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Structural style and controls on the Favona epithermal gold deposit, Waihi
Mining District, New Zealand

Conference Paper · January 2008

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 AusIMM New Zealand Branch Conference 2008

Structural style and controls on the Favona

epithermal gold deposit, Waihi Mining District,
New Zealand
Rhys, D.A.1, and Keall, P.2
1
Panterra Geoservices Inc., 14180 Greencrest Drive, Surrey, British Columbia V4P 1L9
Canada
2
Newmont Waihi Gold, PO Box 190 Waihi 3641, New Zealand

Abstract

The fully intact Favona epithermal vein system occurs in Late Miocene andesitic volcanic rocks of the
Waipupu Formation along the steep east-southeast dipping Favona fault. Shallow southeast dipping
lapilli tuff which is preserved on the southeast, downdropped block of the fault is the highest unit
affected by alteration, and is intruded by polylithic hydrothermal eruption breccias which occur in a
linear belt adjacent to the fault surface trace. These are rooted in discordant breccias and sheeted,
northwest dipping extensional quartz veins in the underlying andesite which link to the main vein
system below.

Gold mineralization in the Favona North and South zones occur along the fault 100-300 m below
surface in areas where the fault dips steeply and is completely filled with quartz veining. The main
orebody, the North zone, defines an upward splaying horsetail structure in which distributary quartz
veins extend off the fault hangingwall upward into the hydrothermal breccias. Geometry, textural
relationships, and vein orientations within the vein system are consistent with vein formation during
oblique slip normal > dextral, southeast side down extensional displacement on the Favona fault-vein
system.

Vein fill in orebodies comprises steeply dipping crustiform quartz-adularia veins that separate vertical
lenses of stratified vein shard “oatmeal” breccia, which carry the highest gold grades, and cherty vein
sediments. The alternating steep crustiform veins and intervening stratified breccia textures suggest vein
formation during cyclic increments of opening due to periodic minor normal displacement along the
Favona Fault system along fault surfaces now marked by grey silicified cataclastic breccias in older
quartz generations. Displacement dilated vertical openings in upper, most steeply dipping portions of the
vein system as fluid-filled voids. Textures suggest that the voids gradually filled upward due to
hydrothermal precipitation of colloform quartz, agitation and explosive activity causing spalling of vein
walls and vein chip breccia accumulation, and the filtering downward of clastic material comprising the
cherty sediments – possibly from the breccias above. Shallow southeast dipping stratification in the
breccias suggests post-mineralization eastward tilting of vein system that is consistent with the dip of the
tuff above, and with the deeper exhumation of the potentially coeval Martha Hill deposit to the west.

Keywords: low sulphidation epithermal gold, Waihi, Favona, vein, hydrothermal breccia

Introduction

The Favona vein system is the most recently discovered, and easternmost vein deposit in the
Waihi Mining District of the Hauraki goldfield. Recent underground development has
provided extensive new exposures of the deposit that allow the assessment of an almost fully
intact low sulphidation epithermal system. Given that Favona is a blind discovery in a portion
of the district where previously continuous veins were not known, and the largely unoxidised
nature of much of the principal orebody, the new undergound exposures allow not only insight
into the detailed internal structure and geology of a high level epithermal system, but the
ability to assess its structural controls for application to the identification of other deposits in
under-explored portions of the camp. This work summarizes the results of recent observations
by staff and ongoing structural geology studies at the Favona Newmont Waihi operations.

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Lithostratigraphic setting

Epithermal gold veins of the Waihi district are hosted by andesitic volcanic rocks the Late
Miocene age andesitic Waipupu Formation within the late Tertiary Coromandel Group. At
Favona, the formation comprises a sequence of mainly massive, plagioclase-pyroxene
porphyritic andesite flows and possible subvolcanic intrusions which overlie quartz-phyric
andesite and dacite that is the principal host to the Martha Hill vein system to the west
(Braithwaite and Christie, 1996). The upper portion of the sequence at Favona generally lacks
marker horizons that could aid in defining stratigraphic and structural architecture. Several
flow banded horizons present in the Favona North Zone dip shallowly to the north, while
further south, rare lenses of andesitic fragmental units, possibly representing volcaniclastic
horizons, locally associated with weakly welded tuff are present in the sequence, and based on
drill core correlation may dip shallowly to the northeast.

