Large and super-large orogenic golden deposits: Geodynamics, structure, genetic consequences

Research subject. Large and super-large orogenic gold deposits are widely distributed across all continents. This work was aimed at characterizing 24 giant facilities with reserves and resources of more than 500 tons of metal.

Materials and methods. The work was based on the authors’ long-term fieldwork research into large and super-large gold deposits in Central Asia and the North-East of the Russian Arctic. In addition, an extensive bibliographic analysis of publications devoted to the largest gold deposits in the world was carried out.

Results. A structural analysis showed that the formation of these deposits underwent two main stages. The early – subduction stage – was characterized by the development of gentle disturbances, such as thrusts, thrust nappies, viscous discontinuities and crushing zones, while the structural paragenesis included isocline lying folds and cleavage of the axial surface. The second stage – collision-transpression – began with the deformation of the previously formed structure into open and compressed folds with steep axial surfaces; as a result of further compression, a series of longitudinal discontinuous disturbances developed. An oblique collision of interacting plates lead to the development of shear transpression structural paragenesis, in which oblique cracks predominate. It is established that, in orogenic gold deposits, different stages were characterized by ore-controlling and ore-bearing structures. The binding of ore-bearing disturbances to different stages enabled isolation of deposits of various types that differ in structural and morphological features. The main characteristics of the identified types of deposits are provided. The formation of these deposits occurred during convergent processes, with the ore-controlling structures being a surface manifestation of the movement of block terrains along the surface of the detachment.

Results. It is concluded that the surface of the detachment is not only a tectonic zone, but also a channel that provides a link between various deep levels of the subduction zone, from where ore-bearing hydrothermal fluids emerge.

1. Abramovich G.Yа. (2009) Ponyatiya i terminy geotektoniki i global’noi metallogenii: slovar’-spravochnik [Concepts and terms of geotectonics and global metallogeny: a dictionary]. Irkutsk, Publishing house Irkutsk. St. Univ., 161 p. (In Russian)

2. Bernasconi A. (1999) The Geology of Las Cristinas Gold Deposit – Km 88, Venezuela. Global Tectonics and Metallogeny, 7(2), 91-94.

3. Bierlein F.P., Groves D.I., Goldfarb R.J., Dubé B. (2006) Lithospheric controls on the formation of provinces hosting giant orogenic gold deposits. Mineral. Depos., (40), 874-886.

4. Blenkinsop T.G., Mumm A.S., Kumi R., Sangmor S. (1994) Structural geology of the Ashanti gold mine, Obuasi, Chana. Metallogenesis of selected gold deposits in Africa. Geol. Jajrb. D., (100), 679 p.

5. Buryak V.A. (1975) Metamorfogenno-gidrotermal’nyi tip promyshlennogo zolotogo orudeneniya [Metamorphichydrothermal type of industrial gold mineralization]. Novosibirsk, Nauka Publ., 144 p. (In Russian)

6. Caddey S.W., Bachman R.L., Campbell T.J., Reid R.R., Otto R.P. (1991) The Homestake gold mine, an early Proterozoic iron-formation-hosted gold deposit, Lawrence County, South Dakota. U.S. Geol. Surv. Bull., 1857-J., 76 р.

7. Dube B., Gosselin P. (2007) Greenstone-hosted quartz-carbonate vein deposits (Ed. W.D. Goodfellow). Mineral Deposits of Canada: A Synthesis of Major DepositTypes, District Metallogeny, the Evolution of Geological Provinces, and Exploration Methods: Geological Association of Canada, Mineral eposits Division, Special Publication, (5), 49-73.

8. Ez V.V. (1978) Strukturnaya geologiya metamorficheskikh kompleksov [Structural geology of metamorphic complexes]. Moscow, Nedra Publ., 191 p. (In Russian)

9. Fougerouse D., Micklethwaite S., Ulrich S., Miller J., Godel B., Adams D.T., McCuaig T.C. (2017) Evidence for Two Stages of Mineralization in West Africa’s Largest Gold Deposit: Obuasi, Ghana. Econ. Geol., (112), 3-22.

10. Gamyanin G.N., Bortnikov N.S., Alpatov V.V. (2001) Nezhdaninskoe zolotorudnoe mestorozhdenie – unikal’noe mestorozhdenie Severo-Vostoka Rossii [Nezhdaninskoye gold deposit is a unique deposit in the North-East of Russia]. Moscow, GEOS Publ., 230 p. (In Russian)

11. Genkin A.D., Lopatin V.A., Savel’ev R.A., Safonov Yu.G., Sergeev N.B., Kerzin A.L., Tsepin A.I., Amshutts KH., Afanas’eva Z.B., Vagner F., Ivanova G.F. (1994) Gold ores of the Olympiada deposit (Yenisei Ridge, Siberia). Geol. Rudn. Mestorozhdenii, 36(2), 111-136. (In Russian)

12. Goldfarb R.J., Ayuso R., Miller M.L., Ebert S.W., Marsh E.E., Petsel S.A., Miller L.D., Bradley D., Johnson C., McClelland W. (2004) The Late Cretaceous Donlin Creek Gold Deposit, Southwestern Alaska: Controls on Epizonal Ore Formation. Econ. Geol., 99(4), 643-671.

