| Title | The emerging Paleozoic gold district of central Newfoundland: new insights on structural controls and tectonic drivers of gold mineralization and preservation |
| Download | Downloads |
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| Licence | Please note the adoption of the Open Government Licence - Canada
supersedes any previous licences. |
| Author | Honsberger, I W ;
Bleeker, W; Kamo, S L; Sandeman, H A I; Evans, D T W |
| Source | Targeted Geoscience Initiative 5: contributions to the understanding of Canadian gold systems; by Mercier-Langevin, P (ed.); Lawley, C J M (ed.); Castonguay, S (ed.); Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 8712, 2020 p. 193-210, https://doi.org/10.4095/326024  Open Access |
| Links | Erratum
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| Image |  |
| Year | 2020 |
| Publisher | Natural Resources Canada |
| Document | open file |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | on-line; digital |
| Related | This publication is contained in Targeted Geoscience
Initiative 5: contributions to the understanding of Canadian gold systems |
| File format | pdf; docx (Microsoft® Word®) |
| Province | Newfoundland and Labrador |
| NTS | 12A |
| Area | Wilding Lake; Victoria Lake |
| Lat/Long WENS | -58.0000 -56.0000 49.0000 48.0000 |
| Subjects | economic geology; structural geology; tectonics; geochronology; Science and Technology; Nature and Environment; mineral deposits; gold; vein deposits; mineral exploration; mineral potential; ore mineral
genesis; mineralization; ore controls; structural controls; exploration guidelines; bedrock geology; basement geology; lithology; sedimentary rocks; conglomerates; arenites; black shales; igneous rocks; volcanic rocks; volcaniclastics; felsic
volcanic rocks; mafic volcanic rocks; intrusive rocks; porphyries; granitic rocks; monzonites; mafic intrusive rocks; structural features; fault zones; faults; shear zones; fractures; joints; folds; quartz veins; sulphides; tectonic setting; tectonic
evolution; orogenies; deformation; pressure; fluid flow; shearing; faulting; alteration; magmatism; intrusions; dykes, mafic; plutons; emplacement; host rocks; unconformities; field relations; kinematic analysis; mineral assemblages; foliation;
slickensides; lineations; chalcopyrite; tourmaline; models; structural analyses; radiometric dating; uranium lead dating; zircon dates; Applachian Orogen; Acadian Orogeny; Victoria Lake Sear Zone; Valentine Lake Deposit; Wilding Lake Prospect;
Dunnage Zone; Exploits Subzone; Rogerson Lake Conglomerate; Peri-Gondwanan Realm; Wilding Lake Plutons; Valentine Lake Shea Zone; Red Ochre Complex; Wood Brook Fault; Dog Bay Line; Crippleback Intrusive Suite; Gander Zone; Red Indian Line; Botwood
Group; Botwood Basin; Meelpaeg Nappe; Victoria Lake Supergroup; Red Cross Group; Howley Waters Complex; Peter Strides Granitoid Suite; Gander Group; North Bay Granite Suite; Badger Group; Elliot Showing; Stony Lake Volcanics; Mount Cormack Complex;
Abitibi Greenstone Belt; Phanerozoic; Paleozoic; Carboniferous; Devonian; Silurian; Ordovician; Cambrian; Precambrian; Proterozoic |
| Illustrations | geoscientific sketch maps; tables; schematic cross-sections; photographs; photomicrographs; Concordia diagrams |
| Program | Targeted Geoscience Initiative (TGI-5) Gold ore systems |
| Released | 2020 06 11; 2020 07 22; 2023 03 17 |
| Abstract | The formation and preservation of orogenic gold deposits are associated with a predictable set of magmatic, structural, and tectonic processes that have recurred throughout Earth's history. In
world-class Archean gold districts, such as in the Superior Province of the Canadian Shield and the Yilgarn Craton of the West Australian Shield, the main gold-mineralized fault zones are characterized by early imbrication, lithospheric extension,
synorogenic magmatism and sedimentation, thick-skinned re-imbrication, and late-stage strike-slip. Such an evolution results in the occurrence of gold-mineralized, upper crustal sequences of synorogenic magmatic and sedimentary rocks above terranes
of granitoid rocks and/or older poly-deformed volcanic rocks. Targeted exploration for orogenic gold mineralization relies on remnant panels of synorogenic rocks (e.g. polymict conglomerate and bimodal magmatic rocks) as first-order field indicators
of structurally controlled gold preservation along prospective crustal-scale fault zones.
Paleozoic crustal-scale fault zones in central Newfoundland have been known to host significant gold mineralization and recent major discoveries (e.g.
Valentine Lake gold deposit) and associated exploration suggest the emergence of a new district centred on the footwall rocks of the Victoria Lake shear zone. Fieldwork, combined with structural analysis and high-precision U-Pb geochronology
throughout central Newfoundland, demonstrates that the structurally controlled Paleozoic gold district is remarkably similar to the much older Archean Abitibi gold district in scale, geological setting, structural architecture, synorogenic magmatism
and sedimentation, style of mineralization, tectonic evolution, and process rates. In central Newfoundland, orogenic gold occurs within footwall blocks of an overall northwest-directed fault system that juxtaposed and deformed Neoproterozoic basement
granitoid rocks and Late Silurian to Early Devonian synorogenic rocks during the Acadian Orogeny. Preliminary high-precision U-Pb zircon and rutile geochronology demonstrates that the key tectonic interval driving gold mineralization and synorogenic
sedimentation and magmatism, including syenogranite and monzonite intrusions, occurred between 424 and 407 Ma, approximately the same relative time interval (15-20 million years) as the Abitibi greenstone belt. The similarities between the gold
systems of central Newfoundland and the Abitibi imply that a common predictable set of structural and tectonic processes throughout Earth's history, and thus independent of time, have led to the deposition and preservation of orogenic gold
mineralization. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
The main objective of phase 5 (2015-2020) of Natural Resources Canada and Geological Survey of Canada's Targeted Geoscientific Initiative (TGI) program
was to generate new knowledge, methodologies and models to enhance the exploration industry's ability to detect buried ore deposits. This synthesis volume contains 20 individual papers that discuss craton to deposit-scale characteristics of
auriferous deposits, plus some support material pertaining to the TGI-5 Gold project. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 326024 |
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