LA-ICP-MS in situ analyses of the pyrites in Dongyang gold deposit,Southeast China:Implications to the gold mineralization

The Dongyang gold deposit is a newly discovered epithermal deposit in Fujian Province,Southeast China,along the Circum-Pacific metallogenic belt.Herewith,the authors present mineralogical,scanning electron microscope,and laser ablation inductively coupled clasma mass spectrometry analysis to reveal the relations between Au and Te,As,S,Fe,etc.,and discuss the gold precipitation process.The pyrites in this deposit are Fe-deficient,and are enriched in Te and As.The authors infer that As was mainly in form of As-complexes,and Te-Au-Ag inclusions/solid solution also exsits in the Py I.Along with the depletion of Te and As,they were less active chemically in the Py II,and Au may be incorporated into As-rich and Fe-deficient surface sites by chemisorption onto As-rich growth surfaces.Because of the incorporation of new fluid,Te and As became the most active chemically in the Py III,which was the main elements precipitation stage,and As dominantly substituted for S in the lattice of pyrite,due to the more reducing condition.The authors propose Au was in form of invisible gold,and the incorporation of gold can be considered as post-pyrite event,while the Au-bearing minerals were result of post incorporation of gold in arsenian pyrite.

The Existence of the Negative Charge of Gold in Sulphide Minerals and Its Formation Mechanism

Through a study, particularly an X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS or ESCA) analysis, of gold-bearing arsenopyrite and pyrite in Carlin-type gold deposits of Guangxi, China, and hydrothermally synthesized gold-bearing pyrite and marcasite, the authors have found that these minerals contain 'invisible gold' whose binding energy is lower than that of native gold (Au°). Therefore they suggest that gold occurs in a negative charge state in these sulphide minerals as it replaces some sulphur and is combined with sulphur with the covalent bond. This paper also preliminarily discusses the possibility of its formation from the chemistry and geochemistry of gold, crystal chemistry of arsenopyrite, pyrite and marcasite and geochemical environment.

The state of gold in phases of the Cu-Fe-S system:In situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy study

Chalcopyrite and bornite are the main Au-bearing minerals at Cu porphyry deposits,volcanogenic massive sulfide(VMS)deposits,Cu-Ni deposits of the mafic magmatic complexes,and ores of submarine sulfide edifices.Bornite and intermediate solid solutions with wide compositional variations(bnss and iss–high-temperature chalcopyrite,correspondingly),which can scavenge economic concentrations of Au,appear in the Cu-Fe-S system at ore-forming conditions.However,the state of Au in bnss and iss is yet unknown.To solve this conundrum,we synthesized samples with net chemical composition of bnss and iss,studied them by in situ X–ray absorption spectroscopy(XAS),and used the experimental data to explain the Au distribution among natural ore-forming minerals.The sulfide samples were obtained at 495–700℃ in Au-saturated system by means of salt flux method.The bnss contained1.2–1.6 log units more Au than iss:up to 18 wt.%Au in bnss vs 0.4 wt.%Au in iss at 700C.An increase of temperature resulted in the sharp increase of Au concentration in both phases,1 log unit per 100℃ at f(S2)close to S_((l)) saturation.Analysis of Au L_(3)-edge spectra recorded at 25–675℃ revealed that at 25℃ Au exists mainly in the metallic state.At t>500℃ the spectral features of Audisappear,and “chemically bound”Au predominates.The Au form of occurrence in the iss field is interpreted as Au-bearing clusters with a stromeyerite-like(CuAgS)structure.Digenite Cu_(2–x)S and bnss contain Au in a mixture of stromeyeritelike and petrovskaite-like(Au_(0.8)Ag_(1.2)S)clusters.The chemical composition of both forms is close to CuAuS,where the nearest Au neighbors are two S atoms at R_(Au-S)=2.34–2.36Å.Results of the present study allow to determine the state of Au and its concentration in the main Cu-bearing minerals of sulfide ores as a function of the T-f(S_(2))-compositional parameters.Due to the sharp increase of the CuAuS clusters stability with increasing temperature,in high-temperature ores formed at t>350℃ Au enriches Cubearing minerals in comparison with Cu-free or Cu-deficient ones.As a result,in these ores native gold,being a product of decomposition of the Au-bearing clusters,is associated with Cu-rich minerals–chalcopyrite,bornite,digenite,chalcocite.