D2 deformation event and broadly synchronous with metamorphism, and others suggesting that it is 60 to 100 Ma younger than peak metamorphism. Using the 40Ar/39Ar method and the compilation of U-Pb or Pb-Pb ages of ore-related minerals, this contribution presents a geochronological study on the timing and the inferred duration of the formation of vein-type gold deposits hosted by the Bourlamaque pluton in the Val d’Or mining district. We present an extensive set (49 samples) of 40Ar/39Ar CO2 laser probe data acquired on amphibole and white mica single grains from three major gold deposits, the Lac-Herbin, Beaufor and Beacon-2 mines. In each deposit, gold mineralization is host by shear and extensional quartz veins associated to steeply south-dipping networks of ductile shear zones. Barren north-dipping faults also occur at each deposit and are attributed to post-mineralization structural event(s). Amphiboles 40Ar/39Ar analyses yield magmatic crystallization ages clustering around 2704 Ma and preserve evidences for at least two subsequent disturbances linked to probable hydrothermal circulation events at c. 2667 Ma and c. 2652 Ma. White micas 40Ar/39Ar age spectra from auriferous quartz veins and hosting mylonitic shear zones are typical of long-lasting and sequential dynamic recrystallization and suggest that Au-bearing hydrothermal circulation was establish, at least, around c. 2650 Ma, and followed by a succession of hydrothermal pulses at c. 2597, 2575, 2551, 2500 and 2452 Ma. 40Ar/39Ar ages distribution among the different deposits as well as between the auriferous quartz veins and hosting shear zones are consistent with fluids production and circulation along an active network of seismically active fault zones.