The andesite sequence immediately above and to the southeast of the Favona deposit is
overlain by three shallow east to southeast dipping volcanic units which provide constraints on
the timing and stratigraphic relationships of mineralization in the Waihi district (Figure 1).
These comprise (i) a basal, green-grey, non-welded 20-60 m thick monolithic lapilli to ash tuff
which typically contains between trace and 2% fine grains of quartz, (ii) a 5-30 m thick
heterogeneous unit comprising andesitic conglomerate and breccia with tuffaceous sandy
matrix, lenses of coherent porphyritic andesite, and local, discontinuous siltstone-sandstone
lenses, and (iii) the Black Hills dacite (Uretara Formation), comprising massive plagioclase-
hornblende-quartz-biotite phyric dacite which has recently yielded a U-Pb zircon age of 5.42
+/- 0.06 Ma in the local area (Bryan et al., 2008). Siltstone beds within the heterogeneous
andesitic unit suggest that the sequence may have been deposited flat and subsequently tilted
eastward due to post-depositional tilting. The Black Hills dacite is unconformable on the units
below, and overlies a paleaoweathering profile within which the underlying heterogeneous
andesitic unit is oxidized and friable. The lapilli tuff unit may also be unconformable on the
underlying andesite, based on the different orientations of the tuff with the flow banding in the
underlying andesite sequence. Younger, shallow dipping Pleistocene ash tuff ignimbrites
unconformably overlie all units described above, and are present northwest and north of the
Favona area, covering much of the central and northern Waihi district.

Favona Fault and breccias

Low sulphidation vein hosted gold mineralization in the Favona area occurs along a steep east-
southeast dipping and north-northeasterly trending fault zone, the Favona Fault. The fault has
been traced by drilling over an approximately 1.4 km strike length from the northeastern end of
the Favona deposit southwesterly through the Moonlight deposit and eastern Winner Hill;
limited drilling and lack of exposure prevent its tracking beyond these areas. The surface
expression of the Favona fault system occurs near the northwestern limits of the volcanic units
which overly the andesite sequence, suggesting that they have been preserved in the
downdropped southeastern hangingwall block of the fault, and eroded on the upthrown
footwall block. The paucity of clear, continuous markers in the andesite sequence prevents
determination of apparent displacement across the Favona Fault, but the lack of the lapilli tuff
and overlying units on the northwestern, footwall side of the fault suggest a minimum of
approximately 50-80 meters of apparent normal displacement. Kinematic indicators are
difficult to obtain from drill core and apart from vein geometries themselves (see below) are
also rarely obtainable in underground exposures due to overprinting by veining and alteration.

To the north and south of the Favona deposit, and in moderate dipping sections of the fault in
the Moonlight vein area where veining is minor or absent, the fault is defined by up to several
meters of silicified cataclasite with wallrock and some vein fragments, to locally

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unconsolidated, grey-clay rich gouge. Where exposed in underground development and tested
by drilling, much of the Favona Fault is defined by quartz veining associated with the Favona
vein system, and fault rocks are largely overprinted by quartz veining and silicification. While
silicified grey cataclastic breccia and gouge locally overprint earlier generations of vein quartz,
late phases of veining overprint these breccias, suggesting faulting was coeval with, but
outlasted by, vein formation. Where present in the veins, silicified grey matrix cataclastic
breccias are typically localized in the hangingwall or footwall of the vein system on steeply
southeast dipping vein segments, but are absent in vertical to steep westerly dipping portions
of the vein system, reflecting different degrees of displacement along these differently oriented
areas. A footwall strand to the Favona fault is developed locally in the deposit area, and is host
to, or has peripheral quartz veins (Figure 1).

