Abstract For the last several decades, gold exploration in Nevada has been strongly focused on sedimentary rock-hosted gold deposits in the Carlin, Cortez, Independence, and Getchell trends in north-central Nevada. Accordingly, less exploration activity has been directed toward the search for similar gold deposits in the eastern Great Basin, south and east of the major trends. Deposits in the central and northern Carlin and Cortez trends are hosted primarily in Upper Devonian middle slope soft-sediment slumps and slides and base-of-slope carbonate debris flows, turbidites, and enclosing in situ fractured lime mudstones. This is in marked contrast to gold deposits in the eastern Great Basin that are hosted primarily in three chronostratigraphic horizons: (1) shallow-water, Cambrian and Ordovician carbonate platform interior, supratidal karsted horizons and shelf lagoon strata, associated with eustatic sea-level lowstands and superjacent, transgressive calcareous shale and siltstone horizons that are deposited as sea level begins to rise, (2) Early Mississippian foreland basin turbidites and debris flows overlying karsted Late Devonian platform strata, and (3) Pennsylvanian and Permian shallow marine basin strata. Stratigraphic architecture in these three horizons was influenced in part by Mesozoic (Elko and Sevier) contractional deformation, including low-angle thrust and attenuation faults, boudinage, and large-scale folds, which in turn affected the orientation and localization of synmineral brittle normal faults. A compilation of past production, reserves, and resources (including historic and inferred) suggests an overall endowment of over 41 Moz of gold (1,275 tonnes) discovered to date in the eastern Great Basin, some in relatively large deposits. Significant clusters of deposits include the Rain-Emigrant-Railroad and Bald Mountain-Alligator Ridge areas on the southern extension of the Carlin trend, the Ruby Hill-Windfall-South Lookout-Pan on the southern extension of the Cortez trend, and the Long Canyon-West Pequop-Kinsley Mountain area near Wells, Nevada. Sedimentary rock-hosted gold deposits extend to the eastern edge of the Great Basin in Utah and Idaho and include the past-producing Black Pine, Barney’s Canyon, Mercur, and Goldstrike mines. The recognition of widespread, favorable host rocks and depositional environments on the Paleozoic platform-interior shelf in the eastern Great Basin opens up vast areas that have been relatively underexplored in the past. A basic premise throughout this paper is that the better we understand the origin of rocks and the depositional and postdepositional processes under which they formed, the more accurately we can make well-founded stratigraphic, sedimentological, structural, geochemical, and diagenetic interpretations. Without this understanding, as well as the rigorous application of multiple working hypotheses to explain our observations, the advance of science and the discovery of gold deposits is problematic.

Abstract The Biga Peninsula in northwestern Turkey hosts a large number of high- and low-sulfidation epithermal gold-silver-(copper) and associated copper-gold porphyry deposits and prospects, associated with voluminous, Eocene-Miocene calc-alkaline volcanism and plutonism. In this area, 50 to 20 Ma intermediate to felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic strata overlie metamorphosed basement rocks of the Camlica Group. The volcanic sequence is variably altered over an area covering several hundreds of square kilometers, including argillic, advanced argillic, and massive to vuggy residual quartz alteration, the latter present at the tops of many of the higher elevation peaks in the area. Moderate- and high-angle normal and oblique faults are common in the area and influenced the distribution of mineralization. While gold mineralization associated with these high-sulfidation epithermal systems and flanking low-sulfidation epithermal systems has long been recognized, the existence of porphyry roots to these systems was not fully appreciated until the discovery of the Halilaga porphyry in 2008. In the southern part of the TV Tower property, low relief areas consist of schist and serpentinite intruded by the Kuşçayir pluton, a composite, ~40 Ma intrusion that averages granodiorite in composition. Intermediate volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks are exposed in the highest elevation areas. The northern edge of the pluton, at low to intermediate elevations, consists of at least six intrusions of similar age and composition that differ primarily in degree of porphyritic texture and phenocryst quartz content. The intrusions are parsed into pre- syn- and late mineralization phases with respect to hydrothermal alteration and mineralization related to at least two Au-Cu porphyry centers, Valley and Hilltop. The porphyry systems occur below and are to some degree overprinted by high-sulfidation alteration and mineralization. The porphyry/high-sulfidation system was subjected to weathering and oxidation, giving rise to a supergene copper enrichment blanket that lies near the transition from the high sulfidation into the porphyry environment. Alteration associated with the porphyry systems includes chlorite-magnetite-actinolite, K-feldspar-biotite-quartz-magnetite-hematite (“potassic”), and, at higher elevations, overprinting quartz-muscovite (“phyllic”) alteration. Quartz stockwork veining is ubiquitous in the phyllic and potassic assemblages, and includes quartz-K-feldspar “A” veins, quartz sulfide “B” veins, pyrite-quartz “D” veins, and quartz-magnetite “M” veins. Copper mineral assemblages range from bornite-chalcopyrite to chalcopyrite-pyrite, and chalcopyrite-chalcocite or chalcocite-covellite-digenite in the supergene zones. High-sulfidation epithermal mineralization is dominantly oxidized, and consists of residual vuggy and massive quartz, alunite, pyrophyllite, and iron oxides. New U-Pb dates for the Kuşçayir pluton and Hilltop and Valley intrusions range from 38 to 40 Ma, consistent with other Cu-Au porphyry systems in the region, whereas most dated high-sulfidation epithermal deposits in the region formed at roughly 29 Ma, coeval with an Oligocene suite of intrusions. It is possible that the epithermal-porphyry relationship at Karaayi is one of overprinting of two unrelated hydrothermal systems.

Abstract The Petaquilla concession in central Panama hosts three major porphyry Cu-(Au-Mo) deposits, with total reserves of 1,218 million tonnes (Mt) grading 0.50 percent Cu, and 0.08 g/t Au, as well as the 570,000 oz Molejon low-sulfidation epithermal gold deposit. The main porphyry deposits on the property (Petaquilla, Botija, and Valle Grande-Vega) form east-southeast-trending elongate bodies that range from shallowly dipping and tabular (Petaquilla and Botija) to funnel-shaped (Valle Grande-Vega) in morphology. Alteration includes a central potassic facies, grading outward to silica-chlorite and variably developed propylitic facies. Phyllic alteration appears to be an overprint. At surface, quartz stockworks are associated with phyllic alteration, whereas at depth, they are associated with the potassic facies. Mineralization is pyrite-dominant at surface, but chalcopyrite-domi-nant at shallow depth. Bornite appears at deeper levels at Botija, and oxide-dominant assemblages are found in the deepest parts of that deposit. Molybdenite is common in the higher grade portions of the deposits. Highest copper and often, also gold grades are found where the phyllic and potassic facies overlap, or in propylitically altered contact metasomatic zones. At Molejon, gold mineralization occurs in multiphase, northeast-striking and shallowly north-dipping limonitic quartz-carbonate veins and vein breccias, and to a lesser extent, as disseminations in altered intrusive rock or in quartz stockworks. Geochemical exploration methods, combined with geologic observations, played a key role in the discovery of copper and gold deposits. Airborne magnetic data and radiometric data as well as ground magnetics permit discrimination between intrusive and volcanic rocks, between different suites of intrusive complexes, and between unaltered and altered rocks. Porphyry centers can be recognized in the field by the presence of strong, texturally destructive silicic-phyllic alteration with abundant pyrite, quartz-limonite, quartz-sulfide or quartz-magnetite stockworks, extensive zones of mineralized contact metasomatic rock, and multiple intrusive phases.

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Full article available in PDF version.