13. Goldfarb R.J., Santosh M. (2014) The dilemma of the Jiaodong gold deposits: are they unique? Geosci. Front., (5), 139-153.

14. Goldfarb R.J., Taylor R.D., Collins G.S., Goryachev N.A., Orlandini O.F. (2014) Phanerozoic continental growth and gold metallogeny of Asia. Gondw. Res., (25), 48102.

15. Goncharov V.I., Voroshin S.V., Sidorov V.A. (2002) Natalkinskoe mestorozhdenie – zolotorudnyi gigant Rossii [Natalka deposit – Russia’s gold giant]. Magadan, SVKNII DVO RAN Publ., 250 p. (In Russian)

16. Goryachev N.A. (1998) Geologiya mezozoiskikh zoloto-kvartsevykh zhil’nykh poyasov Severo-Vostoka Azii [Geo logy of Mesozoic gold-quartz vein zones of NorthEast Asia]. Magadan, SVKNII DVO RAN, 210 p. (In Russian)

17. Goryachev N.A. (2014) Noble metal ore genesis and mantlecrust interaction. Geol. Geofiz., 55(2), 323-332. (In Russian)

18. Gosudarstvennyi doklad. O sostoyanii i ispol’zovanii mineral’no-syr’evykh resursov Rossiiskoi Federatsii v 2016 i 2017 godakh. (Gl. redaktor Ye.A. Kiselev) [State report. On the status and use of mineral resources of the Russian Federation in 2016 and 2017. (Ch. editor E.A. Kiselev)]. (2018) Moscow, FBGU VIMS Publ., 372 p.

19. Groves D.I., Goldfarb R.J., Gebre-Mariam M., Hagemann S.G., Robert F. (1998) Orogenic gold deposits – a proposed classification in the context of their crustal distribution and relationship to other gold deposit types. Ore Geol. Rev., (13), 7-27.

20. Groves D.I., Goldfarb R.J., Santosh M. (2016) The conjunction of factors that lead to formation of giant gold provinces and deposits in non-arc settings. Geosci. Front., (7), 303-314.

21. Groves D.I., Santosh M. (2016) The giant Jiaodong gold province: The key to a unified model for orogenic gold deposits? Geosci. Front., (7), 409-417.

22. Harbidge P. (2013) The Giant Kibali gold deposit. Randgold Resources. New Gengold Conf. Pan Pacifik Perth., 57-68.

23. Ivanov A.I. (2014) Zoloto Baikalo-Patoma (geologiya, orudenenie, perspektivy) [Baikal-Patom gold (geology, mineralization, prospects)]. Moscow, FGUP TSNIGRI Publ., 215 p. (In Russian)

24. Karpenko I.A., Migachev I.F., Mikhailov B.K., Petrash N.G. (2006) [Modern geological and economic assessment of the Sukhoi Log deposit]. Rudy i metally, (2), 22-27. (In Russian)

25. Kenyon M. (1998) Review of the Bulyanhulu gold deposit, Tanzania. Pathways’98, 41-43.

26. Khain V.E., Lomize M.G. (2005) Geotektonika s osnovami geodinamiki [Geotectonics with the basics of Geodynamics]. Moscow, KDU Publ., 560 p. (In Russian)

27. Konovalov I.V. (1985) Formatsionnye usloviya zolotoi metamorfogenno-gidrotermal’noi mineralizatsii [Formational conditions of gold metamorphic-hydrothermal mineralization]. Novosibirsk, Nauka Publ., 97 p. (In Russian)

28. Konstantinov M.M., Nekrasov Ye.M., Sidorov A.A., Struzhkov S.F. (2000) Zolotorudnye giganty Rossii i mira [Gold giants of Russia and the world]. Moscow, Nauch. Mir Publ., 272 p. (In Russian)

29. Korol’kov A.T. (2007) Geodinamika zolotorudnykh raionov yuga Vostochnoi Sibiri [Geodynamics of gold ore regions of the south of Eastern Siberia]. Irkutsk, Publi shing house Irkutsk St. Univ., 251 p. (In Russian)

30. Kozhevnikov V.N. (2000) Arkheiskie zelenokamennye poyasa Karel’skogo kratona kak akkretsionnye orogeny [Archean greenstone belts of the Karelian craton as accretionary orogens]. Petrozavodsk, Kar NTs RAN, 223 p. (In Russian)

31. Krogstad E.J., Balakrishnan S., Mukhopadhyay D.K., Rajamani V., Hanson G.N. (1989) Plate Tectonics. 2.5 billion years ago: Evidence at Kolar, South India. A report. science, (243), 1337-1340.