Coincident with the surface fault trace of the Favona fault is the surface projection of the
Favona breccia, a strike elongate funnel shaped to lensoidal, generally upward widening
polylithic, muddy to silicified matrix breccia which intrudes the lapilli tuff unit that overlies
the hosting andesite sequence in the fault hanging wall (Figure 1) along much of the defined
strike length of the fault. The breccia crosscuts the full width of the tuff unit, interfingering
laterally with it, and incorporating fragments and large blocks of the lapilli tuff which are most
abundant in the breccia near its margins. The breccia, which extends 50-200 m southeastward
from the surface projections of the fault trace (Figure 1), extends downward into steeply
dipping breccia bodies through the underlying andesite, and link to the Favona vein system and
fault. This geometry, in addition to the presence of some opaline to crustiform vein fragments
and silicified wallrock fragments in the breccia, upward transportation of abundant andesite
fragments into the tuff-hosted portions of the breccia, direct coincidence of the breccia with the
upward projection of vein systems, and the inner silicification and outer clay alteration of the
tuff adjacent to the breccia collectively suggest that the breccia represents a hydrothermal
eruption breccia. Both the breccia and associated lapilli tuff are overlain by, and thus predate,
the deposition of the heterogeneous andesite unit that lies below the Uretara Formation dacite
(unit ii, above; Figure 1), and which locally contains clasts of hydrothermal breccia and quartz
veins, providing an important stratigraphic timeline for assessing the position of gold
mineralization in the region. The intimate relationship of the lapilli tuff with the breccia
suggests that even if it was not coeval with the development of the Favona hydrothermal
system, its less consolidated nature that the underlying andesite may enabled breccia
propagation. These relationships however support the assertion that mineralization occurred
largely after deposition of the andesitic volcanic sequence, potentially during or immediately
the eruption of more felsic pyroclastic units (CF, Bryan et al., 2008).

Post-mineralization faulting at Favona is manifested mainly by the west-northwest trending

and steeply dipping Central Fault zone, which passes approximately between the Favona North
and South zones. The fault is composed of 1-5 m of pale grey clay gouge in multiple seams,
and a broad oxidized damage zone which extends up to several tens of meters into its footwall.
Apart from cataclastically entrained quartz vein fragments which occur where it offsets the
Favona veins, the fault lacks any veining or gold mineralization. Kinematic indicators are
conflicting, and include both horizontal and steeply plunging slickensides. The fault
accommodates approximately 30-40 m apparent horizontal displacement of the Favona vein
system, with very little vertical displacement suggested by the lack of vertical offset of the
overlying lapilli tuff and Favona breccias. Minor displacement occurs along some clay seams
in late quartz veins in the system, but no significant displacements are associated with such
features.

Favona vein system

The Favona vein system comprises two main vein orebodies that are localized along the
Favona Fault, the North and South zones, which are composed of poly-generational crustiform

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to colloform quartz veins and vein breccias. In overall morphology, the vein system forms an
upward widening horsetail-structure in the vein system, particularly in the North zone (Figure
1). The thickest veins in the system comprising these orebodies lie along the steeply east-
southeast dipping Favona Fault. Numerous vertical or steep northwest dipping extensional
vein splays extend off the hangingwall of the fault hosted vein system and splay upward into
the hydrothermal breccias that extend upward into the Favona breccias which intrude the lapilli
tuff. Veining is largely superimposed on these breccias where they are hosted by the andesite,
although some vein fragments occur in the breccia, suggesting veining overlapped and
outlasted breccia development. This timing is consistent with the local silicification,
development of veinlets in and cementation of breccia matrix in some parts of the main Favona
breccia by chalcedonic and opaline quartz, with associated low grade Au-As-Sb
mineralization.

397600 E

397700 E
1100

Qu
1050 a rtz
vei
n le
ts

1000

LEGEND
950 Lithologies
Pleistocene ignimbrite

Black Hills dacite

900 Andesite conglomerate, flows

Lapilli tuff
F oo
Qu

Waipupu feldspathic andesite

ar

twa
tz

850
ve

Hydrothermal breccia
ll fa
i nl

Favona breccia and underlying

s
u lt
et

inlet
s

andesite-hosted breccias
t z ve

Quartz veins
Vein with <10 g/t Au
Q ua r

800

Vein with >10 g/t Au

0 50 100
Symbols
Meters
397300 E

397400 E

397500 E

Drill holes
750
Underground workings

Figure 1: Cross section through the Favona North zone on section 643050N, viewed to the north,
illustrating its horsetail geometry. Note the penetration of the Favona breccia into the lapilli tuff unit,
and the breccia lenses that extend downward toward the vein system. Quartz veins are generally absent
beyond the dashed line that is annotated “quartz veinlets’. The most significant gold mineralization in
the vein system occurs in its steeply dipping, upward splaying sections, which is here largely coincident
with the distribution of the “oatmeal” style breccias.

