Abstract The Central African Copperbelt is the world’s premier sediment-hosted Cu province. It is contained in the Katangan basin, an intracratonic rift that records onset of growth at ~840 Ma and inversion at ~535 Ma. In the Copperbelt region, the basin has a crudely symmetrical form, with a central depocenter maximum containing ~11 km of strata positioned on the northern side of the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, and marginal condensed sequences <2 km in thickness. This fundamental extensional geometry was preserved through orogenesis, although complex configurations related to halokinesis are prevalent in central and northern parts of the basin, whereas to the south, relatively high-grade metamorphism occurred as a result of basement-involved thrusting and burial. The largest Cu ± Co ores, both stratiform and vein-controlled, are known from the periphery of the basin and transition to U-Ni-Co and Pb-Zn-Cu ores toward the depocenter maximum. Most ore types are positioned within a ~500-m halo to former near-basin-wide salt sheets or associated halokinetic structures, the exception being that located in extreme basin marginal positions, where primary salt was not deposited. Stratiform Cu ± Co ores occur at intrasalt (Congolese-type), subsalt (Zambian-type), and salt-marginal (Kamoa-type) positions. Bulk crush-leach fluid inclusion data from the first two of these deposit types reveal a principal association with residual evaporitic brines. A likely signature of the ore fluids, the brines were generated during deposition of the basin-wide salt-sheets and occupied voluminous sub and intrasalt aquifers from ~800 Ma. Associated intense Mg ± K metasomatism was restricted to these levels, indicating that capping and enclosing salt remained impermeable for prolonged periods of the basin’s history, isolating the deep-seated aquifers from the upper part of the basin fill. From ~765 to 740 Ma, the salt sheets in the Congolese part of the basin were halokinetically modified. Salt was withdrawn laterally to feed diapirs, ultimately leading to localized welding or breaching of the former hydrological seal. At these points, deeper-level residual brines were drawn into the intrasalt stratigraphy to interact with reducing elements and form the stratiform ores. It is probable that salt welding occurred diachronously across the northern and central parts of the basin, depending upon the interplay of original salt thickness, rates and volumes of sediment supply during accumulation of salt overburden, and tectonism. The variable timing of this fundamental change in hydrologic architecture is poorly constrained to the period of halokinetic onset to the earliest stages of orogenesis; however, the geometry of the ores and associated alteration patterns demands that mineralization preceded the characteristically complex fragmentation of the host strata. Thus, while an early orogenic timing is permissible, mineralization during the later stages of extensional basin development was more likely. In situ reducing elements that host Zambian-type stratiform Cu ± Co ores were in continuous hydrological communication with subsalt aquifers, such that ore formation could have commenced from the ~800 Ma brine introduction event. The nonhalokinetic character of the salt in this region allowed the intact seal to have maintained suprahydrostatic pore pressures, facilitating fluid circulation until late stages of basin growth and possibly early stage orogenesis. Leachate data from ores positioned in the depocenter maximum and southern parts of the basin that underwent relatively high grade metamorphism record mixing of residual and halite dissolution-related brines. Salt dissolution was likely triggered by emergence of diapirs or thermally and/or mechanically induced increased permeability of halite. While it is certain that halite dissolution occurred during and after orogenesis, conditions favorable for salt dissolution may have existed locally during extension in the depocenter maximum. The permeability of salt increased to a point where it became the principal aquifer. The salt’s properties as an aquiclude lost, originally deep-seated residual brine mixed with new phases of evaporite dissolution-related brine to produce ores at middle levels of the basin fill. During the final stages of ore formation, recorded by postorogenic Pb-Zn-Cu mineralization in the depocenter maximum, the salinity of fluids was dominantly derived from the dissolution of remnant bodies of salt.

Abstract The Ordovician sediments that host the giant Bendigo saddle reef gold deposits consist of a 3 km-thick sequence of turbiditic sandstones and interbedded siltstones and mudstones. Sedimentological studies suggest the succession formed within a major deep marine channel–levee complex similar to those described from contemporary continental margin to basin plain settings outboard of major river systems (e.g. the Amazon, Mississippi and Congo). Black shales, which are commonly the immediate host rocks to the epigenetic gold reefs, are interpreted to be over-bank deposits or abandoned channel fills, developed adjacent to active channels which were sandstone-dominated and had an incised axial thalweg marked by the coarsest-grained sediments present. Organic carbon content of the black shales at Bendigo varies from 0.2 to 2 wt%, compared with the grey shales, siltstones and sandstones, which vary from 0.05 to 0.2 wt%. Trace elements fall into two main groups: (a) elements that have a linear relationship with aluminium, and are controlled by the detrital clay content (Sn, Ba, Rb, Li, Cs, Mn, Cr and Tl); and (b) elements that show relationships with both aluminium and organic carbon (V, U, Ni, Zn, Cu, Bi, Pb, Se, Ag and Au) and are controlled by both the clay and organic matter content in the carbonaceous shales. The elements in the second group are enriched in the black shale facies. The background gold content of the black shales in the drill holes distal from mineralization averages 8.9 ppb, compared with the sandstones with 1.5 ppb. Most of the gold in the shales is present in diagenetic pyrite and marcasite, which laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometer (LA-ICPMS) analyses indicate varies from 5 to 3850 ppb and averages 370 ppb Au. The geochemical data suggest that this syngenetic gold was most likely sourced by erosion of