The age of the giant Golden Mile Deposit, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia: ion-microprobe zircon and monazite U-Pb geochronology of a synmineralization lamprophyre dike.

Open-pit and underground mines in the Golden Mile at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, have produced more than 1,475 metric tons (t) of gold since 1893. Despite the economic importance of the deposit, the age of the mineralized shear zone array and its temporal relationship to other structures and to p...

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Main Authors: McNaughton, Neal, Mueller, A., Groves, D.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Society of Economic Geologists Inc 2005
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/3954
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author McNaughton, Neal
Mueller, A.
Groves, D.
author_facet McNaughton, Neal
Mueller, A.
Groves, D.
author_sort McNaughton, Neal
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Open-pit and underground mines in the Golden Mile at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, have produced more than 1,475 metric tons (t) of gold since 1893. Despite the economic importance of the deposit, the age of the mineralized shear zone array and its temporal relationship to other structures and to porphyry intrusions in the host greenstone terrane are poorly constrained. In this study, the SHRIMP ion microprobe has been used to date zircons and monazites recovered from a chlorite-carbonate–altered, synmineralization lamprophyre dike intruded into sericite-ankerite–altered Paringa basalt below the high-grade Oroya hanging-wall shear zone. Analyses of magmatic-hydrothermal zircons define a weighted mean 207Pb/206Pb age of 2642 ± 6 Ma (n = 37, MSWD = 0.88). Analyses of cogenetic hydrothermal monazites yield a concordant 207Pb/206Pb age of 2637 ± 20 Ma (n = 9, MSWD = 1.8).The two alteration and/or mineralization ages, determined independently in two different minerals, are inconsistent with recent structural models relating mineralization to the early compressional events of the D1 to D4 deformation sequence for the terrane. Instead, they confirm earlier structural models relating mineralization to the postfolding wrench tectonic regime which generated regional sinistral faults (D3) coeval with mantle- derived lamprophyric and initial felsic magmatism in the middle to lower Archean crust.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-39542017-01-30T10:35:25Z The age of the giant Golden Mile Deposit, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia: ion-microprobe zircon and monazite U-Pb geochronology of a synmineralization lamprophyre dike. McNaughton, Neal Mueller, A. Groves, D. Open-pit and underground mines in the Golden Mile at Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, have produced more than 1,475 metric tons (t) of gold since 1893. Despite the economic importance of the deposit, the age of the mineralized shear zone array and its temporal relationship to other structures and to porphyry intrusions in the host greenstone terrane are poorly constrained. In this study, the SHRIMP ion microprobe has been used to date zircons and monazites recovered from a chlorite-carbonate–altered, synmineralization lamprophyre dike intruded into sericite-ankerite–altered Paringa basalt below the high-grade Oroya hanging-wall shear zone. Analyses of magmatic-hydrothermal zircons define a weighted mean 207Pb/206Pb age of 2642 ± 6 Ma (n = 37, MSWD = 0.88). Analyses of cogenetic hydrothermal monazites yield a concordant 207Pb/206Pb age of 2637 ± 20 Ma (n = 9, MSWD = 1.8).The two alteration and/or mineralization ages, determined independently in two different minerals, are inconsistent with recent structural models relating mineralization to the early compressional events of the D1 to D4 deformation sequence for the terrane. Instead, they confirm earlier structural models relating mineralization to the postfolding wrench tectonic regime which generated regional sinistral faults (D3) coeval with mantle- derived lamprophyric and initial felsic magmatism in the middle to lower Archean crust. 2005 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/3954 Society of Economic Geologists Inc restricted
spellingShingle McNaughton, Neal
Mueller, A.
Groves, D.
The age of the giant Golden Mile Deposit, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia: ion-microprobe zircon and monazite U-Pb geochronology of a synmineralization lamprophyre dike.
title The age of the giant Golden Mile Deposit, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia: ion-microprobe zircon and monazite U-Pb geochronology of a synmineralization lamprophyre dike.
title_full The age of the giant Golden Mile Deposit, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia: ion-microprobe zircon and monazite U-Pb geochronology of a synmineralization lamprophyre dike.
title_fullStr The age of the giant Golden Mile Deposit, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia: ion-microprobe zircon and monazite U-Pb geochronology of a synmineralization lamprophyre dike.
title_full_unstemmed The age of the giant Golden Mile Deposit, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia: ion-microprobe zircon and monazite U-Pb geochronology of a synmineralization lamprophyre dike.
title_short The age of the giant Golden Mile Deposit, Kalgoorlie, Western Australia: ion-microprobe zircon and monazite U-Pb geochronology of a synmineralization lamprophyre dike.
title_sort age of the giant golden mile deposit, kalgoorlie, western australia: ion-microprobe zircon and monazite u-pb geochronology of a synmineralization lamprophyre dike.
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/3954