The main vein system at Favona is surrounded by a halo of both quartz and pyrite veinlets.
Steep northwest dipping extension veins and veinlets which are developed at densities of one
or more veins per meter form a concentrated zone of veining that like the main vein system
widens upward, and which is particularly well developed in the vein/fault hangingwall

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 AusIMM New Zealand Branch Conference 2008

extending upward to beneath the Favona breccia (Figure 1). The veins have variable texture,
but are often crustiform banded, and frequently exhibit lattice quartz after calcite replacement
textures. These quartz veins and veinlets seldom extend above the andesite into the Favona
breccia or lapilli tuff, except where they are silicified, probably due to the generally friable,
clay-rich and incompetent nature of these units. The halo of quartz veining is superimposed on
and largely coincident with the distribution of, an earlier set of pyrite-? marcasite veinlets and
associated disseminated pyrite in illite-smectite altered andesite (Simpson and Mauk, 2007).
Unlike the quartz veins, pyrite veinlets do not typically show preferred orientation. Pyrite
alteration may have continued during quartz vein formation since some quartz veinlets have
pyrite envelopes, although it is also possible that the quartz veins in these cases may exploit
earlier pyrite veinlets. The distribution of pyrite veining and overall quartz vein density
consequently provide exploration guidelines for vectoring proximity to gold mineralization.

Vein textures in the Favona orebodies

Gold grade in the Favona orebodies shows overall variation in the system that is correlative
with vein texture, orientation and structural style. Within the immediate vicinity of the Favona
deposit, steep southeast dipping portions of the vein system below the North zone, and in most
of the South zone forms a vein system that is cored by a semi-continuous, 5-25 m wide zone of
quartz veining that occurs along the Favona fault. Outside of the orebodies, most of the quartz
in the central vein system is dominated by gold-poor white quartz that is massive or weakly
crustiform banded, and which often completely fills the Favona Fault. The quartz is
dominantly chalcedonic with local lattice texture, but progressively more crystalline in deeper
levels of the vein system, where veins may contain disseminated base metals (Torckler,
McKay and Hobbins, 2006). In the orebodies, poly-generational crustiform quartz veins and
breccia veins are developed, locally overprinting earlier gold-poor white quartz. Textures vary
in different parts of the system, as is described below.

Favona North Zone

The greatest diversity of vein textures and most continuous, consistent and highest gold grades
in the Favona deposit occur in sections of the vein system which are subvertical and north-
northeast trending in upper parts of the North zone. These areas occur where the vein system
in the North Zone flares upward into its subsidiary splays commencing approximately 150-200
m below the levels of the central Favona breccia and associated lapilli tuff. Two closely
spaced sub-zones comprise the North zone, the Footwall and Hangingwall North zones, both
of which ultimately dissipate upward into series of northeast trending, left stepping en echelon
crustiform quartz veins which gradually diminish in thickness and decreasing peripheral vein
abundance upward, defining the top of the orebody.

Dominant, northeast trending quartz veining in the North zone comprises auriferous crustiform
quartz-adularia-clays that locally overprint older white quartz. The crustiform veins comprise
multiple generations that may be cored by, or are locally overprinted by, dark grey cherty
quartz, the latter which may be massive or have weak internal colloform textures that are
generally parallel to vein walls. Multiple pulses of generally sub-parallel composite crustiform
quartz-adularia and cherty quartz phases make of the bulk of the auriferous veining in the
Favona North zone, defining a sheeted zone of veining comprising multiple closely spaced
veins that each range up to several meters in thickness. Each in turn may be composed of
numerous vein filling episodes defined by thin crustiform bands of alternating white quartz +/-
clay, adularia, and darker cherty quartz. Disseminated sulphosalts, mainly acanthite and
tetrahedrite, occur along quartz lamina in crustiform quartz-adularia portions of these veins,
while grey cherty quartz fill is generally low grade and lacks Au-Ag bearing minerals.

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MAIN VEIN

2 meters
Banded veins
Andesite wallrock
Main stage banded crustiform
quartz-adularia veining
"Oatmeal" type breccias
Cherty vein sediment
layered vein chip breccia
Colloform quartz associated
angular, unoriented breccias
with oatmeal textures
Pyritic oatmeal breccias Late banded quartz-pyrite veins

Figure 2: Schematic diagram, viewed looking south in cross section, of textures in high grade portions
of the Footwall North zone where well developed stratified vein breccias and vein sediments are
developed. Note shallow eastward dip to stratification and tabular breccia clast alignment.

