Caracterização da geometria de zonas de alteração hidrotermal - Estudo de caso no deposito aurifero de Brumal, Quadrilatero Ferrifero, Minas Gerais

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

1999

RESUMO

The Brumal gold deposit is located in the northeastern portion of the Quadrilatero Ferrifero region. It is encIosed within an Archaean voIcano-sedimentary sequence (i.e., Nova Lima Group). Regional host rocks comprise two distinct greenstone assemblages, from bottom to top: (i) mafic to ultramafic volcanics and (i i) cIastic and chemical sediments. At least two phases of deformation affected these rocks. These two phases were coaxial and probably evolved under a single deformation event associated to compression towards WNW. The gold mineralization is intrinsically associated to banded iron fomations (BIFs), which are usually constrained within carbonaceous-rich schists at both hangingwall and footwall. The ore bodies contain a wealth of sulphides but especially arsenopyrite. Gold occurs mostly as incIusions in arsenopyrite. The development ofsulphide-rich BIFs involved the percolation of mineralizing fluids through structural traps, triggering the sulphidation ofiron carbonates and magnetite. Chemical (iron-rich), textural (primary porosity and permeability) and structural (secondary permeability) characteristics of BIFs favoured the percolation of fluids. The hydrothermal fluids altered both wallrock and host rocks. Wallrock alteration comprises three main zones with particular mineral assemblages. These are chloritic, carbonatic and sericitic zones. Mineralized BIFs (host rocks) comprise two alteration zones which differ spatially in relation to the main ore zones. These are the carbonatic zone (more extensive but away from the ore bodies) and the stilpnomelane-rich zones (cIosest and within the ore). The comparison between different analytical methods applied to distinct assemblages in the Brumal deposit proved that reflectance spectrocopy is a suitable technique to provide a reliable identification of alteration mineraIs. The method is rapid, efficient and can distinguish mineraIs based on their particular spectral signature. The technique is extremely sensitive to alteration mineraIs such as cIays, micas, carbonates, iron oxides and hydroxides and selected sulphates, most of which were documented in Bruma!. SWIR analysis is also sensitive to elemental substitution and changes in order or crystallinity in mineraIs. Having proved its suitability, the technique was employed to map alteration zones throughout the deposito The results show that alteration zones transcend the notion of symmetric haloes and instead are a complex of alternating and intercalated mineral assemblages with no particular zoning. These concIusions added new constraints on the geometry and evolution of hydrothermal systems associated to mesothermal gold mineralizations hosted by Archaean greenstone belt sequences

ASSUNTO(S)

alteração hidrotermal ouro - quadrilatero ferrifero (mg)

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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