Home | Contact Us | Sitemap | 中文 | CAS | Director's Email
 
Location:Home > Papers > Recent Papers
The occurrence of gold in hydrothermal sulfide at Southwest Indian Ridge 49.6 degrees E TEXT SIZE: A A A

Massive sulfide precipitates found in the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) 49.6A degrees E hydrothermal field are enriched in gold. Here, the mineralogy and mineral chemistry of these massive sulfides to constrain the process of gold precipitation were studied. Sulfide samples in this field include lower-temperature Zn-rich sulfides and relative higher-temperature Fe-rich sulfides. Zn-rich sulfides are dominated by sphalerite-pyrite-chalcopyrite assemblages, with concentrations of gold ranging from 9.08 to 17.0 A mu g/g. Fe-rich sulfides consist mainly of pyrite-marcasite-isocubanite assemblages, with gold concentrations from 2.17 to 3.79 A mu g/g. The significant enrichment in gold within the lower-temperature Zn-rich sulfides and the effective separation of Zn and Fe in hydrothermal precipitates at the surface of this field are here interpreted to reflect the strong temperature dependence of gold transportation and deposition within the sulfides. In Zn-rich samples, large amounts of isolated native gold grains were identified. They were found mainly as inclusions up to 8 A mu m in diameter, occupying porous cavities in sphalerite or in the elevated iron content rim of sphalerite. The fineness of the gold ranged from 810 to 830. Unlike previously published results on other hydrothermal fields, these data show a low gold fineness values in SWIR 49.6A degrees E. The FeS content of sphalerite associated with gold grains ranged from 3.2 mole % to 18.9 mole %. This was higher than in other fields, indicating that the sulfur activity is relatively low during the gold precipitation process and that sulfur activity may be one of the main factors affecting gold fineness in the SWIR 49.6A degrees E hydrothermal field. Evidence regarding gold fineness and sulfur activity suggests that gold was quite likely transported as AuHS0 rather than as a Au(HS) (2) (-) complex.

 Publication name ACTA OCEANOLOGICA SINICA Volume: 31  Issue: 6  Pages: 72-82  Published: NOV 2012
 Author(s) Ye Jun; Shi Xuefa; Yang Yaomin; Li Naisheng; Liu Jihua; Su Wenchao
 Corresponding author  

SHI Xuefa
xfshi@fio.org.cn 
State Ocean Adm, Qingdao 266061, Peoples R China.

 Author(s) from IGCAS SU Wenchao

View here for the details from the publisher

Copyright © Institute Of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences All Rights Reserved.
Address: 99 West Lincheng Road, Guanshanhu District, Guiyang, Guizhou Province 550081, P.R.China
Tel: +86-851-85895239 Fax: +86-851-85895239 Email: web_en@mail.gyig.ac.cn