In addition to the steeply dipping crustiform and cherty textural vein types described above,
vein breccias and bedded cherty siliceous vein fill comprise significant portions of the Favona
North vein system that lie between, and bounded by the steeply dipping crustiform quartz-
adularia veins. Although at the scale of the entire North zone these types of breccia vein fill
comprise a minority of the overall volume of the veining, they are highly significant
economically and consistently host the highest grades in the deposit. These breccias are most
abundant in a planar subvertical, north-northeast trending, 110-130 m long, up to 12 m wide
central portion of the Footwall North Zone between 860 and 935 m levels (Figure 1). In these
areas, the breccias comprise between 25 and 70% of the orebody, and are coincident with the
area containing the bulk of the contained gold in the deposit. This higher grade core with its
associated breccia textures on long section plunges shallowly to the north-northeast, with the
basal position and orientation of the plunge coincident with the axis of the upward flaring of
the vein system, defining a dilational horsetail setting.

The breccias in the high grade core of the Favona North zone, and the grey cherty vein fill
coring some veins frequently exhibit well developed geopetal textures. These include
including grain size, clast type and compositional layering, and tabular clast alignment in
gravitationally accumulated vein chip breccias termed “oatmeal breccias”, pyritic vein and
wallrock breccias, and dark grey cherty vein sediments (Figure 2). These different textural
types may be vertically stratified in steeply dipping vertical lenses and former voids in the vein
system that lie between, and are bounded by, steeply dipping banded quartz-adularia veins.
Colloform fine-grained to microcrystalline quartz with shallow dipping lamina that locally
contains electrum and tetrahedrite-bearing lamina may be interlayered with the oatmeal
breccias. This style of colloform quartz - in contrast to the otherwise dominant steeply dipping
crustiform quartz-adularia veining outside the breccias – forms the main type of breccia
fragment within the oatmeal breccias, suggesting cyclic periods of passive colloform vein
development between agitation and brecciation in former voids now occupied by the breccias,
between phases of bounding crustiform quartz-adularia vein formation. Cherty vein sediments

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 AusIMM New Zealand Branch Conference 2008

interlayered with the breccias often form graded beds and may have basal scours, with granular
and fine-grained clasts generally formed of vein chips. In addition to these textures, additional
geopetal indicators in the Favona veins include “snow on the roof” style mechanical
accumulations of settling clays and pyrite on upper surfaces of crystal faces and cavities, and
similar style accumulations of thin cherty sediments on the upper portions of vein
irregularities. Selective geochemical sampling, comparison of drilling results to textures in
core, and petrography of representative samples suggest that the colloform quartz within the
breccia voids and as chips in the oatmeal breccias carries significant gold mineralization as
electrum-tetrahedrite-acanthite lamina, and probably is the main source of gold in these areas.
Coarser-grained cockade textured breccias of quartz-adularia veins and andesitic wallrock
fragments are also developed with breccia matrix comprising main stage quartz-adularia or
white quartz fill; these breccias are generally of lower grade than the oatmeal breccias.

Where developed in the Favona vein systems, stratification in the void-fillings, alignment of
vein chips in oatmeal breccias (Figure 2), and bedding in the cherty vein sediments in the
Footwall North zone consistently dip shallowly to the southeast with an average dip of 12
degrees. Given the fine-grained nature and consistent orientation of these features, they are
interpreted here to represent initially horizontal accumulations of clastic and breccia material.
If so, they suggest that since it formed, the Favona vein system has been affected by post-
mineralization southeasterly tilting that is consistent with the dip of the overlying lapilli tuff
unit (Figure 1).

Favona South zone

The Favona South zone differs in both mineralization style and architecture to the North Zone.
Mineralization is less continuous, and the quantity of total contained gold is less than in the
North zone. South zone mineralization occurs along the main Favona Fault in and associated
with a broad, steeply southeast dipping zone of mainly white chalcedonic quartz that varies
from 15-35 m wide of dominantly quartz with lenses of internal andesite that may divide the
zone of veining into multiple parallel or bifurcating bands of quartz. Unlike the North zone,
the South zone does not occur in an upward-widening horsetail geometry of the Favona Fault
and vein system, and instead occurs in a wide, overall planar but internally complex, steep
southeast dipping zone of veining. The different structural settings may explain the overall
differences in contained gold and mineralization continuity between the two zones.

