Geochemical and geochronological discrimination of biotite types at the detour lake gold deposit, Canada

Abstract

The Detour Lake deposit is at a faulted contact between mafic volcanic and siliciclastic to volcaniclastic rocks, differing from other orogenic Au deposits in the dominantly greenschist facies Abitibi region, by possessing amphibolite facies assemblages. Consequently, typical indicator minerals for mineralization, like secondary biotite, may not be useful for locating ore zone, due to the challenge of distinguishing hydrothermal versus metamorphic and magmatic phases. Herein, geochemical and40Ar/39Ar geochronological data are presented for biotite from mineralized and barren (distal) magmatic rocks to characterize potential geochemical and geochronological variations between biotite types. Petrological observations reveal four biotite types: (1) Biotite hosted in mineralized, sulphidized quartz-calite veins, (2) halo biotite at the margins of the aforementioned veins; (3) host rock biotite defining the foliation within the mafic volcanic rocks of the deposit; and (4) biotite defining the foliation within the barren meta-plutonic host rocks. Chemical analysis reveals a lower Ti- and higher Mg-content of mineralized biotite types, indicative of secondary hydrothermal processes.40Ar/39Ar ages for all biotite types (2600–2390 Ma) post-date the main syn-deformation mineralization event at Detour Lake (≤ 2700 Ma). These results suggest chemical variations within biotite are due to a post-mineralization hydrothermal event, thus biotite should be used cautiously as a vector for gold mineralization in amphibolite facies terranes.