A new kind of invisible gold in pyrite hosted in deformation-related dislocations
Mining of “invisible gold” associated with sulfides in gold ores represents a significant proportion of gold production worldwide. Gold hosted in sulfide minerals has been proposed to be structurally bound in the crystal lattice as a sulfide-gold alloy and/or to occur as discrete metallic nanopartic...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
2021
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| Online Access: | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE190101307 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85625 |
| _version_ | 1848764755359039488 |
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| author | Fougerouse, Denis Reddy, Steven Aylmore, Mark Yang, L. Guagliardo, P. Saxey, David Rickard, William Timms, Nicholas |
| author_facet | Fougerouse, Denis Reddy, Steven Aylmore, Mark Yang, L. Guagliardo, P. Saxey, David Rickard, William Timms, Nicholas |
| author_sort | Fougerouse, Denis |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Mining of “invisible gold” associated with sulfides in gold ores represents a significant proportion of gold production worldwide. Gold hosted in sulfide minerals has been proposed to be structurally bound in the crystal lattice as a sulfide-gold alloy and/or to occur as discrete metallic nanoparticles. Using a combination of microstructural quantification and nanoscale geochemical analyses on a pyrite crystal from an orogenic gold deposit, we show that dislocations hosted in a deformation low-angle boundary can be enriched in Ni, Cu, As, Pb, Sb, Bi, and Au. The cumulative trace-element enrichment in the dislocations is 3.2 at% higher compared to the bulk crystal. We propose that trace elements were segregated during the migration of the dislocation following the dislocation-impurity pair model. The gold hosted in nanoscale dislocations represents a new style of invisible gold. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:24:24Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-85625 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:24:24Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-856252021-09-30T05:16:17Z A new kind of invisible gold in pyrite hosted in deformation-related dislocations Fougerouse, Denis Reddy, Steven Aylmore, Mark Yang, L. Guagliardo, P. Saxey, David Rickard, William Timms, Nicholas Mining of “invisible gold” associated with sulfides in gold ores represents a significant proportion of gold production worldwide. Gold hosted in sulfide minerals has been proposed to be structurally bound in the crystal lattice as a sulfide-gold alloy and/or to occur as discrete metallic nanoparticles. Using a combination of microstructural quantification and nanoscale geochemical analyses on a pyrite crystal from an orogenic gold deposit, we show that dislocations hosted in a deformation low-angle boundary can be enriched in Ni, Cu, As, Pb, Sb, Bi, and Au. The cumulative trace-element enrichment in the dislocations is 3.2 at% higher compared to the bulk crystal. We propose that trace elements were segregated during the migration of the dislocation following the dislocation-impurity pair model. The gold hosted in nanoscale dislocations represents a new style of invisible gold. 2021 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85625 10.1130/G49028.1 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE190101307 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Fougerouse, Denis Reddy, Steven Aylmore, Mark Yang, L. Guagliardo, P. Saxey, David Rickard, William Timms, Nicholas A new kind of invisible gold in pyrite hosted in deformation-related dislocations |
| title | A new kind of invisible gold in pyrite hosted in deformation-related dislocations |
| title_full | A new kind of invisible gold in pyrite hosted in deformation-related dislocations |
| title_fullStr | A new kind of invisible gold in pyrite hosted in deformation-related dislocations |
| title_full_unstemmed | A new kind of invisible gold in pyrite hosted in deformation-related dislocations |
| title_short | A new kind of invisible gold in pyrite hosted in deformation-related dislocations |
| title_sort | new kind of invisible gold in pyrite hosted in deformation-related dislocations |
| url | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE190101307 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/85625 |