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Archaean lode gold mineralisation in Bhitar Dari area of Gorumahisani–Badampahar greenstone belt, Singhbhum Craton, eastern India

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Abstract

Abstract

The Palaeo Archaean (3.5–3.2 Ga) volcano-sedimentary sequence of the Gorumahisani–Badampahar greenstone (GBG) belt occurs along the northeastern fringe of the Singhbhum Craton (SC) and is widely referred to as Iron Ore Group of rocks (IOG). Though sporadic occurrences of gold mineralisation have been reported from the central and southern arms of the GBG Belt, gold mineralisation in the northern part of the belt has hitherto gone unreported. Through this paper, the authors report, for the first time, a notable gold resource from the northern arm of the GBG Belt falling in the Bhitar Dari area, East Singhbhum district, Jharkhand. The authors also attempt to understand the nature and control of mineralisation in the area. Interfolial syn-D2 quartz and quartz-carbonate veins act as a host for gold mineralisation, traversing along and across major litho units comprising of inter-banded sequence of phyllite, tuffaceous phyllite, carbonaceous phyllite, fuchsite quartzite, conglomerate, cherty quartzite, BIF, chlorite schist and ultramafic rocks. Sulphide minerals such as chalcopyrite, pyrite, pyrrhotite, and arsenopyrite constitute the major ore assemblage of the area.

Research highlights

The Palaeo Archaean (3.5–3.3 Ga) volcano-sedimentary sequence of the Gorumahisani–Badampahar Greenstone (GBG) belt occurs along the northeastern fringe of the Singhbhum Craton (SC) and is widely referred to as Iron Ore Group of rocks (IOG). Though sporadic gold mineralisation has been reported from the central and southern arms of the GBG Belt, gold mineralisation in the northern part of the belt has hitherto gone unreported. Through this paper, the authors report, for the first time, a notable gold resource from the northern arm of the GBG Belt falling in the Bhitar Dari area, East Singhbhum district, Jharkhand. The authors also attempt to understand the nature and control of mineralisation in the area. Interfolial syn-D2 quartz and quartz-carbonate veins act as a host for gold mineralisation, traversing along and across major litho units comprising of inter-banded sequence of phyllite, tuffaceous phyllite, carbonaceous phyllite, fuchsite quartzite, conglomerate, cherty quartzite, BIF, chlorite schist and ultramafic rocks. Sulphide minerals such as chalcopyrite, pyrite, pyrrhotite, arsenopyrite constitute the major ore assemblage of the area. Gold values range from 60 ppb to 13.9 ppm from the explored block of Bhitar Dari area. Field work along with ground geophysics, drilling, laboratory studies, including SEM/EDX and EPMA, were used to give an account of the presence of gold resources in the area.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Director General, GSI and the Additional Director General & Head of Department, Eastern Region, Kolkata for providing administrative support and valuable guidance. The authors express their sincere thanks to Regional Mission Head II, Eastern Region, Kolkata, for his valuable suggestions at various stages of the work. The authors are obliged to Dy DG, GSI, SU, Jharkhand and his office for providing all the facilities and administrative help during the course of investigation. The authors express their sincere gratitude towards all the GSI laboratories, which helps in confirming the gold occurrences/resource in the area and also to the Fire Assay Laboratory of Hutti Gold Mines Co. Ltd., Raichur, Karnataka, India for validation of the Au assay value. The authors also express their sincere gratitude to all those who helped directly or indirectly in publishing this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Director General Camp Office (DGCO), Geological Survey of India, New Delhi, India

    Abhishek Das

  2. Geological Survey of India, Ranchi, India

    Pankaj Kumar & Nandu Khalkho

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  1. Abhishek Das
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  2. Pankaj Kumar
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Contributions

Abhishek Das: Conceptualisation, methodology, investigation, data curation, software handling, validation, visualisation, writing – original draft preparation; Pankaj Kumar: Investigation, conceptualisation, data curation, supervision, validation, writing – reviewing and editing; and Nandu Khalkho: Investigation and data curation.

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Correspondence to Pankaj Kumar.

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Communicated by Somnath Dasgupta

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Das, A., Kumar, P. & Khalkho, N. Archaean lode gold mineralisation in Bhitar Dari area of Gorumahisani–Badampahar greenstone belt, Singhbhum Craton, eastern India. J Earth Syst Sci 131, 264 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-022-02011-y

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