Structural setting, hydrothermal alteration, and gold mineralisation at the Archaean syenite-hosted Jupiter deposit, Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia

Abstract

The Jupiter gold deposit in the northeastern Eastern Goldfields Province of the Yilgarn Craton of Western Australia is hosted in greenschist facies metamorphosed tholeiitic basalt, quartz–alkali-feldspar syenite, and quartz–feldspar porphyry. Syenite intrudes basalt as irregularly shaped dykes which radiate from a larger stock, whereas at least three E–W and NE–SW striking quartz–feldspar porphyries intrude both syenite and basalt. Brittle–ductile shear zones are shallow-dipping, NW to NE striking, or are steep-dipping to the south and west. Quartz ± carbonate veins that host gold at Jupiter occur in all lithologies and are divided into: (1) veins that are restricted to the shear zones, (2) discrete veins that are subparallel to shear zone-hosted veins, and (3) stockwork veins that form a network of randomly oriented microfractures in syenite wallrock proximal to shallow-dipping shear zones. The gold-bearing veins comprise mainly quartz, calcite, ankerite, and albite, with minor sericite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, molybdenite, telluride minerals, and gold. Proximal hydrothermal alteration zones to the mineralised veins comprise quartz, calcite, ankerite, albite, and sericite. High gold grades (>2 g/t Au) occur mainly in syenite and in the hanging walls to shallow-dipping shear zones in syenite where there is a greater density of mineralised stockwork veins. The Jupiter deposit has structural and hydrothermal alteration styles that are similar to both granitoid-hosted, but post-magmatic Archaean lode-gold deposits in the Yilgarn Craton and intrusion-related, syn-magmatic, syenite-hosted gold deposits in the Superior Province of Canada. Based on field observations and petrologic data, the Jupiter deposit is considered to be a post-magmatic Archaean lode-gold deposit rather than a syn-intrusion deposit.