TY - JOUR
T1 - Paleoproterozoic gold events in the southern West African Craton
T2 - review and synopsis
AU - Masurel, Quentin
AU - Eglinger, Aurélien
AU - Thébaud, Nicolas
AU - Allibone, Andrew
AU - André-Mayer, Anne Sylvie
AU - McFarlane, Helen
AU - Miller, John
AU - Jessell, Mark
AU - Aillères, Laurent
AU - Vanderhaeghe, Olivier
AU - Salvi, Stefano
AU - Baratoux, Lenka
AU - Perrouty, Stephane
AU - Begg, Graham
AU - Fougerouse, Denis
AU - Hayman, Patrick
AU - Wane, Ousmane
AU - Tshibubudze, Asinne
AU - Parra-Avila, Luis
AU - Kouamélan, Alain
AU - Amponsah, Prince Ofori
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - The southern part of the West African Craton includes the Baoulé-Mossi Domain, the world’s premier Paleoproterozoic gold province (~10,000 metric ton gold endowment). Structural, metamorphic, and geochronological data suggest gold mineralisation occurred during three episodes that span much of the Eoeburnean and Eburnean orogenic cycles. Eoeburnean orogenic and rare skarn-hosted gold deposits formed between ca. 2200 and 2135 Ma during repeated episodes of volcanism, plutonism, and shortening, which thickened the Paleoproterozoic crust. Early Eburnean orogenic and placer gold deposits formed between ca. 2110 and 2095 Ma during inversion, metamorphism, and subsequent oblique shortening of intra-orogenic basins filled after ca. 2135 Ma. This episode of mineralisation terminated when the Baoulé-Mossi Domain docked with the Archean Kénéma-Man Domain at ca. 2095 Ma. Late Eburnean orogenic and less common intrusion-related gold deposits formed between ca. 2095 and 2060 Ma during strike-slip to oblique-slip tectonics, post-collisional high-K plutonism and crustal reworking across the western and southern Baoulé-Mossi Domain. Eoeburnean gold deposits include ca. 10 % of the gold endowment of the Baoulé-Mossi Domain, whereas the Early Eburnean and Late Eburnean deposits include ca. 50–70% and 20–40%, respectively. Here, we highlight the favourable confluence of accretion-collision tectonics, involving juvenile crust formation as well as protracted magmatic, metamorphic, and deformation histories that resulted in diachronous gold events spread over at least 100 myr throughout the Baoulé-Mossi Domain.
AB - The southern part of the West African Craton includes the Baoulé-Mossi Domain, the world’s premier Paleoproterozoic gold province (~10,000 metric ton gold endowment). Structural, metamorphic, and geochronological data suggest gold mineralisation occurred during three episodes that span much of the Eoeburnean and Eburnean orogenic cycles. Eoeburnean orogenic and rare skarn-hosted gold deposits formed between ca. 2200 and 2135 Ma during repeated episodes of volcanism, plutonism, and shortening, which thickened the Paleoproterozoic crust. Early Eburnean orogenic and placer gold deposits formed between ca. 2110 and 2095 Ma during inversion, metamorphism, and subsequent oblique shortening of intra-orogenic basins filled after ca. 2135 Ma. This episode of mineralisation terminated when the Baoulé-Mossi Domain docked with the Archean Kénéma-Man Domain at ca. 2095 Ma. Late Eburnean orogenic and less common intrusion-related gold deposits formed between ca. 2095 and 2060 Ma during strike-slip to oblique-slip tectonics, post-collisional high-K plutonism and crustal reworking across the western and southern Baoulé-Mossi Domain. Eoeburnean gold deposits include ca. 10 % of the gold endowment of the Baoulé-Mossi Domain, whereas the Early Eburnean and Late Eburnean deposits include ca. 50–70% and 20–40%, respectively. Here, we highlight the favourable confluence of accretion-collision tectonics, involving juvenile crust formation as well as protracted magmatic, metamorphic, and deformation histories that resulted in diachronous gold events spread over at least 100 myr throughout the Baoulé-Mossi Domain.
KW - Eburnean orogeny
KW - Gold
KW - Paleoproterozoic
KW - West African Craton
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85105397245&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00126-021-01052-5
DO - 10.1007/s00126-021-01052-5
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85105397245
SN - 0026-4598
VL - 57
SP - 513
EP - 537
JO - Mineralium Deposita
JF - Mineralium Deposita
IS - 4
ER -