Scale-integrated architecture of a world-class gold mineral system: The Archaean eastern Yilgarn Craton,Western Australia

World-class mineral systems, such as those found in the Archaean eastern Yilgarn Craton, are the product of enormous energy and mass-flux systems driven by lithospheric-scale processes. These processes can create big footprints or signatures in the lithosphere, which can be observed at a range of scales and via a variety of methods: including geophysics, isotopes, tectonostratigraphy and geochemistry. We use these datasets to describe both the architecture (structure) of world-class gold systems of the Yilgarn Craton and the signatures of their formation. By applying an understanding of the most critical elements of the process, and their signatures, new areas, especially undercover, may be targeted more predictably than before.