the hinterland, and transported attached to detrital clay particles or as colloidal gold, by a high-volume feeder river system. High Rb/K ratios in the shales support a highly weathered source typical of a giant river system. By analogy with modern systems, following transport into deep marine channel–levee complexes via continental margin canyons, gold and other redox sensitive trace elements were ultimately trapped by reduction, adsorption and complexation with organic matter in the sub-oxic to anoxic over-bank deposits. Oxidation of much of the organic matter during diagenesis released the gold and certain trace elements (Ni, Co, Se, Ag, Cu, Bi, Pb), which became incorporated into diagenetic pyrite. Enrichment of gold in diagenetic pyrite of the black shale facies of the Ordovician turbidites at Bendigo was the first stage in a two-stage process that produced the world-class quartz–gold saddle reef deposits. Supplementary material: Whole rock analyses for sedimentary rocks in drill holes NBD005 and NBD186, Kangaroo Flat Mine, Bendigo, are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18732

Abstract In terms of zinc, lead, and silver metal endowment, the Proterozoic sedimentary basins of northern Australia rank number one in the world. The Mt. Isa-McArthur basin system hosts five supergiant, stratiform, sedimentary rock-hosted Zn-Pb-Ag deposits (McArthur River, Century, Mt. Isa, Hilton, and George Fisher) and one supergiant strata-bound Ag-Pb-Zn deposit (Cannington). These superbasins consist of units deposited during three nested cycles of deposition and exhumation that occurred in the period from 1800 to 1580 Ma. The cycles took place in response to far -field extension and subsidence associated with a major northward-dipping subduction zone in central Australia. All major stratiform zinc-dominant deposits occur within rocks of the sag phase of the youngest Isa superbasin, which was deposited between 1670 and 1580 Ma. The strata-bound silver- and lead-rich Cannington deposit is hosted by highgrade metamorphosed clastic sedimentary rocks that are temporal correlatives of the basal extensional phase of the Isa superbasin. It exhibits distinct differences from the stratiform zinc-dominant deposits but shows similarities with Broken Hill-type deposits. The major stratiform Zn-Pb-Ag deposits exhibit many similar geological and geochemical features that include: (1) location close to regionally extensive normal and strike-slip synsedimentary faults, (2) organic-rich black shale and siltstone host rocks, (3) laminated, bedding-parallel synsedimentary sulfide minerals, (4) stacked ore lenses separated by pyritic and Fe-Mn carbonate-bearing siltstones, (5) lateral zonation exhibiting an increasing Zn/Pb ratio away from the feeder fault, (6) vertical zonation exhibiting decreasing Zn/Pb ratio upstratigraphy, (7) an extensive strata-bound halo of iron- and manganese-rich alteration in the sedimentary rocks surrounding and along strike from ore, (8) a broad range of δ 34 S values for sulfide minerals, from about 0 to 20 per mil, with pyrite exhibiting a greater spread than base metal sulfides, and (9) lead isotope ratios that indicate derivation of lead from intrabasinal sources with interpreted lead model ages being similar to the measured zircon U-Pb ages of the host rocks. These common features demonstrate that the stratiform Zn-Pb-Ag ores formed approximately contemporaneously with sedimentation and/or diagenesis. The exact timing of mineralization relative to these processes varies from deposit to deposit. However metamorphic overprints in some deposits (e.g., Mt. Isa, Hilton, Dugald River, Lady Loretta) have lead to recrystallization of sulfide minerals, making it difficult to interpret primary paragenetic relationships and absolute timing of mineralization. Mount Isa is the only northern Australian stratiform Zn-Pb-Ag deposit that has spatially associated highgrade copper mineralization. Textural and isotopic data for the stratiform Zn-Pb-Ag deposits suggest there is a spread of ore depositional processes from synsedimentary exhalative to syndiagenetic replacement. At McArthur River, for example, the highgrade laminated ores principally formed by synsedimentary exhalative processes. However, there is good evidence that the lower grade ores at the margins of the deposit formed at shallow depth in the organic-rich muds by syndiagenetic replacement and open-space fill. At Century, on the other hand, the textual and lead isotope evidence indicate the major mineralization probably formed by syndiagenetic replacement about 20 m.y. after sedimentation. At Mt. Isa, Hilton, and George Fisher, overprinting metamorphism precludes determination of the precise timing of ore deposition relative to sedimentation and diagenesis, but recent studies at the least metamorphosed George Fisher deposit suggest that syndiagenetic replacement was likely dominant. The lack of footwall stringer zones or hydrothermal vent complexes in the Zn-Pb-Ag deposits, coupled with the lateral and vertical Pb-Zn metal zonation, suggest the ores are of the vent-distal type, forming at some lateral distance from the hydrothermal vent or feeder fault. The laterally extensive strata-bound Fe-Mn car bonate halos indicate significant hydrothermal fluid volumes that have interacted with the sea-floor and sub-sea-floor sediments. These halos provide an important vector for exploration. Basin-scale, fluid-flow modeling has emphasized the importance of (1) early rift phase volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks as potential deep sources for metals, (2) clastic units at the top of the rift package that act as aquifers for basin-wide hy drothermal fluid flow, (3) evaporitic units that lead to high fluid salinity, which enhances metal transport, (4) thick packages of fine-grained dolomites and siltstones in the overlying sag phase sequence, which act as a seal over the fluid-rich reservoir rocks (rift clastics), and (5) deeply penetrating faults that provide the fluid conduit from the fluid reservoir and metal source area, located deep in the sedimentary basin, to the organic-rich trap rocks at the top of the section. Fluids were oxidized, low- to moderate-temperature (100°–250°C), near-neutral pH brines, with sulfate reduction in organic-bearing trap sites being the principal cause of zinc- and lead-bearing sulfide deposition.