Structural setting of Fimiston- and Oroya-style pyrite-telluride-gold lodes, Paringa South mine, Golden Mile, Kalgoorlie: 1. Shear zone systems, porphyry dykes and deposit-scale alteration zones

• Published in: Mineralium deposita 2020-04, Vol.55 (4), p.665-695
• Main Author: Mueller, Andreas G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anticlines; Basalt; Calcite; Chlorite; Cratons; Diorite; Displacement; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Faults; Fluid infiltration; Geological faults; Geology; Gold; Infiltration; Intermetallic compounds; Lateral displacement; Magma; Mica; Mineral Resources; Mineralization; Mineralogy; Muscovite; Pitching; Pyrite; Shear zone; Slip; Strike-slip faults; Tellurides
• ISSN: 0026-4598; 1432-1866
• DOI: 10.1007/s00126-017-0747-3

The Golden Mile in the 2.7 Ga Eastern Goldfields Province of the Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia, has produced 385 million tonnes of ore at a head grade of 5.23 g/t gold (1893–2016). Gold-pyrite ore bodies (Fimiston Lodes) trace kilometre-scale shear zone systems centred on the D2 Golden Mile Fault, one of three northwest striking sinistral strike-slip faults segmenting upright D1 folds. The Fimiston shear zones formed as D2a Riedel systems in greenschist-facies (actinolite-albite) tholeiitic rocks, the 700-m-thick Golden Mile Dolerite (GMD) sill and the Paringa Basalt (PB), during left-lateral displacement of up to 12 km on the D2 master faults. Pre-mineralisation granodiorite dykes were emplaced into the D2 shear zones at 2674 ± 6 Ma, and syn-mineralisation diorite porphyries at 2663 ± 11 Ma. The widespread infiltration of hydrothermal fluid generated chlorite-calcite and muscovite-ankerite alteration in the Golden Mile, and paragonite-ankerite-chloritoid alteration southeast of the deposit. Fluid infiltration reactivated the D2 shear zones causing post-porphyry displacement of up to 30 m at principal Fimiston Lodes moving the southwest block down and southeast along lines pitching 20°SE. D3 reverse faulting at the southwest dipping GMD-PB contact of the D1 Kalgoorlie Anticline formed the 1.3-km-long Oroya Shoot during late gold-telluride mineralisation. Syn-mineralisation D3a reverse faulting alternated with periods of sinistral strike-slip (D2c) until ENE-WSW shortening prevailed and was accommodated by barren D3b thrusts. North-striking D4 strike-slip faults of up to 2 km dextral displacement crosscut the Fimiston Lodes and the barren thrusts, and control gold-pyrite quartz vein ore at Mt. Charlotte (2651 ± 9 Ma).