ARCHEAN HYDROTHERMAL ZIRCON IN THE ABITIBI GREENSTONE-BELT - CONSTRAINTS ON THE TIMING OF GOLD MINERALIZATION

Hydrothermal zircons have been found in Archaean mesothermal Au-veins and altered wallrock selvages at Val d'Or, in the Abitibi greenstone belt of Canada. The zircons are paragenetically associated with vein quartz, tourmaline, mica, carbonate, scheelite, pyrite, and gold. Zirconium mobility, and the consequent occurrence of hydrothermal zircon, may be associated with the intense tourmalinisation characteristic of Archaean gold deposits in this district. The SHRIMP ion-microprobe has been used to analyse hydrothermal zircons from four separate mines spatially associated with the Bourlamaque batholith, and has yielded ages constraining formation of the Au-bearing vein systems to within 20 Ma of emplacement of the pluton. The ion microprobe data reveal multiple stages of hydrothermal zircon growth in the vein systems, contemporaneous with the regional metamorphic peak and late kinematic activity along regional structures. Younger (including Proterozoic) ages previously obtained for the veins, using other minerals and isotopic schemes, must reflect either alteration or renewed mineral growth during much later reactivation of fluids along the same structures up to 400 Ma after initial formation of the veins. © 1990.