Field mapping and

economic geology
Lecture 10 - Hydrothermal Deposit
Types
Ch 17 Evans, 1997. An introduction
to Economic Geology and its
Environmental Impact.

Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ore_genesis#Hydrot
hermal_processes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrothermal_vent
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vein_%28geology%2
9
http://tesla.jcu.edu.au/Schools/Earth/EA1004/Min
eral_Deposits/hydrothermal.html

The Vein Association

http://n.ethz.ch/student/sgeiger/COSMIC/SKM_convection2.htm

In geology, a vein is a finite volume within a rock, having a distinct shape, filled
with crystals of one or more minerals, which were precipitated from an (aqueous)
fluid. Veins are formed by fluids carrying mineral constituents into a rock mass as a
consequence of some form of hydraulic flow within the rock. Usually this is the
result of hydrothermal circulation.
So how do veins form? Veins are classically thought of as being the result of
growth of crystals on the walls of planar fractures in rocks, with the crystal growth
occurring normal to the walls of the cavity, and the crystal protruding into open
space.
This certainly is the method for the formation of some veins. However, it is rare in
geology for significant open space to remain open in large volumes of rock,
especially several kilometres below the surface.
There are two main mechanisms considered likely for the formation of veins: openspace filling and crack-seal growth. Kinds of Veins
Hydrothermal solutions ppt metals in environments including, near magmatic high temperature,
high pressure, near surface low-T low-P conditions
Gangue minerals dominant constituents, commonly quartz, calcite depending on the composition of
the host rock indicating derivation from the surrounding host rocks
Sulfides are the most important ore bearing minerals but in the case of tin and U oxides are
predominant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vein_%28geology%29

Open space filling

Open space filling is the hallmark of epithermal vein systems,
such as a stockwork, in greisens or in certain skarn environments.
For open space filling to take effect, the confining pressure is
generally considered to be below 0.5 GPa, or less than 3-5
kilometres. Veins formed in this way may exhibit a colloform,
agate-like habit, of sequential selvedges of minerals which radiate
out from nucleation points on the vein walls and appear to fill up
the available open space. Often evidence of fluid boiling is
present. Vugs, cavities and geodes are all examples of open-space
filling phenomenon in hydrothermal systems.
Alternatively, hydraulic fracturing may create a breccia which is
filled with vein material. Such breccia vein systems may be quite
extensive, and can form the shape of tabular dipping sheets,
diatremes or laterally extensive mantles controlled by boundaries
such as thrust faults, competent sedimentary layers, or cap rocks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vein_%28geology%29

Crack-seal veins
When the confining pressure is too great, or when brittle-ductile
rheological conditions predominate, vein formation occurs via
crack-seal mechanisms.
Crack-seal veins are thought to form quite quickly during
deformation by precipitation of minerals within incipient fractures.
This happens swiftly by geologic standards, because pressures and
deformation mean that large open spaces cannot be maintained;
generally the space is in the order of millimetres or micrometres.
Veins grow in thickness by reopening of the vein fracture and
progressive deposition of minerals on the growth surface.
http://www.virtualexplorer.com.au/special/meansvolume/contribs/b
ons/text/appendixb.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vein_%28geology%29
http://www.ipgp.jussieu.fr/~andreani/photos/serpcs.jpg

Tectonic implications
Veins generally need either hydraulic pressure in excess of
hydrostatic pressure (to form hydraulic fractures or
hydrofracture breccias) or they need open spaces or fractures,
which requires a plane of extension within the rock mass.
In all cases except brecciation, therefore, a vein measures the
plane of extension within the rock mass, give or take a sizeable
bit of error. Measurement of enough veins will statistically form
a plane of principal extension.
In ductilely deforming compressional regimes, this can in turn
give information on the stresses active at the time of vein
formation. In extensionally deforming regimes, the veins occur
roughly normal to the axis of extension.

