Abstract The Kalgoorlie gold camp in the Yilgarn craton of Western Australia comprises the supergiant Golden Mile and the smaller Mt. Charlotte, Mt. Percy, and Hidden Secret deposits. Since the camp’s discovery in 1893, ~1,950 metric tons (t) of Au have been produced from a total estimated endowment of ~2,300 t. The camp is located within Neoarchean rocks of the Kalgoorlie terrane, within the Eastern Goldfields superterrane of the eastern Yilgarn craton. Gold mineralization is distributed along an 8- × 2-km, NNW-trending corridor, which corresponds to the Boulder Lefroy-Golden Mile fault system. The host stratigraphic sequence, dated at ca. 2710 to 2660 Ma, comprises lower ultramafic and mafic lava flow rocks, and upper felsic to intermediate volcaniclastic, epiclastic, and lava flow rocks intruded by highly differentiated dolerite sills such as the ca. 2685 Ma Golden Mile Dolerite. Multiple sets of NNW-trending, steeply dipping porphyry dikes intruded this sequence from ca. 2675 to 2640 Ma. From ca. 2685 to 2640 Ma, rocks of the Kalgoorlie gold camp were subjected to multiple deformation increments and metamorphism. Early D 1 deformation from ca. 2685 to 2675 Ma generated the Golden Mile fault and F 1 folds. Prolonged sinistral transpression from ca. 2675 to 2655 Ma produced overprinting, NNW-trending sets of D 2 -D 3 folds and faults. The last deformation stage (D 4 ; < ca. 2650 Ma) is recorded by N- to NNE-trending, dextral faults which offset earlier structures. The main mineralization type in the Golden Mile comprises Fimiston lodes: steeply dipping, WNW- to NNW-striking, gold- and telluride-bearing carbonate-quartz veins with banded, colloform, and crustiform textures surrounded by sericite-carbonate-quartz-pyrite-telluride alteration zones. These lodes were emplaced during the earlier stages of regional sinistral transpression (D 2 ) as Riedel shear-type structures. During a later stage of regional sinistral transpression (D 3 ), exceptionally high grade Oroya-type mineralization developed as shallowly plunging ore shoots with “Green Leader” quartz-sericite-carbonate-pyrite-telluride alteration typified by vanadium-bearing muscovite. In the Hidden Secret orebody, ~3 km north-northwest of the Golden Mile, lode mineralization is a silver-rich variety characterized by increased abundance of hessite and petzite and decreased abundance of calaverite. At the adjacent Mt. Charlotte deposit, the gold-, silver-, and telluride-bearing lodes become subordinate to the Mt. Charlotte-type stockwork veins. The stockwork veins occur as planar, 2- to 50-cm thick, auriferous quartz-carbonate-sulfide veins that define steeply NW- to SE-dipping and shallowly N-dipping sets broadly coeval with D 4 deformation. Despite extensive research, there is no consensus on critical features of ore formation in the camp. Models suggest either (1) distinct periods of mineralization over a protracted, ca. 2.68 to 2.64 Ga orogenic history; or (2) broadly synchronous formation of the different types of mineralization at ca. 2.64 Ga. The nature of fluids, metal sources, and mineralizing processes remain debated, with both metamorphic and magmatic models proposed. There is strong evidence for multiple gold mineralization events over the course of the ca. 2.68 to 2.64 orogenic window, differing in genesis and contributions from either magmatic or metamorphic ore-forming processes. However, reconciling these models with field relationships and available geochemical and geochronological constraints remains difficult and is the subject of ongoing research.

Abstract Boddington is a giant, enigmatic, and atypical Archean Au-Cu deposit hosted in a small, remnant greenstone belt within granite-gneiss and migmatite of the Southwest terrane of the Yilgarn craton, Western Australia. Primary Au and Cu (and Mo) mineralization consists of a network of thin fractures and veins, controlled by shear zones, and dominantly hosted by early dioritic intrusions and their immediate wall rocks, which comprise felsic to intermediate-composition volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks. The pre-~2714 Ma host rocks are typically steeply dipping and strongly deformed, with early ductile and overprinting brittle-ductile fabrics, and have been metamorphosed at mid- to upper greenschist facies. Features consistent with porphyry-style mineralization, classic orogenic shear zones, and intrusion-related Au-Cu-Bi mineralization are all recognized, giving rise to a variety of genetic interpretations. It is clear that Boddington does not fit any classic Archean orogenic gold deposit model, having a general lack of quartz veins and iron carbonate alteration, a Cu (Mo and Bi) association, zoned geochemical anomalism, and evidence of high-temperature, saline ore-forming fluids. Detailed petrographic, geochemical, and melt inclusion studies suggest a late-stage ~2612 Ma, monzogranite intrusion as one of the principal sources of the mineralizing fluids. However, there is also local evidence for older, perhaps protore, porphyry-style Cu (±Au) in the dioritic intrusions and patchy, locally high-grade, orogenic-style gold mineralization associated with enclosing shear zones and brittle-style deformation, which was focused on the relatively competent dioritic intrusions. The relative contributions of metals from these components to the system may not be resolvable. It appears that the Boddington deposit has been a locus for multiple episodes of intrusion, alteration, and mineralization over an extended period of time, as has been demonstrated in a number of other large Canadian and Australian gold deposits, including the Golden Mile near Kalgoorlie.

Abstract Neoarchean greenstone-hosted gold deposits in the Eastern Goldfields Superterrane of the Yilgarn craton of Western Australia are diverse in style, timing with respect to magmatic activity, structural environment, host rocks, and geochemical character. Geologic constraints for the range of gold deposits indicate deposit formation synchronous with volcanism, synchronous with syn- and postvolcanic intrusion, synchronous with postvolcanic deformation in faults and shear zones, or some combination of superposed events over time. The gold deposits are distributed as clusters along linear belt-parallel fault zones internal to greenstone belts but show no association with major terrane boundary faults. World-class gold districts are associated with the thickest, internal parts of the greenstone belts identified by stratigraphic preservation and low metamorphic grades. Ore-proximal faults in those regions are more commonly associated with syn- and postvolcanic structures related to greenstone construction and deformation rather than major terrane amalgamation. Using the Kalgoorlie district as a template, the gold deposits show a predictable regional association with thicker greenstone rocks overlain unconformably by coarse clastic rock sequences in the uppermost units of the greenstone stratigraphy. At a camp scale, major gold deposits show a spatial association with unconformable epiclastic and volcaniclastic rocks located above an unconformity internal to the Black Flag Group. Distinct episodes of gold deposition in coincident locations suggest fundamental crustal structural controls provided by the fault architecture. Late penetrative deformation and metamorphism overprinted the greenstone rocks and the older components of many gold deposits and were accompanied by major gold deposition in late quartz-carbonate veins localized in crustal shear zones or their higher order fault splays.