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Elements; October 2009; v. 5; no. 5; p. 288; DOI: 10.2113/gselements.5.5.288
© 2009 Mineralogical Society of America
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Gold Deposits: Where, When and Why

John L. Walshe

CSIRO Exploration & Mining, PO Box 1130 Bentley, Western Australia 6102, Australia
E-mail: John.Walshe@csiro.au

James S. Cleverley

CSIRO Exploration & Mining, PO Box 1130 Bentley, Western Australia 6102, Australia
E-mail: James.Cleverley@csiro.au

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.


   DEPOSIT CLASSIFICATION AND GENESIS
 
Gold concentrations in mineable deposits range from ~1 to 100 parts per million (ppm), or higher in bonanza deposits, in comparison to an average crustal abundance of ~1.3 ppb. A diverse range of elements may be associated with Au (La, Ce, U, V, Cr, Mo, W, Fe, Co, Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu, Ag, Zn, Hg, B, Tl, C, Si, Pb, As, Sb, Bi, S, Se, Te). A common mineralogical association is gold and quartz, but gold accumulations are also found with carbonates, carbon, feldspars, Fe sulfides and oxides, base metal sulfides, Fe ± Co ± Ni arsenides, and Fe ± Mg ± Ca ± V ± Cr silicates.

Deposits classified as epithermal gold-silver deposits, copper-gold porphyry deposits, gold skarn deposits, iron oxide-copper-gold deposits and intrusion-related Au deposits show some spatial ± temporal affinity with intrusive magmatic activity, commonly in shallow crustal settings at active plate margins. Such deposits are inferred or assumed to be genetically linked to magmatic-hydrothermal activity. Gold-rich volcanic-hosted massive sulfides are related to sub-seafloor volcanic-hydrothermal processes, whereas gold-rich sedimentary-exhalative deposits are associated with the expulsion of basinal brines onto the seafloor in intra-cratonic and epi-cratonic rift systems. Syn-deformational, mostly gold-only deposits . . . [Full Text of this Article]




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C. R. M. Butt and R. M. Hough
Why Gold is Valuable
Elements, October 1, 2009; 5(5): 277 - 280.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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