Thermal and isotopic profiling of the Pipeline hydrothermal system: Application to exploration for Carlin-type gold deposits

New exploration techniques are vital to the search for new orebodies in mature terranes, as well as for extensions of existing orebodies. This research focused on application of low-temperature dating techniques (primarily apatite fission-tracks) and stable isotope measurements (carbon and oxygen in carbonate rocks) in and around the Pipeline deposit, a Carlin-type gold system. The primary purpose of the project was to assess whether these techniques could provide exploration vectors that might be used in conjunction with other geologic, geochemical, and geophysical techniques to determine the locus of fossil hydrothermal fluid flow, and the attendant possibility of finding economic mineral deposits.At Pipeline, measurements of apatite fission-tracks and (U − Th) / He geochronometry yield a clear indication of the elevated temperatures associated with the fossil hydrothermal system. The pattern is one of a central target (Pipeline deposit) with decreasing thermal effects as far as several kilometers laterally from the known ore zone. Because of the irregular nature of fluid flow through fractures, a significant number of samples are required to discern this pattern, but the pattern is quite clear from the 32 samples in and around the Pipeline pit.Stable isotope measurements of carbonate rocks yield patterns centered on the Pipeline pit area. Oxygen isotopes in particular are shifted toward lower values as the result of interaction between the hydrothermal fluids and carbonate rocks. Carbon isotopes show a pattern, but it is somewhat more difficult to interpret than the oxygen isotope pattern. As with the geochronometric patterns, isotopic indications of fluid flow are present several kilometers from the ore zone at Pipeline. Also as with the geochronometric data, a relatively large sample set is required to see the pattern. At Pipeline, the patterns are evident in approximately 45 surface samples and very clearly in the cross-sections containing approximately 100 samples.From these data, it is clear that thermal and stable isotopic measurements on rocks at a significant distance from the known Pipeline hydrothermal system record the passage of hot fluids through the rock. Both techniques provide a footprint of the Pipeline system that is several diameters larger than the ore zone (as presently known). Therefore, thermochronologic and stable isotopic measurements can be utilized in conjunction with other techniques as part of an overall exploration strategy for Carlin-type deposits. Although these techniques do not provide a direct indication of the metal content of the fossil hydrothermal fluids, they do provide an indication of the robustness of fluid flow and the potential size of a hydrothermal system.     

The bimodal rift-related Juscelândia volcanosedimentary sequence in central Brazil: Mesoproterozoic extension and Neoproterozoic metamorphism

The Barro Alto Complex and Juscelândia volcanosedimentary sequence are exposed in the central part of the Neoproterozoic Brasília belt of central Brazil. The former is a large (approximately 150 km long), boomerang-shaped, mafic-ultramafic, layered complex formed by two different intrusions metamorphosed under granulite facies. These rocks are tectonically overlain by rocks of the Juscelândia volcanosedimentary sequence, represented mainly by biotite-gneiss and amphibolite, or amphibolite facies metamorphic equivalents of rhyolite and basalt, respectively. New SIMS U–Pb zircon data and Sm–Nd isochron data presented herein help clarify the igneous and metamorphic evolution of the Juscelândia volcanosedimentary sequence, as well as its relationship with the Barro Alto Complex. Zircon grains from two biotite gneisses were analyzed by SIMS (SHRIMP) and indicate Mesoproterozoic dates, approximately 1.28 Ga, interpreted as the time of bimodal volcanism in a tectonic setting transitional between a continental rift and an ocean basin. Metamorphism is constrained by Sm–Nd garnet-whole-rock isochrons for garnet amphibolite and pelitic schists of the Juscelândia sequence, as well as for clinopyroxene-garnet amphibolite and garnet granulite of the Barro Alto Complex, which give ages between 0.74 and 0.76 Ga, in agreement with SIMS dates for metamorphic zircon rims. These new data are significant, because they establish that a single metamorphic event affected both the Barro Alto Complex and the Juscelândia sequence. Based on these new data, we present a modified tectonic model for the Brasília belt.