Hydraulic Fracturing

Mineralisation and veining

Veins are of prime importance to mineral deposits, because they are the source of mineralisation
either in or proximal to the veins. Typical examples include gold lodes, as well as skarn
mineralisation. Hydrofracture breccias are classic targets for ore exploration as there is plenty of
fluid flow and open space to deposit ore minerals.
Ores related to hydrothermal mineralisation which are associated with vein material may be
composed of vein material and/or the rock in which the vein is hosted.
Gold-bearing veins
In many of the gold mines exploited during the gold rushes of the 19th century, vein material alone
was typically sought as ore material. In most modern mines, ore material is primarily composed of
the veins and some component of the wall rocks which surrounds the veins.
The difference between 19th century and modern mining techniques and the type of ore sought is
based on the grade of material being mined and the methods of mining which are used.
Historically, hand-mining of gold ores permitted the miners to pick out the lode quartz or reef
quartz, allowing the highest-grade portions of the lodes to be worked, without dilution from the
unmineralised wall rocks.
Modern mining using larger machinery and equipment forces the miners to take low-grade waste
rock in with the ore material, resulting in dilution of the grade.
However, modern mining and assaying allows the delineation of lower-grade bulk tonnage
mineralisation, within which the gold is invisible to the naked eye. In these cases, veining is the
subordinate host to mineralisation and may only be an indicator of the presence of metasomatism
of the wall-rocks which contains the low-grade mineralisation.
For this reason, veins within hydrothermal gold deposits are no longer the exclusive target of
mining, and in some cases gold mineralization is restricted entirely to the altered wall rocks within
which entirely barren quartz veins are hosted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vein_%28geology%29

Important Vein Deposit Types

Archaean Greenstone
Belts
Epithermal Deposits in
Volcanic terranes
Carlin-type Deposits

Boudinaged quartz vein in dextral shear

foliation, Starlight Pit, Fortnum Gold Mine,
Western Australia.

Archaean
Vein
Gold
Deposits
Yilgarn Block WA contains thousands of individual

deposits the majority of which produce < 1t Au.

However they can contain several giant deposits eg
Kalgoorlie golden mile
Contained in greenschist facies metm rocks in
structures of brittle-ductile transition regime
Dominant host rock is tholeiitic basalt and komatiites.
The physical properties of these rocks favour hydraulic
fracturing and fluid access and their composition
controls gold deposition within the veins.
Some of the gold bearing solutions are metamorphic in
origin
Wall rock alteration involves addition of SiO2, K2O,
CO2, H2O and Au

Yilgarn Craton

Gold in the Yilgarn

The Yilgarn Craton gold endowment is considered to be a process of a prolonged
period of cratonic development during a series of orogenic episodes beginning at
about ~2.9Ga and culminating in ~2.67Ga. These events saw the assembly of the
Yilgarn Craton from several 'proto-cratons' or unconsolidated terranes of perhaps
older earlier-formed granite-gneiss, probably of similar nature to the
Narryer Gneiss Terrane. These have been mostly destroyed by the voluminous
tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) magmatism of c. 2.75-2.85Ga, which saw
vast quantities of essentially uniform igneous-derived granitoids intruded into the
existing greenstone belts, thus forming the cratonising event.
These granites now form pillow-like flatly-dipping to steeply dipping sheath-like
margins to the greenstone terranes, and may have contributed to the gold
mineralisation either during the metamorphic decarbonation-dehydration reactions or
as heat engines to drive thermal convection and hydrothermal fluid flow.
The greenstone-granite terranes of the Yilgarn Craton have subsequently been
affected by several later metamorphic events and deformations, which have now
overprinted the craton with zones of steeply-dipping foliation and vertically thrustoffset fault blocks. These later events tend not to cause mineralisation, instead causing
structural disruption of the gold lodes. Gold mineralisation in the Yilgarn Craton
usually occurs at the contact between the veins and wallrocks. Formation of these
deposits is linked to mid-crustal level processes during regional metamorphism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yilgarn_craton

Archaen Gold Structural Settings

Metamorphic Origin of Hydrothermal Fluids

Hydrothermal Systems, Fluid Inclusions

& Mineral Exploration
Fluid inclusions are droplets of fluid trapped in
crystals at the time of their growth or subsequently
introduced along microcracks and cleavages
They represent samples of hydrothermal fluids and
range in size from a single water molecule up to
several mm and avg about 0.01 mm
Practical uses of fluid inclusions include;
information on the T, P, density and composition of
the mineralising fluids

Types of Fluid Inclusions

There are 3 types of fluid inclusions:
Primary those that became trapped during the growth of
the host mineral & are therefore assoc with crystallisation
features such as growth zones
Secondary those that form after the growth of the host
mineral is completed. They cut across growth zones and
crystal boundaries and may represent infilling of
microcracks by late fluids
Psuedo-secondary these form during the 2 stages above
and are characterised by their alignment with microcracks
that end against a growth zone

Types of Fluid Inclusions

Fluid Inclusion Classification

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

6.

