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Deposits related to
clastic sedimentation -
Gold Deposits
GLY 361
Lecture 16
A change so unexpected and a development never
known before was due to the discovery in 1886 of
the greatest gold mines of all history, ancient and
modern. From 1886 [until 1940] the story of South
Africa is the story of gold.
- C.W. de Kiewiet, 1941 -
Gold production in 2011/2012
World’s biggest buyers and sellers
Gold Physical Characteristics:
- Density: 19.32 g/cm3
- Melting point: 1,064 °C
Gold Production / Reserves:
- Total amount of Gold ever produced: 160,000 Metric Tons
(est. as of 2009)
- Total volume of Gold ever produced: 8,282 Cubic Meters
(A cube 20.23 Meters in size)
- Total Gold reserves left (not mined) 83,000 Metric Tons (est.
as of 2009)
Facts about Gold (Au)
Types of Gold Deposits
Epithermal vein (lode) deposits
Intrusion-related breccia pipes,
Mesothermal turbidite- and greenstone-hosted deposits
Contact deposits (skarns)
Archean Banded Iron Formation deposits
Placer deposits
Small bits of gold are
scattered through this
piece of mesothermal
vein quartz from the
mother lode region of
California. The gold is
mostly concentrated
around the edges of dark
colored spots of iron
oxide that were likely
originally clots of pyrite.
This is very rich gold ore.
Types of Gold Deposits
Types of Gold Deposits
Types of Gold Deposits
There are several types of
placer gold:
1. Residual placers - This type of
placer occurs directly at the site of the
original gold vein. As the vein erodes
gold accumulates near the surface.
2. Eluvial placers - The material
weathered from the vein has now
been carried away from the original
site, usually by gravity as material
works its way down a hill. Also known
as ''hillside placers''.
Types of Gold Deposits
3. Alluvial placers - The most
common type of placer deposit. Gold
that has been deposited through the
action of water. Often called ''stream
placers'' but applies to any situation
where running water has deposited
the gold (or other heavy minerals).
4. Eolian placers - Winds carry away
surface sand and dust in a process
known as ''deflation''. Heavy, resistant
materials such as gold can
accumulate at the surface. This
process is most common in desert
areas, particularly in Australia.
Types of Gold Deposits
5. Beach placers - The concentration
of heavy minerals by wave action.
The most famous would be the gold
deposit on the beaches of Nome,
Alaska.
Types of Gold Deposits
Primary Gold Deposits from
the Precambrian
Primary Gold Deposits of
Mesozoic age
Primary Gold Deposits of
Cenozoic age
Areas of alluvial (placer) gold
deposits
Surficial mineral deposits formed by mechanical concentration, commonly by alluvial but also by marine, aeolian, lacustrine, or glacial agents, of heavy mineral particles such as gold from weathered debris (Hails, 1976).
Quartz pebble conglomerate:
Placer Au, U and PGE in ancient conglomerate.
The quartz-pebble conglomerate deposits supply 50% or more of the world's annual gold production.
Placer Deposits
Age Range: Major deposits are Archaean to early Proterozoic
(3.1 – 2.2 Ga).
Rock types: Oligomictic, mature conglomerate beds in thick
sequences of less mature conglomerate and sandstone deposited on Archaean basement (granites, greenstones).
Locally basal volcanic rocks.
Quartz pebble conglomerate
Au-U
Sedimentary features: Bimodal clast-size distribution with well-sorted
pebbles and well-sorted matrix.
Well-rounded, well-packed pebbles of vein-quartz, chert and pyrite.
Matrix = quartz, mica, chlorite, pyrite and fuchsite.
Granite clasts are absent.
Pyrite may occur as rounded grains and concentrically layered concretions.
Gold occurs as small angular grains (0.005 to 0.1 mm in diameter).
Quartz pebble conglomerate
Au-U
Depositional Environment: Onlapping sedimentary deposits in elongate epicontinental
basins or half-grabens.
Middle and basal reaches of alluvial fans deposited on steeper side of basins.
Braided river channels in alluvial fans.
Gold concentrated at base of mature conglomerate beds deposited on an erosion surface.
Carbonaceous layers resembling algal mats deposited at low-energy base of fan containing U and fine Au.
Reducing atmosphere believed to be necessary to preserve detrital pyrite and uraninite.
Quartz pebble conglomerate
Au-U
Tectonic Setting:
Slow subsidence of Archaean Craton.
Later moderate uplift and erosion to remove
Phanerozoic strata and retain Early
Proterozoic rocks.
Quartz pebble conglomerate
Au-U
Mineralogy:
Quartz, gold, pyrite, uraninite, zircon,
chromite, monazite, osmium-iridium alloys,
isoferro platinum.
