Geological setting and types of carbonate-hosted gold deposits in the Birimian of West Africa

Guillaume Vic (1) , Mario Billa (1)

1 BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM)

The Paleoproterozoic domain in the West African Craton (WAC) encompasses numerous world-class gold deposits. These deposits are located in the volcanic and volcano-sedimentary Birimian greenstone belts ante-to syn-Eburnean orogeny in age. The orogenic-type gold mineralizations are coeval with the NW-SE compressive stage (D2) of the Eburnean orogeny. Several deposits are hosted within carbonates showing various purity and deformation degrees in western Ivory-Coast, Guinea and the Senegalo-Malian Kenieba-Kedougou Inlier. To date, the role of these lithologies in terms of preferential traps for hydrothermal and/or metamorphic gold-bearing fluids has likely been under estimated. Moreover, the typology of these deposits remains poorly constrained, in part because of their poor outcropping conditions and complex post-emplacement history.

Keywords: Birimian; gold; carbonates; Wesr-Africa

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Earth Sciences; Applied geology

Guillaume Vic, Mario Billa. Geological setting and types of carbonate-hosted gold deposits in the Birimian of West Africa. SGA 2015 : Ressources minérales dans un monde durable, SGA (Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits), Aug 2015, Nancy, France. ⟨hal-01157210⟩