{"id":2416,"date":"2019-10-02T19:52:06","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T19:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gsnv.org\/shop\/a-modern-analogue-for-witwatersrand-style-gold-mineralization-an-example-from-belle-brook-and-parker-road-new-zealand\/"},"modified":"2020-02-24T18:17:31","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T18:17:31","slug":"a-modern-analogue-for-witwatersrand-style-gold-mineralization-an-example-from-belle-brook-and-parker-road-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.gsnv.org\/shop\/a-modern-analogue-for-witwatersrand-style-gold-mineralization-an-example-from-belle-brook-and-parker-road-new-zealand\/","title":{"rendered":"A modern analogue for &#8216;Witwatersrand-style&#8217; gold mineralization: an example from Belle-Brook and Parker Road, New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the central issues in the debate on the genesis of the Witwatersrand gold<br \/>\ndeposits is the distinction between early-diagenetic gold and sulfide textures and those<br \/>\nresulting from hydrothermal activity associated with or following regional metamorphism.<br \/>\nOnly unmetamorphosed, and therefore very young, placer deposits can<br \/>\nprovide examples of early-diagenetic textures, geochemical signatures and the mineralization<br \/>\nitself. To address the possibility that syngenetic characteristics are erroneously<br \/>\nattributed to metamorphic or hydrothermal processes in ancient placer<br \/>\ndeposits, we document an example of gold and sulfide mineralization from recent<br \/>\nquartz pebble conglomerate (QPC) gold placers at Belle-Brook and Parker Road in<br \/>\nsouthern New Zealand.<br \/>\nGold and early-diagenetic sulfides at Belle-Brook and Parker Road are morphologically<br \/>\nand compositionally similar to gold and sulfides from Witwatersrand QPC.<br \/>\nGold in the QPC at the sites investigated is fine-grained (< 2 mm) with abundant textures\nattributed to transport, diagenesis and authigenic gold remobilization. Authigenic\ngold occurs as overgrowths on the detrital Au-Ag and Au-Ag-Hg alloys and, less\ncommonly, as discrete Au-Ag alloy particles. Sulfide minerals, mainly early-diagenetic\nmarcasite and, to a lesser extent, early-diagenetic pyrite, detrital pyrite and arsenopyrite\nare locally abundant.\nSedimentary and diagenetic processes associated with, and following the formation\nof the QPC gold placers at Belle-Brook and Parker Road are readily observable\nat the surface, and hence, more easily understood than those of the Witwatersrand\nQPC ore bodies. Despite an oxygen-rich atmosphere, there is abundant evidence for\ndiagenetic formation, sedimentary transport, and preservation of sulfides in the surficial\nenvironment at Belle-Brook. Thus, although economically insignificant, study\nof young QPC gold placers, such as those at Belle-Brook and Parker Road, provide\nnew perspectives in the understanding of Witwatersrand-style mineralization.\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":""},"product_cat":[154],"product_tag":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsnv.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/2416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsnv.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsnv.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsnv.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsnv.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsnv.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsnv.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=2416"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsnv.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=2416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}