Chapman, RJ, Moles, NR, Bluemel, B et al. (1 more author) (2022) Detrital Gold as an Indicator Mineral. Geological Society Special Publication, 516. pp. 313-336. ISSN 0305-8719
Abstract
Detrital gold fulfils the criteria of chemical inertia and physical durability required by indicator minerals but it has not found wide application in this role because it may be formed in different deposit types. This problem is soluble, because the generic compositional features of hydrothermal gold differ according to mineralization environment. The wide distribution of gold as a minor component of mineralization where other commodities are the principle exploration target extends the potential of an indicator methodology based on detrital gold to beyond the search for gold itself. Here we highlight how distinctive gold compositional signatures derived from alloy composition and deposit- specific suites of mineral inclusions could contribute to exploration for Cu-Au porphyries, redox- controlled uranium mineralization and ultramafic-hosted PGE mineralization.
Future refinement this approach will focus on establishing the spatial distribution of elements at trace levels within gold particle sections using ToF-LA-ICP-MS and application of Exploratory Data Analysis to the resulting data sets. This approach is in its infancy, but aims to develop a classification algorithm useful to researchers irrespective of their previous experience. A pilot study has that random forests provide the best approach to establishing gold particle origins.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Author(s). Published by The Geological Society of London. All rights reserved. This is an author produced version of an article, published in Geological Society Special Publications. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Applied Geosciences (IAG) (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Government of Yukon T00005126 Yukon Geological Survey Not Known Geoscience BC Not Known |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 27 Sep 2021 15:17 |
Last Modified: | 05 Jan 2023 15:22 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Geological Society |
Identification Number: | 10.1144/sp516-2021-47 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:178505 |