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6th International Archean Symposium
6th International Archean Symposium

Insights into the formation of high-grade gold mineralisation at the 10 M oz. Jundee gold camp in Western Australia

Oral

Talk Description

Most if not all gold systems irrespective of their type (e.g. epithermal Au, orogenic Au, porphyry Cu-Au, Au skarn) have long been associated with a prominent structural control on their ore-forming process. In the case of orogenic gold deposits, structural complexity is regarded as the principal control on mineralisation and a significant amount of research in the last century has thus focused on better understanding such controls in order to improve our predictive capability. Although orogenic gold deposits form one unified class, individual deposits vary significantly in terms of their mineral paragenesis, deformation styles and associated gold grades. Understanding the processes that control the variation in gold grade has significant implications for predicting how and more importantly where high-grade mineralisation is formed. In this study, we focus on the 10 M oz. Jundee gold camp, located in the Yandal greenstone belt of the Kalgoorlie Terrane in the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia. The mining camp comprises the high-grade Jundee gold mine (9 M oz. at 5 g/t Au) and the refractory-style Bogada deposit (1 M oz.) hosted in Archean mafic-ultramafic sequences. The high-grade gold mineralisation style observed at Jundee along with the refractory Bogada style mineralisation provides an excellent case study to learn insights into the formation of high-grade gold mineralisation. Furthermore, determining whether the two distinct mineralisation styles reflect a single mineralisation event or a polyphased evolution is critical in understanding the development of orogenic gold systems. By combining structural geology and mineralogy, this study examines in detail the structural and alteration paragenesis at the two deposits and places relative timing constraints on events leading to the formation of gold mineralisation Detailed structural evolution of the gold camp reveals that gold mineralisation at Jundee developed over at least three distinctive events. Early low-grade mineralisation hosted in shallow-crustal veins is overprinted by dominantly brittle structures comprising high-grade free gold mineralisation. Late thrusting in the gold camp is further associated with the remobilisation of gold and the addition of a low-grade mineralisation. Contrarily, at the Bogada deposit, limited evidence exists for punctuated gold mineralisation and gold mineralisation is refractory-style hosted in ductile shear zones. Based on the detailed structural and paragenetic framework established in this study, we can conclude that the high-grade gold mineralisation at Jundee and the low-grade refractory style mineralisation at the Bogada deposit occurred as two protracted events. However, the fundamental question remains as to what processes result in the formation of the exceptionally high-grade ore shoots at the Jundee deposit and how they differ from that at Bogada.

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