Monophase entirely filled with liquid (L)

Two-phase filled with L phase and a small vapour bubble
(L+V)
Two-phase in which vapour phase is dominant & occupies
more than 50% volume (V+L)
Monophase vapour inclusion (V) generally mixtures of H2O,
CH4, CO2
Multiphase inclusions containing solids (S+L+/-V) contain
solid crystalline phases known as daughter minerals.
Commonly halite NaCl & sylvite KCl & sometimes sulfides
Immiscible liquid inclusions 2 liquids, usually one H2O-rich
and the other CO2-rich (L1+L2+/-V)

Fluid
Inclusion
Types

Fluid Inclusion Interpretations

The coexistence of L+V and V+L phases may indicate that
the fluid was boiling during entrapment
In the case of boiling;
In a one component system the gas bubble is the vapour phase of
the host liquid
In a heterogeneous system the gas phase exsolves by effervescence

However, gas bubbles may also indicate immiscibility eg

CO2, when present, will separate on cooling
The presence of daughter minerals indicates that solids
nucleated from an oversaturated liquid soln
In these hypersaline fluids Na+, Cl-, Mg2+, Ca2+ are the
most common dissolved ions

Fluid Inclusion Measurements

Measurements on fluid inclusions are carried out by means of
heating and freezing thick-sections on specially designed
microscope stages
Homogenisation of the liquid and gas phase will be seen to
occur at a given T whilst gradually heating the inclusion
This T is a lower limit, having been obtained at atmospheric
pressure, & pressure correction for the original depth is required
Salinity of inclusion is determined by first freezing the inclusion
& then raising the T & observing the first & final melt T. The
first melt T indicates the type of salt (eg NaCl or MgCl) while
the last melt indicates the degree of salinity, usually measured in
equivalent NaCl

Temperaturesalinity fields

Fluid Inclusion Compositions

The liquid of the inclusion is normally an aqueous soln
with dissolved ions of Na+, Cl-, Ca2+, Mg2+, SO42-, HCO32-,
CO32The concentration of the salts in the soln ranges from <1
wt. % to >50 wt. %
Different styles of mineral deposits have vastly different
homogenisation Ts indicating a large range of
hydrothermal fluids can be responsible for mineralization
eg epithermal Au-Ag generally has low conc of NaCl
indicating low T of formation (200-300 C) whereas
porphyry Cu have high conc. indicating high T

Fluid Composition and Metal

Partitioning

Analysis of typical hydrothermal fluids indicates that

Na, K, Cl & Ca are almost always the major components
Minor components include Sr, Fe, Zn, Mg, Mn, CO 2,
SO2, H2S and NH3
The most striking feature is that concentrations of oreforming metals is generally low. Therefore it can be
deduced that metal concs in hydroth fluids need not be
high to form an ore deposit
The critical factors for ore depn must be time &
deposition rate

Composition of Hydrothermal Fluids

Metals in Hydrothermal Fluids

Hydrothermal fluids acquire their dissolved constituents by one
of 2 processes;
Constituents are released to a fluid by a crystallising magma eg Cu in
porphyries
Constituents are derived from the rock thru which the hot fluid is
circulating

A rock need not be enriched in certain elements initially to serve

as the final source of these elements
Experiments show that elements such as Fe, Zn, Cd, Cu & Mn
are strongly partitioned into chloride-rich hydroth fluids rather
than staying within the crystal lattice of rock forming minerals,
referred to as leaching or partitioning

Metal Transport
Complex Ions & Ligands
Important in the dissolution of Ni, Cu, Zn, Pt, Au,
Co, Cr, Mo, W
Important ligands include NH3, H2O, Cl-, OH-, HSEg Pt(NH3)42+ + 2Cl = Pt(NH3)4Cl2 (complex
cation)
Pt(NH3)Cl3- + K = Pt(NH3)Cl3K (complex anion)
Au + H2S HS- = Au(HS)2- + 1/2H2 (Au thiocomplexing)

Metal Deposition
Pptn of dissolved constituents in hydrothermal fluid occurs as
a result of either, T variations, P changes and boiling, reans
between wallrock and fluid, mixing of different fluids (black
smokers)
Boiling is the most important of these as it results in almost
instantaneous removal of volatile phases and a sudden increase
of metal concentrations in the remaining soln which may not
be able to keep these metals dissolved. This is an important
mechanism of Au, Ag pptn in geothermal systems by removing
ligands from soln
HCO3- + H+ = CO2 + H2O
HS- + H+ = H2S (g)

Boiling

http://n.ethz.ch/student/sgeiger/COSMI
C/SKM_convection2.htm#section3

Black Smokers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_smoker

Black smoker metal precipitation

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02fire/background/hirez/chemistry-hires.jpg

Carlin-type
Deposits