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Genesis of the hydrothermal gold deposits in the Canan area, Lepaguare District, Honduras

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Abstract

The Canan area (Honduras) is characterized by a gold-bearing ore deposit that is associated with quartz-veined shear zones. Gold mineralization occurs in low-to medium-grade metamorphic host-rocks (graphitic and sericitic schists). Hydrothermal fluids, which are associated with the emplacement of Cretaceous-Tertiary granodioritic intrusions, are responsible for the formation of quartz veins and the hydrothermal alteration of wall-rocks. Three main altered zones have been detected in the wall-rocks as far as 150 cm from the quartz veins. The distal zone (up to 50-cm thick) contains quartz, chlorite and illite. The intermediate zone is the thickest (up to 80 cm) and is marked by quartz, muscovite, sulphides, kaolinite and native elements such as Au and Ag. The proximal zone, which is close to the quartz veins, is rather thin (up to 25 cm) and contains clay minerals, Al-oxides-hydroxides and sulphides. The transition from the distal to the proximal zone is accompanied by the enrichment of SiO2 and the depletion of all other major elements, except for Fe2O3(tot). Precious metals occur in the highest concentrations in the intermediate zone (Au up to 7.6 ppm and Ag up to 11 ppm). We suggest that gold was transported as a reduced sulphur complex and was precipitated from the hydrothermal solution by the reaction of the sulphur complexes with Fe2+ from the alteration of the mafic minerals of the host-rock. Fluid–wall-rock interactions seem to be the main cause of gold mineralization. Genetic relationships with a strike-slip fault system, hydrothermal alteration zones within the metamorphic wall-rocks, and an entire set of geochemical anomalies are consistent with orogenic-type gold deposits of the epizonal class.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to G. Colaiacovo and A. Massini of the GOLDLAKE Group for their financial support and permission to publish the results of this study. Special thanks are due to Uwe Martens for his valuable discussions about and extensive suggestions for an early version of this manuscript. Very helpful reviews by Pablo Andrada de Palomera and an anonymous reviewer have noticeably improved the quality of this paper and are gratefully acknowledged. The Chief Editor Wolf-Christian Dullo is thanked for his editorial assistance and comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, della Vita e dell’Ambiente, Università di Urbino “Carlo Bo”, Campus Scientifico “Enrico Mattei”, 61029, Urbino, Italy

    Michele Mattioli, Marco Menichetti & Alberto Renzulli

  2. Dipartimento di Fisica e Scienze della Terra “Macedonio Melloni”, Università di Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze, 43100, Parma, Italy

    Lorenzo Toscani & Emma Salvioli-Mariani

  3. Goldlake Group, Colonia Palmira, Av. Republica del Brasil casa N 2401, Tegucigalpa, MDC, Honduras CA

    Pedro Suarez & Alessandro Murroni

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  1. Michele Mattioli
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Correspondence to Michele Mattioli.

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Mattioli, M., Menichetti, M., Renzulli, A. et al. Genesis of the hydrothermal gold deposits in the Canan area, Lepaguare District, Honduras. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 103, 901–928 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-013-0987-0

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