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Young orogenic gold mineralisation in active collisional mountains, Taiwan

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Abstract

Gold-bearing vein systems in the high mountains of Taiwan are part of the youngest tectonic-hydrothermal system on Earth. Tectonic collision initiated in the Pliocene has stacked Eocene–Miocene marine sedimentary rocks to form steep mountains nearly 4 km high. Thinner portions of the sedimentary pile (∼5 km) are currently producing hydrocarbons in a fold and thrust belt, and orogenic gold occurs in quartz veins in thicker parts of the pile (∼10 km) in the Slate Belt that underlies the mountains. Metamorphic fluids (2–5 wt.% NaCl equivalent) are rising from the active greenschist facies metamorphic zone and transporting gold released during rock recrystallisation. Metamorphic fluid flow at the Pingfengshan historic gold mine was focussed in well-defined (4 km3) fracture zones with networks of quartz veins, whereas large surrounding volumes of rock are largely unveined. Gold and arsenopyrite occur in several superimposed vein generations, with ankeritic alteration of host rocks superimposed on chlorite–calcite alteration zones as fluids cooled and became out of equilibrium with the host rocks. Mineralising fluids had δ18O near +10‰, δ13C was between −1‰ and −6‰ and these fluids were in isotopic equilibrium with host rocks at ∼350°C. Ankeritic veins were emplaced in extensional sites in kink fold axial surfaces, formed as the rock mass was transported laterally from compressional to extensional regimes in the orogen. Rapid exhumation (>2 mm/year) of the Slate Belt is causing a widespread shallow conductive thermal anomaly without igneous intrusions. Meteoric water is penetrating into the conductive thermal anomaly to contribute to crustal fluid flow and generate shallow boiling fluids (∼250°C) with fluid temperature greater than rock temperature. The meteoric-hydrothermal system impinges on, but causes only minor dilution of, the gold mineralisation system at depth.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by National Taiwan University, University of Otago and the NZ Foundation for Research, Science and Technology. Field assistance by Ling-Ho Chung greatly facilitated the research. Expert laboratory assistance was ably provided by Kat Lilly, Brent Pooley and Damian Walls. Constructive reviews by two journal referees and editorial comments by Pat Williams substantially improved the presentation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geology Department, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Dave Craw

  2. GNS Science, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Phaedra Upton

  3. National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan

    Bing-Sheng Yu

  4. Geological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Travis Horton

  5. Geosciences Department, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Yue-Gau Chen

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  1. Dave Craw
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Correspondence to Dave Craw.

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Editorial handling: Patrick Williams

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Craw, D., Upton, P., Yu, BS. et al. Young orogenic gold mineralisation in active collisional mountains, Taiwan. Miner Deposita 45, 631–646 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-010-0297-4

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