Hydrothermal Breccias and Veins at the Kelian Gold Mine, Kalimantan, Indonesia: Genesis of a Large Epithermal Gold Deposit

THIS PAPER DOCUMENTS the genesis of the Kelian gold deposit. We describe the characteristics and origins of the mineralized hydrothermal breccias and veins, which formed over a large vertical interval (>600 m). New sulfur isotope and fluid inclusion data are provided that help to constrain the genetic model, which invokes magmatic, tectonic, and hydrothermal processes. Our research is based on data collected during nine months of fieldwork at Kelian between mid-1997 and mid-1999 and builds on the results of previous studies by Ferguson (1986), van Leeuwen et al. (1990), Hawke (1992), Abidin (1996), Setiabudi (2001), and Setiabudi et al. (2007). The Kelian gold deposit is associated with a lower Miocene magmatic center in the province of East Kalimantan, Indonesia (Fig. 1). It is the largest

of several Tertiary volcanic-related ore deposits (Table 1) which occur along an east-northeast trending belt in East Kalimantan. Kelian is Indonesias largest gold-only ore deposit, with a total resource of 92.1 Mt of ore grading 2.61 g/t Au (~240 metric tonnes contained gold; P. Cesare, pers commun., 2002). Mineralization occurred during the emplacement of andesitic and rhyolitic intrusions (van Leeuwen et al., 1990) and is associated with a maar-diatreme complex and abundant hydrothermal breccias (van Leeuwen et al., 1990; Sillitoe, unpub. report on Magerang and Kelian, PT Kelian Equatorial Mining, 1993; Davies et al., 2008). In addition to containing more than 240 t of gold, Kelian is significant in belonging to a subclass of important, yet seldom documented, carbonate-base metal-rich epithermal deposits. These have been described as sulfide and base metal-rich lowsulfidation epithermal deposits (Sillitoe, 1989), as carbonatebase metal gold deposits (Corbett and Leach, 1998), and as intermediate sulfidation epithermal deposits (Sillitoe and Hedenquist, 2003). Rosia Montana al., 2006). Previous work at Kelian by van Leeuwen et al. (1990) identified many characteristics consistent with the lowsulfidation group of epithermal deposits (based on the definition of White and Hedenquist, 1990). Kelian also displays some features that are not common in this class of deposits (e.g., abundant base metals, low abundance of quartz, high-temperature saline fluid inclusions). Download via Mediafire (9.96Mb) Popularity: 12%