Universidad Nacional de Ingenieria, Lima: May 2009

Formation of gold deposits:

Relationship to hot springs and volcanoes
Jeffrey W. Hedenquist
Ottawa, Canada

Photograph:
W.F. Giggenbach

White Island, New Zealand: 300 t Au, 1 Mt Cu flux in 10,000 year life

Exploration for metal deposits: Field work by geologists

Panning for gold, tributary to Kelian river, Kalimantan, Borneo

J.W. Hedenquist 1
 • Missing links: gold deposits and hot springs

Orange precipitates with hot

spring sinter = 80 g/t gold
Champagne Pool
Waiotapu, New Zealand

• Missing links: gold deposits and hot springs

• Shallow-formed gold deposits

Hishikari LS gold
Quartz vein with mine, Kagoshima:
400 g/t gold
Kyushu, Japan

J.W. Hedenquist 2
 • Missing links: gold deposits and hot springs
• Shallow-formed gold deposits
• Volcanoes: eruption vs. gold deposition

First, an introduction to
exploration for metal deposits

Sakurajima
Kyushu, Japan

Identify and test areas of hydrothermal alteration

Aruntani HS gold prospect, southern Peru, 2002: now mine

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 Discovery starts
Underground exploration,
and mining with an idea:
tested in the field

Metal
production

El Indio, Chile Oro Banda, Australia

Location of principal
volcanic-related gold deposits

% gold produced

Old placer
Metamorphic
25 %

Foster, 2002
Gold deposits of Magmatism >3 M oz deposits;
different origins: related 3300 M oz total

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 Epithermal types: Alternative terminology
Each column largely synonymous

Veins Veins Replacement

(geothermal) (transitional) (volcanic)
Gold (Te, Se)-qtz Silver, Zn-Pb Goldfield type, Au-alunite 1900s

Alkaline epithermal Acid epithermal

Adularia-sericite, low sulfur Acid sulfate, high sulfur 1980s
Low sulfidation High sulfidation

Low sulfide/bms High sulfide/bms

Bimodal basalt-rhyolite Western andesite 1990s
Low sulfidation (LS) Intermediate (IS) High sulfidation (HS)

LS IS zoned, HS & HS-IS zoned 2000s

[LS alkalic] IS (LS) Mexico (barren lithocap host) evolving

Ransome, Emmons, Lindgren, Sillitoe, Buchanan, Bonham, Heald et al., John, Hedenquist et al., Einaudi et al.

First missing link to hot springs

McLaughlin, California: 1979
Laminated hot-spring silica sinter
covering gold-bearing quartz veins

Y. Matsuhisa

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 Y. Matsuhisa

R.W. Henley J. Saunders, Auburn U.

Sherlock et al., 1995 Silica sinter

Sheeted vein
below sinter

Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand: Second missing link

Looking northeast: volcanic arc to east,
volcanic rift to west

Broadlands
geothermal
system

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 Clay alteration halo (in green) around faults/veins (red) ; hot-spring and sinter

Simmons and Browne, 2000

Second missing link: 1986

Broadlands, New Zealand:
Pilot plant at well head

FeS2, CuFeS2,
+ 5 wt.% gold
Kevin Brown, 1986

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 Broadlands, New Zealand:
Ohaaki Pool, boiling hot spring
forms silica sinter
<0.1 ppb gold in hot
water at surface

Gas loss

10 ppb gold

Brown, 1986;
Hedenquist et
al., 1996

Active
volcanic
arcs

Kyushu

NZ

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 Hishikari gold vein, southern Kyushu:
shallow-formed quartz-gold vein

Footprint of
Volcanic arc 11 Moz gold
1 m.yr. now deposit

0.7 m.yr.

