The petrochemistry of the auriferous, volcanosedimentary Riacho dos Machados Group, Central-eastern Brazil: geotectonic implications for shear-hosted gold mineralization

The Ouro Fino Gold Deposit at the Riacho dos Machados Mine is located in the Araçuaي Fold Belt at the eastern margin of the Sمo Francisco Craton. The gold is shear zone-hosted and associated principally with a sulphide-bearing, quartzmuscovite schist, derived from the hydrothermal alteration of pelitic and quartzofeldspathic schists of the Riacho dos Machados Group (RMG). Along the shear zones, mineral associations typical of the amphibolite facies are progressively altered to assemblages typical of the greenschist facies. It has become evident from the studies that the process of segregation and concentration of chemical elements and minerals is the very process of mineralization, involving the concentration of Au. G comprises ultramafic, mafic and acid metavolcanic rocks intercalated in a sequence of metapelites. The metapelites have textures and geochemistry compatible with greywackes. The dacitic and mafic/ultramafic rocks are of calc-alkaline and tholeiitic subalkaline association, respectively. The RMG probably formed within a continental volcanic arc. The thrust faults that establish the regional architecture, and which host the Riacho dos Machados gold mineralization, are related to a continental collision of unknown age between the precursor to the Sمo Francisco Craton and the Guanambi-Correntina Block.