Deposition conditions and distribution features of native gold individuals in the veins of the Tokur mesothermal deposit, Russia

Abstract

The paper discusses factors in the deposition and concentration of native gold and the spatial distribution of its individuals within the sufide-poor gold–quartz veins at the mesoabyssal Tokur deposit. The major factors in deposition of gold were sealing of the hydrothermal system, a sudden drop in fluid pressure, and repeated immiscibility in the fluid. Native gold was deposited in relation to initial acts of prolonged and discrete opening and preopening of cavities in three mineral assemblages of the productive association II. Most native gold individuals with a visible size of 0.1–1.5 mm were together with the early generation of quartz 2 on cavity walls adjacent to altered rocks. This is caused by the high content of Au complexes in initial hydrothermal solutions favoring rapid oversaturation during cavity formation. Gold fills interstices between grains of quartz 2 throughout the deposit and mineral assemblages. The vertical-flow distribution of gold has been established in economic veins; the upper and middle levels are enriched in gold, and samples with the greatest gold grade of 100–500 g/t or higher are concentrated there. This is caused both by the predominance of mineral association II at these levels and probable natural flotation of gold grains contained in the gold–gas associate for immiscibility of the hydrothermal fluid at the second stage of the ore-forming process.