Gold gradients and anomalies in the Pedro Dome-Cleary Summit area, Fairbanks district, Alaska

Abstract

Anomalous gold values have been discovered in hydrothermally altered quartz diorite, quartz monzonite, and quartz mica schist at the head of Fox Creek; and in similarly altered quartz diorite in the Granite Creek area. Channel samples across some of these altered zones have produced anomalous gold values over widths which merit further investigation as potential large tonnage low-grade gold deposits. Trace gold gradients have also been detected in the wall rocks adjacent to mineralized veins and in hydrothermal alteration zones in the Pedro Dome-Cleary Summit area. Although most of the gradients may not materially increase the mineable width of the deposit under current economic conditions, such gradients can be used to locate auriferous quartz veins and altered zones by geochemical methods. Gold enrichment is accompanied by anomalous concentrations of arsenic and antimony, and gold bearing quartz veins and altered zones are frequently signaled by peripheral haloes of these metals before trace gold is detectable. Hydrothermally altered and/or sheared zones in both granitic and metamorphic rocks should be carefully prospected, along the trend of the Cleary Antiform.