Much of the white quartz comprising the South zone vein system is low grade or contains
negligible gold content, but within this broader zone of quartz veining, banded crustiform
quartz-adularia-pyrite veins with local grey cherty quartz fill, and quartz breccia veins which
overprint and exploit the earlier white quartz contain most of the gold mineralization. These
typically form crustiform to colloform internal veins which range from 0.2-1 m wide that
either occur parallel to the dominantly southeast dipping white quartz, often on its margins, or
occur as veins within it which are more steeply dipping, often with steep west-northwest dips.
Auriferous crustiform veins in the South zone exhibit finer colour banding of white and pale
grey quartz, and often contain crustiform textures, with Au- and Ag-bearing phases localized
as very fine-grained pervasive disseminations along quartz and adularia lamina. Adularia is
generally finer grained and in thinner layers than the more euhedral, coarser layers seen in the
North zone. Grey, cherty quartz is present in many vein cores or as separate veins or vein
breccia matrix, similar to the North zone. While locally present, oatmeal-style breccias are
much rarer, and in narrower lenses in the South zone veins than in the North zone, but also
show shallow dipping stratification. These may occur as accumulations on internal vein
irregularities and troughs.

Extensive steep to moderate northwest dipping extensional quartz veining extends off the
hangingwall, and locally the footwall, of the South zone quartz veins. Like the main veins,

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these veins are poly-generational, often comprising early white quartz which is cut by
successive generations of northwest-dipping auriferous crustiform quartz and black cherty
quartz. These latter generations of veining may either occur as stacked sets which are
localized adjacent to, but cross the earlier steep northeast-trending, southeast dipping quartz
veins, or which may join crustiform quartz veins that are parallel to the older quartz.
Peripheral extension veins to the South zone vein system frequently display well-developed
quartz after calcite lattice textures. Other generations of crustiform hangingwall veins with
moderate northwest dips may show asymmetrical, unidirectional vein growth upward from the
vein footwall.

Late veining

Throughout the Favona orebodies, but most abundant in northern parts of the Footwall North
zone, a late set of fine-grained, banded and cherty pyritic quartz veins is developed which
crosscuts the main stage crustiform quartz veining and mineralized breccias. Veins of this
style are composed of cherty, thinly banded, grey to white quartz lacking crustiform or
colloform textures and characterized by straight banding. These veins frequently have pyrite-
marcasite and clay lamina parallel to bands, and selective sampling suggests that they are
auriferous, but low grade compared to main stage crustiform and breccia veins. They range in
orientation, but typically trend north-northeast with steep west-northwesterly dips, cutting
across main stage veining and tectonic breccias in the earlier veins. Offsets and opening
vectors documented in Mortimer (2008) indicate that these veins accommodate minor west-
side down displacements of the earlier veining which range up to approximately 0.5 m, but
which are generally <10 cm. They are stacked en echelon vertically through the Favona vein
system, and do not extend far into the surrounding wallrocks. They may represent a final, late
hydrothermal phase of vein formation as oblique extension veins in response to late normal
displacement across the Favona vein corridor during waning phases of syn-mineralization
tectonic and hydrothermal activity.

Vein kinematics

Although kinematic indicators in the Favona Fault are rare, the geometry, orientations and
structural styles of the vein systems in the Favona deposit provide important constraints on
their kinematic evolution. If the late set of banded veins is excluded, individual areas of the
deposit with distinct veining structural style can generally be subdivided as follows:
1) Fault hosted vein systems: Such areas comprise the steep southeast dipping South Zone, and
the veining along the Favona Fault beneath the main orebody the lower portions of the North
zone. In these areas the vein system, and particularly early generations of quartz within it, is
often affected on its margins by siliceous grey cataclastic breccias, indicating translational
fault displacement was accommodated along the vein system.
2) Extensional portions of the vein system along the Favona Fault: Vertical to steep west
dipping dilational sections of the Favona Fault lacking cataclastic breccias are exemplified by
the Footwall North zone, where abundant mineralized crustiform veining and the void-filling
dilational oatmeal breccias are widespread. These textures, and the lack of cataclastic breccias,
suggest extensional opening without any translational displacement along the veins.
3) Extension veins and veinlets outside the main fault which dip moderately to steeply to the
northwest: The vein style, direction of fill and continuity of andesitic flow banding and other
features across these veins suggest that they are extensional veins formed in response to stress-
controlled extensional opening without translational displacement along the veins. Their
splaying off of the hangingwall and footwall of the principal veins suggests that they are
coeval with, and probably formed in response to displacement along, the Favona fault-vein
system.