Down valley from mine portal

Hishikari
Kyushu, Japan

1000-4000 g/t Au
~20 g/t Au

<1 g/t Au

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 Cross-section:
clay alteration halos
to veins (in green)

Gold-quartz veins

Hishikari gold vein formation

~700,000 years ago, during
peak of hot spring activity

Old surface,
NW before erosion
SE
Outflow down valley to
distant hot springs

Boiling + gas loss

= gold deposition

Ascent
along fractures

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 Shallow epithermal gold formation in volcanic rift By contrast…

Lake beds

Ore fluid

50-100 m Sillitoe and Hedenquist, 2003

Schematic relations shallow epithermal gold deposits,

in volcanic arcs: down to intrusion-hosted porphyry Cu systems

Sillitoe and Hedenquist, 2003

J.W. Hedenquist 11
 Cataclysmic eruption:
lost opportunity to form
an ore deposit?

USGS
Mt. Pinatubo, Philippines, June, 1991: 9 hrs, 4 km3 magma

What do volcanic fluids tell

us about their sources?

Sakurajima, Kyushu:
Quiet eruption, ash and vapor

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 Mt. Sakurajima, Kyushu: “Quiet” eruption at night

White Island, New Zealand:

Quiet eruption

Photograph:
W.F. Giggenbach

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 Shallow degassing magma

Photograph:
W.F. Giggenbach

White Island fumaroles: sample to determine metal concentrations

>800 C
SO2, HCl

100 C
CO2, H2S

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 Satsuma Iwojima, south of Kyushu:
Passive degassing of deep magma

Sampling of 770 C vapor

Summit crater with acidic gases:
SO2, HCl

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 Satsuma Iwojima, S. Kyushu:
passive degassing (~1000 yrs)
Condensation of acid gases =
leaching of volcanic rocks:
0.4 Mt rhyolite leached per year, i.e., 200
m thick, 1x1 km in 1000 yrs typical vuggy qtz host of Au ore

Outflow of acidic hot springs

Fluxes

Catastrophic Quiet Passive

eruption eruption degassing
Mt. Pinatubo White Island Satsuma Iwojima
9 hours 100 years 100 years
Sulfur

Copper

Gold

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 El Chichon, Mexico: post 1978 eruption

USGS

Kawah Ijen, Java: volcanic crater with acidic lake

pH 0.0

Laminated
siliceous
sediments

Application to gold deposits?

Photograph:
Pierre Delmelle

J.W. Hedenquist 17
 Summitville, Colorado Vuggy qtz (ore)
pH ~ 4-6 2-4 <2 Qtz-alunite

Residual (vuggy) qtz and

qtz-alunite flares upward

Steven and Ratté, 1960

Volcanic dome: laminated siliceous

sediments, acidic lake in moat?

Yanacocha, Peru:
World’s largest
epithermal gold
deposit, ~40 Moz

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 Gold deposited in leached
core of deposit

Yanacocha Norte
pH ~ >6 4-6 2-4 <2

220-ton
haul truck

Formation of advanced argillic alteration

Steam-heated blanket
CO2, H2S
H2S + 2 O2 = H2SO4 pH >2

H2SO4, HCl pH <1

Lithocap formed by
hypogene condensate

4 SO2 + 4 H2O =>

3 H2SO4 + H2S HCl, SO2, CO2, H2S
hypogene alteration

CO2, H2S
steam-heated
alteration
H2O, NaCl,
SO2, HCl, CO2 , H2S, ...

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J.W. Hedenquist 20
 Aerosols
+ metals H2O, CO2, SO2, HCl, H2S
Quiet eruption:
Gold Maker White Island

H2O, CO2, H2S

Passive
degassing:
Satsuma
Iwojima?
Magma “pot”
Metal
deposit? Shimizu Hinako

Summary: Volcanic-related gold deposits

• Gold content in deep fluids

• Much higher than at surface
• Boiling causes H2S gas loss and gold deposition
• Volcanic-driven hot springs and fumaroles
• Expressions of potential deposits forming today
• Exploration for epithermal gold deposits
• Field work by trained geologists
• Discovery = wealth creation for society

J.W. Hedenquist 21
 Northern Alps, Honshu: Metals depositing at depth?

Volcanic arcs

Mt. St. Helens, 18 May, 1980

Cataclysmic eruption: 0.5 km3,

lost opportunity to form an ore
deposit?

USGS

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