A new kind of invisible gold in pyrite hosted in deformation-related dislocations

Mining of "invisible gold" associated with sulfides in gold ores represents a significant proportion of gold production worldwide. Gold hosted in sulfide minerals has been proposed to be structurally bound in the crystal lattice as a sulfide-gold alloy and/or to occur as discrete metallic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology (Boulder) 2021-10, Vol.49 (10), p.1225-1229
Main Authors: Fougerouse, Denis, Reddy, Steven M, Aylmore, Mark, Yang Lin, Yang Lin, Guagliardo, Paul, Saxey, David W, Rickard, William D. A, Timms, Nicholas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antimony
Bismuth
Copper
crystal dislocations
Crystal lattices
Crystal structure
Crystals
defects
Deformation
Dislocations
Economic geology
enrichment
Geology
Gold
Gold base alloys
Gold ores
host rocks
lattice
Lead
major elements
massive deposits
massive sulfide deposits
metal ores
Minerals
Nanoparticles
Ores
Orogeny
Pyrite
Sulfides
Sulphides
Trace elements
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Summary:Mining of "invisible gold" associated with sulfides in gold ores represents a significant proportion of gold production worldwide. Gold hosted in sulfide minerals has been proposed to be structurally bound in the crystal lattice as a sulfide-gold alloy and/or to occur as discrete metallic nanoparticles. Using a combination of microstructural quantification and nanoscale geochemical analyses on a pyrite crystal from an orogenic gold deposit, we show that dislocations hosted in a deformation low-angle boundary can be enriched in Ni, Cu, As, Pb, Sb, Bi, and Au. The cumulative trace-element enrichment in the dislocations is 3.2 at% higher compared to the bulk crystal. We propose that trace elements were segregated during the migration of the dislocation following the dislocation-impurity pair model. The gold hosted in nanoscale dislocations represents a new style of invisible gold.
ISSN:0091-7613
1943-2682
DOI:10.1130/G49028.1