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Overall, these characteristics convey an increasing extensional character to main

mineralization stage and early quartz veins in the Favona vein system if they have vertical or
northwesterly dips, and a fault-hosted character progressively with east-southeast dips. In
conjunction with the classic upward flaring in a horsetail-like geometry of the vein systems in
the North zone (Figure 1), these relationships imply that the Favona fault accommodated a
dominantly normal, southeast side down shear sense during vein formation in response to
northwest-southeast directed extension. Absolute shear sense is determinable by the angular
relationship and plunge line of the average intersection between fault-hosted and extensional
veins, which forms the local intermediate paleostress orientation (Y direction of the finite
strain ellipsoid), which plunges shallowly to the northeast, consistent with the overall plunge
of the core of the Footwall North zone orebody. This plunge suggests that in addition to the
dominant southeast side down shear sense, a subsidiary right-lateral (dextral) component of
displacement was accommodated on the Favona Fault during vein formation. This is consistent
with the left stepping en echelon array of veins which the Favona orebodies dissipate upward
into in upper parts of the deposit.

Discussion and conclusions

Field relationships, veining style and vein geometry at the Favona deposit suggests that vein
formation occurred synchronously and episodically during with a phase of oblique (dextral)-
normal displacement on the Favona fault system in response to southeast-northwest directed
extension. This kinematic framework is consistent with other deposits in the Hauraki
Goldfield which record dominantly extensional kinematics and similar directions of extension
(Sporli et. al, 2006), including the nearby Martha deposit (Cargill, 1994).

At Favona, early white quartz fills much of the vein fault in the vicinity of the deposit, and
while not significantly gold-bearing, forms a precursor phase of veining to the main stages of
mineralization which defines the principal fluid channel way. The distribution of later stages
of main stage gold-bearing crustiform quartz-adularia and breccia vein facies is largely
dictated by vein orientation and style within this kinematic framework, with more steeply
dipping vein segments, particularly in the upward splaying portions of the vein system, being
preferentially dilated. The upward, horsetail-style flaring of the vein system off of the Favona
Fault within a few hundred meters of the paleosurface is typical of hangingwall fault behavior
where extensional fractures propagate across the thinning hangingwall wedge between the
fault and the paleosurface, accommodating some of the fault displacement through extensional
vein formation. This creates a large and highly permeable fracture array, which in addition to
fault induced dilation creating openings for vein formation, allows significant fluid-wallrock
interaction, fluid pressure reduction enabling boiling, and potential for fluid mixing.

Oreshoot plunges are dictated by vein morphology and intersections, with the principal shallow
northeasterly plunge of the North zone controlled by the extensional fan which forms a
horsetail-like geometry in upper parts of the Favona Fault. Other oreshoot controls in this
framework may a) follow intersections between fault-hosted and hangingwall extensional veins
– also with a predicted shallow northerly plunge along the intermediate stress orientation – b)
include more steeply dipping local oreshoots that may be parallel to the fault slip vector, or c)
occur parallel to steeply dipping bifurcations in segments of the main fault-vein system. The
intersection of the vein system with shallow dipping units within the volcanic stratigraphy may
also induce vein or fault refraction and oreshoot control, which would at Favona also exert a
shallow northerly plunge. The overall more clockwise strike of extension veins than the fault-
hosted vein system means that as the vein system dissipates upward, it splits into left-stepping
extensional veins. At a larger scale, periodicity of orebodies such as the North and South zones
may also demonstrate a similar left-stepping geometry.

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Steeply dipping fault segments are preferentially exploited by quartz veining, both at the scale
of an individual orebody, and at the scale of the entire length of the fault. The fault at the
Favona North and South zones on average dips most steeply, while to the south at the
Moonlight prospect shallower dipping fault segments host volumetrically much less veining,
and veining is largely developed as steeply dipping veins which splay off the fault. The
steepening of the Favona Fault in the deposit area may reflect a northward step or termination
of the principal fault surfaces which may control the position of the vein systems along it,
since as a whole the fault bends to a more northerly trend, possibly linking westward to other
fault systems that lie to the northwest.

