Geology, lithogeochemistry, and significance of porphyry intrusions associated with gold mineralization within the Timmins-Porcupine gold camp, Canada
Geology, lithogeochemistry, and significance of porphyry intrusions associated with gold mineralization within the Timmins-Porcupine gold camp, Canada
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences = Revue Canadienne des Sciences de la Terre (April 2019) 56 (4): 399-418
- Abitibi Belt
- alteration
- Archean
- Canada
- Canadian Shield
- chemical composition
- Cochrane District Ontario
- Eastern Canada
- gold ores
- igneous rocks
- intrusions
- lithostratigraphy
- Matheson Ontario
- metal ores
- mineral deposits, genesis
- mineralization
- North America
- Ontario
- porphyry
- Precambrian
- Superior Province
- Timmins Ontario
- volcanic rocks
- volcanism
- Timmins-Porcupine gold camp
The Timmins-Porcupine gold camp, Abitibi greenstone belt, is host >60 Moz of Au with many gold deposits spatially associated with porphyry intrusions and the Porcupine-Destor deformation zone (PDDZ). Porphyry intrusions form three suites. The Timmins porphyry suite (TIS) consists of high-Al tonalite-trondjhemite-granodiorite (TTG) with calc-alkalic affinities and high La/Yb ratios and formed during approximately 2690 Ma D1-related crustal thickening and hydrous partial melting of mafic crust where garnet and hornblende were stable in the residue. The Carr Township porphyry intrusive suite (CIS) and the granodiorite intrusive suite (GIS) also have high-Al TTG, calc-alkalic affinities, but were generated 10-15 million years after the TIS; the CIS were generated at shallower depths (during postorogenic extension?) with no garnet in the crustal residue, whereas the GIS formed during D2 thrust-related crustal thickening and partial melting where garnet was stable in the residue. Gold mineralization is preferentially associated with the TIS, and to a lesser extent the GIS, proximal to the PDDZ. Intrusions near mineralization have abundant sericite, carbonate, and sulphide alteration. These intrusions exhibit low Na (sub 2) O and Sr, and high Al (sub 2) O (sub 3) /Na (sub 2) O, K (sub 2) O, K (sub 2) O/Na (sub 2) O, Rb, and Cs, (i.e., potassic alteration); sulfide- and carbonate-altered porphyries have high (CaO + MgO + Fe (sub 2) O (sub 3) )/Al (sub 2) O (sub 3) and LOI values. Although porphyries are not genetically related to gold mineralization, they are spatially related and are interpreted to reflect the emplacement of intrusions and subsequent Au-bearing fluids along the same crustal structures. The intrusive rocks also served as structural traps, where gold mineralization precipitated in dilatant structures along the margins of intrusions during regional (D3?) deformation.