By-product = Ag.
Middle Proterozoic and Phanerozoic
occurrences have only traces of pyrite and
no uraninite.
Quartz pebble conglomerate
Au-U
Examples:
Witwatersrand, South Africa.
Elliot Lake, Canada.
Jacobina, Brazil.
Tarkwa, Ghana.
Quartz pebble conglomerate
Au-U
Witwatersrand Supergroup
6 km thick
coarse-grained
sedimentary
sequence on the
Kaapvaal Craton.
Late Archaean:
± 2.8 – 3.1 Ga.
Witwatersrand Supergroup
Nearly 40% of all gold ever
mined originates from the Wits
gold deposits (35 million kg),
enough to make a golden
sphere 16.6 m high and worth
around $60 billion.
G. Davidson
Witwatersrand
Supergroup
Witwatersrand Supergroup
Miners in a Witwatersrand mineshaft
„Wits“ conglomerates
Handsample of „Wits“
conglomerate
Six separate major goldfield mining areas,
each involving several auriferous
conglomerate horizons:
Welkom goldfield (4 auriferous-uranite horizons)
Klerksdorp (7 horizons)
Carletonville (3 horizons)
West Rand (10 horizons)
East Rand (9 horizons)
Evander (1 horizon)
Witwatersrand Supergroup
Gold occurs in laterally extensive quartz pebble conglomerate horizons or reefs, that are generally less than 2 m thick and are widely considered to represent laterally extensive braided river deposits.
Gold generally occurs in native form often associated with pyrite and carbon, with quartz being the main gangue mineral.
Separate alluvial fan systems were developed at different entry points and these are preserved as distinct goldfields.
Witwatersrand Supergroup
G. Davidson
Witwatersrand Supergroup
Sedimentary processes: Mechanical concentration/ selective sorting
Size/ volume
Density
Characteristics of placer minerals: High density
High hardness
Chemical stability (atmospheric conditions)
density hardness
Ilmenite 4.7 6
Rutile 4.2 6
Zircon 4.7 7
Tourmaline 3.0 7
Diamond 3.5 10
Cassiterite 7 6
Magnetite 5.2 6
Gold 19.3 3
Platinum 21.5 3.5
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF SOME HEAVY
MINERALS
Witwatersrand Supergroup
Witwatersrand Supergroup
Geologic sites for gold extraction in the goldfields: In the fan head or midfan:
In the sandy or sandy-pebbly matrix at and near the bases of fluvial pebble-supported conglomerates in channel fills, where open-framework conglomerates trapped and retained sand-sized heavy minerals from the sediments flux.
Witwatersrand Supergroup
Geologic sites for gold
extraction in the
goldfields:
In the midfan:
In pyritic through cross-
bedded sands in erosion-
deposition channels with
gold, uranite, and pyrite
particles on foresets, in
bottom-set spoons and
scours, and in basal lag
sands or gravels.
Witwatersrand Supergroup
Geologic sites for gold extraction in the goldfields: In the midfan or upper
fan base: In sheets of cross-bedded
sands by winnowing of quartz grains, leaving thin layers of heavy minerals as lag deposits with or without pebbles, and thus also as the lag sands and gravels along unconformities at the bases of sedimentary units.
Witwatersrand Supergroup
Geologic sites for gold
extraction in the
goldfields:
In the fan base:
In carbonaceous layers on
unconformities, in scour
pools, and in algal mats,
which acted both as
mechanical riffle traps and
as chemical traps.
Witwatersrand Supergroup
Schematic diagram illustrating depositional
environment for the Wits Basin and the 3 main
types of conglomerates described in the gold
fields
Three types of gold placer
conglomerates Ventersdorp Contact Reef-type placers:
separates the predominantly sedimentary lithologies of the Witwatersrand from the volcanic Ventersdorp Supergroup
differing in various aspects, especially its lava hangingwall and pronounced, undulating footwall from the older Witwatersrand orebodies.
Indicate pronounced palaeorelief in high energy fluvial environment.
Vaal Reef sheet-like conglomerates: uniform distribution of Au and U grade.
Formed by reworking of previous delta sediments caused by up-slope migration of the sea level.
Leader Reef type sheet-like conglomerates: well-defined fluvial channels.
What is the source of gold?
Detrital grains (quartz, gold, uranite, pyrite, etc.) were transported into the Wiwatersrand basin from N, NW, SW.
Archean granite basement domes and greenstone belts surrounding the basin. Comparison of Pb isotopes of
sulfides with greenstone belts and
radiometric ages of radiogenic Pb in galena agrees with this theory.
What is the source of gold?