A new kind of invisible gold in pyrite hosted in deformation-related dislocations

Denis Fougerouse; Steven M. Reddy; Mark Aylmore; Lin Yang; Paul Guagliardo; David W. Saxey; William D.A. Rickard; Nicholas Timms

doi:10.1130/G49028.1

A new kind of invisible gold in pyrite hosted in deformation-related dislocations

Denis Fougerouse, Steven M. Reddy, Mark Aylmore, Lin Yang, Paul Guagliardo, David W. Saxey, William D.A. Rickard, Nicholas Timms

Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation & Analysis

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

46 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Mining of “invisible gold” associated with sulfides in gold ores represents a significant proportion of gold production worldwide. Gold hosted in sulfide minerals has been proposed to be structurally bound in the crystal lattice as a sulfide-gold alloy and/or to occur as discrete metallic nanoparticles. Using a combination of microstructural quantification and nanoscale geochemical analyses on a pyrite crystal from an orogenic gold deposit, we show that dislocations hosted in a deformation low-angle boundary can be enriched in Ni, Cu, As, Pb, Sb, Bi, and Au. The cumulative trace-element enrichment in the dislocations is 3.2 at% higher compared to the bulk crystal. We propose that trace elements were segregated during the migration of the dislocation following the dislocation-impurity pair model. The gold hosted in nanoscale dislocations represents a new style of invisible gold.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1225-1229
Number of pages	5
Journal	Geology
Volume	49
Issue number	10
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1130/G49028.1
Publication status	Published - Oct 2021

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10.1130/G49028.1Licence: CC BY

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AU - Guagliardo, Paul

AU - Saxey, David W.

AU - Rickard, William D.A.

AU - Timms, Nicholas

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A new kind of invisible gold in pyrite hosted in deformation-related dislocations

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