Vein textures in the Favona North zone suggest vein formation during cyclic increments of
opening caused by minor displacements along the Favona Fault system, which dilated vertical,
upper portions of the vein system and opened steeply dipping, fluid-filled voids. Textures
suggest that between opening episodes, the voids gradually filled upward due to 1) direct
precipitation of colloform microcrystalline quartz, 2) breccia accumulation caused by spalling
of vein walls as colloform quartz precipitated in a probably periodically turbulent fluid filled
void, and 3) the filtering downward of clastic material comprising the cherty sediments –
possibly downward from the Favona breccias. Together, these textural types form stacked,
shallow dipping and alternating textural types vertically in the voids which probably record
changes in fluid flux, levels of fluid mixing, and variations in connectivity and sealing of void
connections. Multiple bands of these textural types across the width of the vein indicate
repeated dilational and void-filling episodes that were separated by periods of steeply dipping
crustiform and grey cherty quartz formation. Presence of adularia and lattice quartz after
calcite textures in the steep crustiform veins suggest episodic boiling during the formation of
this vein type. However, boiling textures are lacking in the stratified breccia fills and
associated colloform quartz, suggesting other mechanisms for gold deposition in the breccia
voids. Fluid pressure drops associated with dilation and void creation may have caused
supersaturation of hydrothermal fluids in the voids and rapid deposition of colloform,
cryptocrystalline and fine-grained quartz as continuing hydrothermal fluid entered the void
from below. Incursions of cooler, meteoric water down the voids conversely may have caused
cooling and dilution, resulting in non-deposition of quartz, and instead potential deposition of
cherty sediments. Fluid mixing in the voids or chemical and oxidation state changes
associated with the downward filtering into the voids of potentially carbonaceous and pyritic
breccia fill accompanied by meteoric water influx from the Favona breccias above may have
aided in precious metal deposition. In the latter case, while no lapilli tuff fragments have been
found to date in the vein fill, discordant breccia bodies at the levels of the veins do rarely
contain silicified pale colored fragments that are texturally compatible with fragments of the
overlying lapilli tuff, suggesting a significant downward transport of clastic material in the
breccias. Subsequent filling, sealing and lithification of these breccias with ongoing
silicification and vein formation would then have allowed further fracture propagation that
enabled formation of a new set of steep crustiform veins with cyclic boiling, resulting in the
two spatially related, but probably temporally distinct, veining styles.

Like the Favona system, vein sediment and vein chip breccias with geopetal textures that are
suggestive of open voids in the productive, upper portions of vein systems are reported in both
the nearby Martha Hill (Panther, 1994) and Golden Cross (Simpson, 1996) deposits, the latter
which contain rare plant matter suggesting downward transportation of reduced, organic
material. While no documentation of the orientation of these features is available at these
deposits, they suggest that similar void-filling processes were active at other deposits in the
district and may have contributed to the overall productivity of gold systems in the region.
Such events may record punctuated episodes of fault dilation which were sufficiently
temporally separate to allow long-lived opening and filling of the breccia filled voids, which at
least at Favona have widths exceeding several meters and dip lengths of several tens of meters.
Similar textures, and interpreted processes, are documented in other systems globally, most

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notably the Bohemia Mining district of Oregon, where gold mineralization is often developed
within cherty vein sediments and stratified breccias in vein cores (Scheiber and Katsura, 1988).

The shallow southeast dip to the breccia stratification and vein sediments at Favona are
consistent with the inclination of the overlying tuff sequence, suggesting post-mineralization
southeastward tilting of the area. Such tilting predicts deeper erosional exhumation to the
northwest, which may be reflected in the interpreted deeper emplacement depths of the
potentially coeval Martha Hill system 2 km to the northwest, where Simpson and Mauk (2007)
estimate paleosurface elevations up to 220m higher than at Favona based on fluid inclusion
studies. If now tilted shallowly to the southeast, these would correspond to similar
paleotopographic elevations. This implies also that where it is present, the base of the Favona
lapilli tuff unit could be used as a marker to gauge relative depth in the paleohydrothermal
system, and to identify syn-mineralization fault extent and displacement magnitude. Regional
southeast post-depositional tilting of Tertiary volcanic rocks is reported throughout the
Coromandel Group, resulting in the overall younging of volcanic stratigraphy from the
northwestern Coromandel Peninsula southeastward to the Taupo volcanic zone, and has also
been invoked at the nearby Golden Cross deposit by Begbie et al. (2007) to rationalize the vein
geometries and stratigraphic relationships there.

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to the numerous discussions with, and observations and work of the staff in
the geology department of Newmont Waihi operations for advancing this work. The authors
thank Newmont Mining Corporation for permission to convey this information.

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