32. Laznicka P. (2006) Giant Metallic Deposit. Springer, 746 p. Li L.V. (2003) Olimpiadinskoe mestorozhdenie vkraplennykh zoloto-sul’fidnykh rud (Etalonnye modeli rudnykh mestorozhdenii Sibiri) [Olimpiada deposit of disseminated gold-sulfide ores (Reference models of Siberian ore deposits)]. Krasnoyarsk, KNIIGIMS Publ., 120 p. (In Russian)

33. Mestorozhdenie Natalkinskoe. Krupnye i superkrupnye mestorozhdeniya rudnykh poleznykh iskopaemykh. T. 3. Strategicheskie vidy rudnogo syr’ya Vostoka Rossii. Kn. 1 [Natalka deposit. Large and super-large deposits of ore minerals. V. 3. Strategic types of ore raw materials of the East of Russia. Book 1]. (2006) Moscow, IGEM RAN, 427 p. (In Russian)

34. Morelli R.M., Bell C.C., Creaser R.A., Simonetti A. (2010) Constraints on the genesis of gold mineralization at the Homestake Gold Deposit, Black Hills, South Dakota from rhenium–osmium sulfide geochronology. Mineral. Depos., (45), 461-480.

35. Morozov Yu.A. (2002) Structural role of transpression and transtensia. Geotektonika, (6). 3-24. (In Russian)

36. Mukhin P.A., Karimov Kh.K., Savchuk Yu.S. (1991) Paleozoiskaya geodinamika Kyzylkumov [Paleozoic geodynamics of Kyzylkum]. Tashkent, Fan Publ., 148 p. (In Russian)

37. Mukhin P.A., Savchuk Yu.S., Kolesnikov A.V. (1988) The position of the Muruntau lens in the structure of metamorphic strata of South Tamdytau (Central Kyzylkum). Geotektonika, (2), 64-72. (In Russian)

38. Nekrasov Е.M., Dorozhkina L.A. (2015) Peculiarities of location and geological position of the largest gold ore deposits in the world. Izv. Vyssh. Uchebn. Zaved. Geologiya i razvedka, (5), 32-39. (In Russian)

39. Nikonorov V.V. (1993) A new type of gold mineralization in Kyrgyzstan. Geol. Rudn. Mestorozhdenii, 35(5), 450454. (In Russian)

40. Noble J.A. (1950) Ore mineralization in the Homestake gold mine, Lead, South Dacota. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull., 61(3), 221-252.

41. Novozhilov Yu.I., Gavrilov A.M., Yablokova S.V., Aref’eva V.I. (2014) Olympiadninskoe unique industrial goldsulfide deposit in the Upper Proterozoic terrigenous deposits. Rudy i metally, (3), 47-64. (In Russian)

42. Novozhilov Yu.I., Storozhenko A.A., Gavrilov A.M., Yablokova S. V., VarguninN.P., Sherman M.L., Lopatin V.A., Aref’eva V.I. (1986) Olimpiada deposit. Zolotorudnye mesnorozhdeniya SSSR. T. 3 [Gold deposits of the USSR. V. 3]. Moscow, TSNIGRI Publ., 126-146. (In Russian)

43. Parfenov L.M. (2001) Tectonic evolution Earth crust of Yakutiya in the context of geodynam of north of Pacific Ocean framing and metallogenic belts. Tektonika, geodinamika i metallogeniya territorii Respubliki Sakha (Yakutiya) [Tectonics, geodynamics and metallogeny of the territory of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)]. Moscow, MAIK Nauka Interperiodika Publ., 499-512.

44. Parfenov L.M., Oksman V.S., Prokop’ev A.V., Timofeev V.F., Tret’yakov F.F., Trunilina V.A., Deikunenko A.V. (2001) Collage of terranes of the Verkhoyansk-Kolyma orogenic region. Tektonika, geodinamika i metallogeniya territorii Respubliki Sakha (Yakutiya) [Tectonics, geodynamics and metallogeny of the territory of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)]. Moscow, MAIK Nauka Interperiodika Publ., 199-255. (In Russian)

45. Patalakha E.I. (1985) Tektonofatsial’nyi analiz [Tectonofacial analysis]. Moscow, Nedra Publ., 120 p. (In Russian)

46. Park Ch.F., Mak-Dormid R.A. (1966) Rudnye mestorozhdeniya [Ore deposits]. Moscow, Mir Publ., 544 p. (In Russian)

47. Phillips G.N., Groves D.I., Kerrich R. (1996) Factors in the formation of the giant Kalgoorlie gold deposit. Ore Geol. Rev., (10), 295-317.

