Hydrothermal alteration and mineralizing fluids in the Jerimum de Baixo prospect, Cuiú-Cuiú Goldfield, Tapajós Gold Province: a study based on petrography, fluid inclusions and mineral chemistry

Abstract

The Jerimum de Baixo gold target is located in the Cuiú-Cuiú goldfield, Tapajós Gold Province, Amazonian Craton. The target is composed by isotropic monzogranitic rocks with Fe-rich biotite, which is slightly-to-strongly altered by hydrothermal fluids. Chloritization, sericitization, sulfidation, silicification and carbonatization are the most important types of hydrothermal alteration. The chloritization is represented by Fe-rich chlorite (chamosite type), that was mostly formed between 261 and 315ºC. White mica takes up fengitic compositions. The mineralization is represented by quartz-rich veinlets with low content of sulfides (pyrite + pyrrhotite ± chalcopyrite ± galena ± sphalerite) in which the gold occurs as freemilling particles and in fractured, brecciaed and altered zones, where gold is associated with pyrrhotite. The petrographic and microthermometric study of fluid inclusions hosted in quartz veinlets defined aqueous-carbonic, carbonic and aqueous fluids. The CO₂ bearing inclusions represent the probable mineralizing fluid, and are interpreted as produced by phase separation process (effervescence) between 280 and 380ºC. The aqueous fluids are late to the mineralization and represent posterior and consecutives events of infiltration and mixture with meteoric fluids. Phases separation, modifications in pH conditions and interaction fluid/rock were important mechanisms for the precipitation of gold that took place in the brittle-ductile zone of the continental crust (between 2 and 6 km). The available data set pointed out a metallogenetic affiliation, similar to that of intrusion-related gold deposits, to Jerimum de Baixo.