MAGMATIC AND STRUCTURAL CONTROLS ON EPITHERMAL GOLD MINERALIZATION By Richard W.

Henley Australia Research into epithermal mineralization in recent years has focused on the determination of the physical and chemical environment of precious metal deposition, using techniques such as fluid inclusion geothermometry, stable isotope analysis and the application of thermochemical theory as a method to estimate mineral stability relations. Thus the general chemical environment, involving relatively low salinity fluids at temperatures ranging up to 300 C or so, is now well understood. With time, greater confidence has arisen in the recognition of temperature ranges and other parameters of the ore environment based mainly on certain textures : thus pseudomorphs after bladed calcite may reliably indicate the transient occurrence of boiling conditions in a vein environment, and similarly the recognition of adularia (which requires a pH increase in the fluid phase due to gas loss) is also a reliable indicator of boiling. Fine laminations in vein quartz testify to rapidly changing temperature and or pressure conditions and in some cases quartz textures (e.g. chalcedonic quartz, euhedral quartz) may infer the temperatures of silica deposition. In themselves, however, such textures are not indicative of the gold potential of the environment. Much recent attention has also been given to establishing the role of magmas in the formation of epithermal deposits. Stable isotope techniques have seldom been definitive often because of uncertainties caused by multiple stages in the hydrothermal evolution of deposits, but the growing body of field evidence is unequivocal : high level magmas are the source of gold and in most cases of the sulphur required for the transport of gold. In the Taupo Volcanic Zone (New Zealand), gas-rich, gold-rich geothermal systems occur along a linement which lies a few kilometers inside the boundary fault of the graben and coincident with the line of young (<100.000 years) andesite and dacite volcanos. New chemical data from these systems has indicated that they arise by interaction of conductively heated groundwaters with low salinity, probably vapor-phase magmatic fluids evolved at depths of 5 to 8 kilometers. Using heat and mass-balance arguments, these data imply a magmatic source for gold in epithermal systems and provide a genetic link to subvolcanic porphyry-gold style systems and other intrusiverelated deposits. Other similar subvolcanic environments may evolve tin deposits, confirming the concept that the origin and cry stallization history of a given magma suite determines the character of the consequent mineralization developed during magmatic vapor-groundwater interaction. Other metals such as lead and zinc, whose crustal abundances are higher, may be derived from the host rock but are dependent on the salinity of the groundwater system for their transport and deposition elsewhere. The role of degassing magmas in supplying metals is becoming more firmly established ; Meeker (1988), for example , has shown that in December 1986 Mt. Erebus in Antarctica discharged daily about 0,1 kg Au together with 0,2 kg Cu, 200 tonnes HCl and 56 tonnes SO2 , - a rate 0f deposition equivalent to 360 tonnes gold per 10.000 years. The differences between epithermal deposit styles may relate largely to their relative depths of intrusion. Thus the alunite-kaolinite type deposits are related to the degassing of high level magmas (e.g. rhyolite domes) with later hydrothermal flow driven by the larger, deeper magma system. The adularia-sericite type systems are related to deeper magma bodies (4-8 km) degassing into an overlying groundwater system. Convecting groundwaters serve to dispersion may be so diffuse as to

prevent the formation of an ore deposit even though a billion grams of gold may be released, only to form a large, disseminated low grade deposit in the upper few hundred meters of the system, as at Kawerau, New Zealand. In lower permeability host rocks, major structures may control and channel groundwater flow and thereby focus fluids to create a site of high level deposition, as at Hishikari, Japan. Perhaps more important for exploration is the understanding of the controls on the fracture arrays within which epithermal deposits form. This has received only scant attention despite our modern ability to model the fracture response of rocks under stress. Indeed, the few data available on fracture geometry in epithermal deposits is to be found in the literature developed during the 1930s phase of gold exploration (e.g. McKinstry, 1941). Recently Sibson (1987) has focused attention on the relatively common association of epithermal deposits with dilational zones on large-scale primary or higherorder wrench structures. Examples include Waihi, New Zealand, and Camp Bird, Colorado, United States of America, Hishikari, Japan, and Golden Cross, New Zealand are also good examples in which high level, low grade mineralization gives way at depth to high grade vein sets. Sibson (1981) has also discussed the dynamics of fracturing in near-surface environments where the maximum principal stresses are not lithostatic. Under near-surface conditions a distinctive fracture array can develop which may commonly be associated with extensive hydraulic brecciation and hydrothermal eruption breccias at the surface. These eruption breccias are common feature of hot-spring type epithermal deposits (e.g. McLaughlin, California, United States of America) and of active geothermal fields (e.g. Waiotapu, New Zealand). Whilst the general characteristics of such structural settings are understood, the origins of the controlling stresses are not. These may relate to and be localized by magmatic processes, through caldera formation or doming, or to larger-scale regional tectonic events. Thus in Nevada, United States of America (e.g. the Walker Lane), Bolivia and elsewhere there are clear examples of links between the development of major crustal fractures related to plate geometries and the localization of magmatic intrusives and mineralization. Both Kelian, Indonesia and Lihir, Papua New Guinea are related to major crustal structures. Interestingly, in both these examples mineralization occurs within an extensive complex of phreatomagmatic breccia bodies and it is possible that during crystallization, reactivation of the structures which localized magmatism has been responsible for the magmatic brecciation which localized the later mineralization. For exploration the recognition of the structural environment of epithermal mineral formation may be at least as important as the determination of chemical parameters. One of the most promising techniques for recognition of structural plays at an early stage in exploration is aeromagmatic survey. High resolution, low altitude surveys, combined with modern computing techniques and image processing are able to define structural patterns in poorly exposed terrain (e.g. below lateritic or jungle convert and thereby focus follow-up geological or geochemical reconnaissance. Such surveys may also locate major lithologic associations (intrusives, etc.) and, through demagnetization anomalies, zones of alteration. The initial costs of such programs are relatively high but are rapidly offset against the comparative cost of conventional field programs which require more time and suffer from the limitations on exposure imposed by the terrain. Recent exploration has focused on the search for near-surface deposits suitable to open-pit operations, but the future must lie in the exploration for deeper vein-type high grade targets similar to Hishikari. In 1989 the Hishikari deposit produced gold at a cost of $US30 per ounce, compared to costs of $US200 to 300 per ounce in other developed epithermal deposits. In many areas underground mining may also be environmentally more acceptable than open pit operations. As with oil exploration, the exploration for such deep targets is a high risk proposition but one with commensurate high rewards.

The key to their exploration, as demonstrated at Hishikari, is a dedicated geophysical program combined with structural analysis, the very research area so badly neglected in recent years.