48. Robert F., Poulsen K.H. (1997) World‐class Archaean gold deposits in Canada: An overview, Austral. J. Earth Sci., 44(3), 329-351.

49. Rusinov V.L., Rusinova O.V., Kryazhev S.G., Shchegol’kov Yu.V., Alysheva E.I., Borisovskii S.E. (2008) Nearore metasomatism of terrigenous carbonaceous rocks in the Lena gold ore district. Geol. Rudn. Mestorozhdenii, 50(1), 1-44. (In Russian)

50. Savchuk Yu.S. (1990) Subduction-hydrothermal ore formation and metallogenic zonation (on the example of Kyzylkum). Mineralogo-geokhimicheskie kriterii poiskov mestorozhdenii poleznykh iskopayemykh v rudnykh raionakh Tyan’-Shanya [Mineralogical and geochemical criteria for the search for mineral deposits in the ore regions of the Tien Shan]. Tashkent, SAIGIMS Publ., 93106. (In Russian)

51. Savchuk Yu.S., Mukhin P.A. (1993) The evolution of ore processes in the structure of the accretionary prism of the Southern Tien Shan (Kyzylkum geodynamic test site). Geotektonika, (6), 63-81. (In Russian)

52. Savchuk Yu.S., Protsenko V.F., Kolesnikov A.V. (1987) Mineral complexes in the framework of Muruntau structures. Zap. Uzb. otd. VMO, 40. Tashkent, Fan Publ., 3033. (In Russian)

53. Safonov Yu.G., Vasudev V.N., Srinivasan R., Chukhrov F.V. (1988) Zolotorudnoye pole Kolar (Indiya) [Kolar gold field (India)]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 232 p. (In Russian)

54. Shakhtyrov V.G. (1997) Tenkin deep fault: tectonic position, infrastructure, orebearing. Geologicheskoe stroenie, magmatizm i poleznye iskopayemye Severo-Vostochnoi Azii [Geological structure, magmatism and minerals of Northeast Asia]. Magadan, SVKNII DVO RAN Publ., 62-64. (In Russian)

55. Sharpe E.N., Mac’Geehan P.J. (1990) Bendigo Gold-field. Geology of the Mineral Deposits of Australia and Papua New Guinea (Ed. F.E. Hughes), (2), 1287-1296.

56. Siva Siddaiah N., Rajamani V. (1989) The Geologic Setting, Mineralogy, Geochemistry, and Genesis of Gold Deposits of the Archean Kolar Schist Belt, India. Econ. Geol., (84), 2155-2172.

57. Sokolov S.K. (1992) Riftovye i shel’fovye kompleksy proterozoiskogo Bodaibinskogo progiba i zakonomernosti razmeshcheniya zolotogo orudeneniya. Diss. … kand. geol.-min. nauk [Rift and shelf complexes of the Proterozoic Bodaibo deflection and patterns of placement of gold mineralization. Cand. geol. and min. csi. dis.]. Moscow, IMGRE Publ., 27 p. (In Russian)

58. Struzhkov S.F., Natalenko M.V., Tsimbalyuk N.V. (2009) Unique gold ore regions of Witwatersrand (South Africa) and Central Kolyma (Russia) – comparative analysis. Mineral’nye resursy Rossii. Ekonomika i upravlenie, (4), 72-81. (In Russian)

59. Vielreicher N.M., Groves D.I., McNaughton N.J. (2016) The giant Kalgoorlie Gold Field revisited. Geosci. Front., (7), 359-374.

60. Vrevskii A.B. (2011) Archean greenstone belts – geological and isotope geochemical facts and geodynamic speculations. Geologiya Karelii ot arkheya do nashikh dnei [Geology of Karelia from Archean to the present]. Petrozavodsk, Institute of Geology Publ., KarNTs RAN, 3336. (In Russian)

61. Zhuravlev V.V. (2016) The position of the fold joints in the structure of the Olympiadinskoe gold ore field and their ore-controlling importance. Razvedka i okhrana nedr, (4), 21-26. (In Russian)

62. Zolotorudnoe mestorozhdenie Muruntau [Gold ore deposit Muruntau]. (1998) Tashkent, Fan Publ., 539 p. (In Russian)

63. Zolotorudnye mestorozhdeniya Rossii [Gold ore deposits of Russia]. (2010) (Red. M.M. Konstantinov). Moscow, Akvarel’ Publ., 349 p. (In Russian)

64. Zorin Yu.A., Mazukabzov A.M., Gladkochub D.P., Donskaya T.V., Presnyakov S.L., Sergeev S.A. (2008) Silurian age of the main folded deformations of the Riphean deposits of the Baikal-Patom zone. Dokl. Akad. Nauk, 423(2), 1-6. (In Russian)