Abstract
Major gold provinces in central Victoria, Australia, are separated by the Heathcote Fault Zone into two zones: the Bendigo-Ballarat Zone (BBZ) and the Melbourne Zone (MZ). The gold-quartz vein deposits are hosted predominantly by reverse fault systems in the Ordovician to Early Devonian turbidites, which have undergone low-grade regional metamorphism as well as deformation. Mineralization in the two zones is distinct, predominantly Au-As in the BBZ and Au-Sb-As in the MZ. In the BBZ, quartz veins are large (up to 5 m wide) and are hosted by Ordovician metasediments. Large deposits are confined to the reverse faults or fold crests in the N-S-elongated narrow domal structures. The sequence of vein genesis is: early narrow, auriferous, laminated veins; massive barren veins; one or more periods of narrow, auriferous, brecciated veins; and late carbonate-quartz veins. Arsenopyrite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, and gold (fineness = 960) are found in the laminated veins, whereas a similar assemblage plus galena and sph...
Published Version
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