About this Research Topic

Background

Worldwide exploration for gold deposits have started to focus towards the orogenic belts in different ages, geological background and formation processes and histories. Despite the increasing economic interest in orogenic gold deposits, the models explaining the sources of the metals and fluids and ore forming processes are still debated. Since the eighties, the studies from different parts of orogenic terranes focused mainly on the controls on ore formation, the source of metals, the ore forming fluids and the mineralizing processes. In recent years a number of studies were concerned with the evidence for and against certain models of orogenic gold deposits genesis. This research topic will focus on the source of ore bearing fluids and discusses the main controls and genesis of “Orogenic Systems and Associated Ore deposits”. Orogenic gold deposits are mainly hosted in metamorphic rocks, in different grade in subduction related accretionary or collisional terranes. The area of research covers a broad range in geographical location of deposits and the ore types.

The goal of this Research Topic, is to better understand the geological processes triggering transport and deposition of metals (Au, Ag, Sb, As, Hg … etc.) over space and time, main controls on ore and alteration mineral assemblages. The issues relating to structural geology, metamorphism, mineralogy and geochemistry in this context are summarized below.

• Detailed alteration mineralogy-petrography studies are critical to understanding many of the studied deposits which were complicated by the following tectonic and metamorphic overprint.
• More precise data need to contribute to the relative timing of gold deposition which is strongly dependent to the metamorphic and deformation history of the orogenic belt where orogenic gold deposits most commonly form perhaps 20 to 100 Ma after regional metamorphism.
• If exists the age, geochemistry and the origins of granitoids which act either as a source for ore-bearing magmatic hydrothermal fluids or as a heat source for remobilization of the earlier mineralization.
• Isotope geochemistry and integrated fluid inclusion studies focus on the mixing of fluids from different sources or later overprints to test the convenience of metamorphic models.

To be able to improve our understanding of the processes in the orogenic gold system being modelled by previous contributions, we welcome multidisciplinary research studies involving researchers from multiple geological disciplines. The manuscripts describing the mode of occurrence, ore petrography, structural geology, metamorphic petrology and geochemistry. The contributions that we are interested in range from detailed mineralogical analysis (For example, the correlation between fluid inclusions composition and Au mineralization in three dimension or the relationship between the gold and mineral paragenesis which representing reducing and oxidizing conditions) to regional scale synthesis (For example, mineralization and structural controls both in brittle and ductile deformation).

Keywords: gold deposits, orogenic belts, ore formation, mineralization

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