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Association of gold with uraninite and pyrobitumen in the metavolcanic rock hosted hydrothermal Au-U mineralisation at Rompas, Peräpohja Schist Belt, northern Finland

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Abstract

The Peräpohja Schist Belt comprises a supracrustal sequence of quartzites, mafic volcanics and volcaniclastics, carbonate rocks, black shales, mica schists and greywackes which were deposited from ca. 2.44 to ~1.91 Ga, during the rifting of the Archaean basement in the eastern part of the Fennoscandian shield. Metamorphism and multiple folding of the basin fill took place during the Svecofennian orogeny (1.9–1.8 Ga) followed by intrusions of late-orogenic (1.84–1.80 Ga) and post-orogenic granitoids (1.79–1.76 Ga). The Rompas Au-U mineralisation is hosted by deformed calcsilicate veins in mafic volcanic rocks and locally contains very high grade (>10,000 g/t Au) gold pockets with strict spatial association of gold minerals to uraninite and pyrobitumen. Chemical ages from the unaltered domains in the structure of uraninite indicate a 1.95–1.90 Ga age for the deposition of the primary, high temperature (e.g. U/Th < 100 in uraninite) hydrothermal uranium mineralisation. These data are in agreement with the results of previous U-Pb dating of uraninite by SIMS. Textural evidence suggests that metamorphic recrystallisation of the uraninite-bearing quartz-dolomite veins into calcsilicate mineral assemblages during the Svecofennian orogeny (1.9–1.8 Ga) was followed by a hydrocarbon-bearing fluid flow event and radiolytic polymerisation of hydrocarbons around grains of uraninite. Gold precipitated during a subsequent hydrothermal process in the fractures of uraninite, as well as in the cracks and on the botryoidal surfaces of uraninite-pyrobitumen nodules. Remobilisation and redeposition of uranium by these hydrothermal events produced secondary uraninite grains with chemical ages between 1.85 and 1.65 Ga. Native gold is associated with galena, altaite, hunchunite, nickeline and rare cobaltite, Pb-bearing maldonite, pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, molybdenite and titanite. Raman spectra show disordered structure of undeformed pyrobitumen nodules in contrast with the well-ordered graphite in calcsilicate veins. Mean random reflectance data for pyrobitumen indicate 270–340 °C maximum temperature of thermal maturation—this temperature range is also considered as the temperature of gold deposition. Results of multiple sulphur isotope analyses of organic material-, pyrite- and acid-volatile-bound sulphur show distinct ranges of δ34S values for SORG and SCRS in uraninite-pyrobitumen (from −6.99 to −3.55‰ and from −10.02 to −4.41‰, respectively) and uraninite-pyrobitumen-native gold mineral associations (from +1.36 to +6.87‰ and from +0.42 to +9.7‰, respectively). Δ33S data indicate local occurrence of nonmass-dependent sulphur isotope fractionation owing to interaction of fluids with organic material. Concentration of lead in uraninite is depleted along the gold mineral filled fractures whereas the uranogenic lead isotope contents of galena, altaite and hunchuite deposited in the same fractures are extremely high, suggesting that the dominant source of lead for the crystallisation of these minerals was the radiogenic lead content of uraninite. Taking into account this source of radiogenic lead, the calculated Pb-Pb model ages for the lead minerals are between 1.75 and 1.70 Ga. Sulphur and tellurium removal from the fluid by reaction with radiogenic lead released by uraninite appears to be an important mechanism in the strongly localised deposition of gold minerals. Scavenging of sulphur by pyrobitumen nodules from gold transporting fluids was an additional process triggering precipitation of gold. Carbon particles and organic functional groups in pyrobitumen probably acted as nucleation and adsorption centres for gold minerals.

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Acknowledgments

E. Vanhanen, M. Hudson (Mawson Resources Ltd.), H. Huhma and R. Lahtinen (Geol. Surv. Finland) are thanked for discussions leading to development and testing of various ideas during our studies at Rompas. T. Havela and J. Kinnunen (Mawson Resources Ltd.) provided valuable help in selecting drill core samples for our studies. Comments by A. Middleton (Geol. Survey. Finland), M. Fayek (associate editor, Mineralium Deposita) and two anonymous reviewers helped to improve clarity of some statements in the paper. This work was supported by the Academy of Finland, project no. 281670.

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  1. Harry Oduro

    Present address: Saudi Aramco, Exploration and Petroleum Engineering Center – Advanced Research Center, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geological Survey of Finland, P.O. Box 96, FI-02151, Espoo, Finland

    Ferenc Molnár, Esa Pohjolainen, Hugh O’Brien, Lassi Pakkanen & Bo Johanson

  2. St. Andrews University, St. Andrews, UK

    Harry Oduro

  3. Mawson Resources Ltd., Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Nick D. J. Cook

  4. Department of Mineralogy, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary

    Ágnes Takács

  5. Division 4.3, GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Richard Wirth

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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ferenc Molnár.

Additional information

Editorial handling: M. Fayek

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Electronic Supplement Table 1

Electron microprobe data of minerals from Rompas. (XLSX 158 kb)

Electronic Supplement Table 2

Sulphur isotope data for sulphide minerals and pyrobitumen from Rompas. (XLSX 16 kb)

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Molnár, F., Oduro, H., Cook, N.D.J. et al. Association of gold with uraninite and pyrobitumen in the metavolcanic rock hosted hydrothermal Au-U mineralisation at Rompas, Peräpohja Schist Belt, northern Finland. Miner Deposita 51, 681–702 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-015-0636-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-015-0636-6

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