Geology of the World’s Major Gold Deposits and Provinces

Chapter 28: Lihir Alkalic Epithermal Gold Deposit, Papua New Guinea
-
Published:January 01, 2020
-
CiteCitation
David R. Cooke, Stephanie Sykora, Erin Lawlis, Jacqueline L. Blackwell, Mathieu Ageneau, Nicholas H. Jansen, Anthony C. Harris, David Selley, 2020. "Chapter 28: Lihir Alkalic Epithermal Gold Deposit, Papua New Guinea", Geology of the World’s Major Gold Deposits and Provinces, Richard H. Sillitoe, Richard J. Goldfarb, François Robert, Stuart F. Simmons
Download citation file:
- Share
-
Tools
Abstract
The Lihir gold deposit, Papua New Guinea, is the world’s largest alkalic low-sulfidation epithermal gold deposit in terms of contained gold (50 Moz). The deposit formed over the past million years and records a progression from porphyry- to epithermal-style hydrothermal activity. The early porphyry stage was characterized by biotite-anhydrite-pyrite ± K-feldspar ± magnetite alteration and weak gold ± copper mineralization and produced abundant anhydrite ± carbonate veins and anhydrite ± biotite-cemented breccias. These features collectively characterize the deep-seated anhydrite zone at Lihir.
Several hundred thousand years ago, one or more catastrophic mass-wasting events unroofed the porphyry system after porphyry-stage...
- adularia
- alkali feldspar
- alkalic composition
- anhydrite
- Australasia
- biotite
- breccia
- carbonates
- Cenozoic
- diatremes
- epithermal processes
- feldspar group
- framework silicates
- gold ores
- intrusions
- Lihir Island
- metal ores
- mica group
- mineral deposits, genesis
- Neogene
- New Ireland
- Papua New Guinea
- Pleistocene
- Pliocene
- pyrite
- Quaternary
- sheet silicates
- silicates
- sulfates
- sulfides
- tellurides
- Tertiary
- Lihir Deposit