Nature and Origin of Gold-Rich Carbonate Replacement Deposits at the Rau Occurrence, Central Yukon ...

• Main Author: Kingston, Scott P.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: The University of British Columbia 2009
• Subjects: Keno Hill; Yukon
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.14288/1.0053576; https://doi.library.ubc.ca/10.14288/1.0053576

The Rau occurrence is an unusual gold-rich carbonate replacement style deposit located in the Keno Hill District of central Yukon. It is most similar to the Ketza River deposit in southeastern Yukon, which is one of a small number of known gold-rich and base metal-poor carbonate replacement deposits in the world. The Rau occurrence itself hosts economically significant gold grades, and new information on the occurrence provides constraints on the genesis of this poorly understood type of deposit. A detailed petrographic study, utilizing both reflected light and a scanning electron microscopy, was completed using polished thin sections prepared from samples of drill core from two 2008 diamond drill holes on the Rau property. The petrographic analyses identified a simple hydrothermal mineralogy consisting of pyrite, pyrrhotite, and arsenopyrite as the dominant sulphides and a suite of accessory minerals that includes bismuthenite, sphalerite and chalcopyrite. No free gold was identified in the samples, and it ...