Transport-related mylonitic ductile deformation and shape change of alluvial gold, southern New Zealand

Abstract

Gold is a malleable metal, and detrital gold particles deform via internal distortion. The shapes of gold particles are commonly used to estimate transport distances from sources, but the mechanisms of internal gold deformation leading to shape changes are poorly understood because of subsequent recrystallisation of the gold in situ in placer deposits, which creates a rim zone around the particles, with undeformed >10μm grains. This paper describes samples from southern New Zealand in which grain size reduction (to submicrometer scale) and mylonitic textures have resulted from internal ductile deformation. These textures have been preserved without subsequent recrystallisation after deposition in late Pleistocene-Holocene alluvial fan placers. These mylonitic textures were imposed by transport-related deformation on recrystallised rims that were derived from previous stages of fluvial transportation and deposition. This latest stage of fluvial transport and deformation has produced numerous elongated gold smears that are typically 100μm long and 10–20μm wide. These smears are the principal agents for transport-induced changes in particle shape in the studied placers. Focused ion beam (FIB) sectioning through these deformed zones combined with scanning electron microscopic (SEM) imaging show that the interior of the gold particles has undergone grain size reduction (to ~500nm) and extensive folding with development of a ductile deformation fabric that resembles textures typical of mylonites in silicate rocks. Relict pods of the pre-existing recrystallised rim zone are floating in this ductile deformation zone and these pods are irregular in shape and discontinuous in three dimensions. Micrometer scale biologically-mediated deposition from groundwater of overgrowth gold on particle surfaces occurs at all stages of placer formation, and some of this overgrowth gold has been incorporated into deformation zones. These examples provide a rare view into the nature of the physical processes that accommodate gold particle shape change during sedimentary transport.