Distribution Characteristics of Gold Deposits in Africa and Exploration Suggestions
Received date: 2020-04-30
Revised date: 2020-05-20
Online published: 2020-08-27
Africa is the most important gold producing area in the world,and one of the hot spots to attract gold exploration investment as well.Based on the systematic collection and processing of the advances of the previous research on typical gold deposits and regional metallogenesis in the African continent,the spatial and temporal distribution of gold deposits in the African continent is summarized briefly in this article,which made the achievements below.The African continent consists mainly of four ancient cratons (i.e.Kalahari Craton,West Africa Craton,Congo Craton,and Sahara Meta-Craton) and Neoproterozoic orogenic belts developed around these cratons,as well as some Mesozoic basins developed on the cratons.The gold deposits predominantly occur in the ancient craton,especially in the Kalahari Craton in southern Africa and West African Craton in north-western Africa,where are the world famous gold producing areas.A small proportion of gold deposits are distributed in the Neoproterozoic orogenic belts,such as the Nubian Shield,and other Pan-African orogenic belts.There are many types of gold deposits in African,including conglomerate,orogenic,VMS,intrusion-related,porphyry,epithermal and IOCG types,with the former two being the most important types.The ore-forming age of gold deposits in Africa is mainly concentrated in three periods,i.e.Archean,Paleoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic.The enrichment of huge-sized conglomerate-type gold deposits in the Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa may be mainly related to their paleo-sedimentary environment,i.e.the alluvial braided river plain,while the gold enrichment in West African Craton,as the most important Paleoproterozoic gold region in the world,mainly attributes to the large amount of carbonaceous in the strata.Although many world-class gold deposits have been found in the African continent,their prospecting potential remains significant,especially in the search for orogenic gold deposits,as both the ancient craton and the Neoproterozoic orogenic belt occurring around the craton are favorable tectonic environments for the formation of orogenic gold deposits.For the gold exploration in the African continent,it is suggested that not only pay much attention to the deep prospecting of discovered gold deposits,but also to searching for the semi-buried and buried deposits,especially in the shallow covered areas of West African Craton and Congo Craton.By means of advanced geophysical,geochemical and remote sensing,the breakthrough of gold prospecting is expected.
Sihong JIANG , Lili ZHANG , Yifei LIU , Gaofeng LI , Genyuan JI . Distribution Characteristics of Gold Deposits in Africa and Exploration Suggestions[J]. Gold Science and Technology, 2020 , 28(4) : 465 -478 . DOI: 10.11872/j.issn.1005-2518.2020.04.083
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