Gold Mineralization in Kottathara Prospect, Attappadi Valley, Kerala, India: a Preliminary Appraisal

The Kottathara gold prospect of Attappadi Valley in Kerala is located within the Southern Indian Granulite Terrain comprising charnockite and gneisses with enclaves of high-grade supracrustals. The gold mineralization associated with the basic members of the Attappadi supracrustals and the quartz veins traversing them are confined within the Bhavani Shear Zone. Primarily the gold-quartz lode is emplaced in rheologically preferred zones along the contact of the basic members with the enclosing gneisses subsequent to a period of retrogression and shearing. Ore-mineralogical studies reveal that gold got remobilized and this remobilization is identified with the regional Bhavani Shear. SEM studies indicate that gold occurs in free state and also within sulphides especially pyrite. Variation in grain morphology is clearly discernible in gold occurring within oxidised and in non-oxidised zones. cing of deformational events with associated emplacements of known ages suggests the age of gold mineralization of Attappadi area as between 2 Ga. and 2.5 Ga. The secondary mobilization has to be <2.0 Ga or younger possibly of younger Pan-African age related with the Moyar-Bhavani Shear System. The inherent gold content of the komatiitic metapyroxenites together with the auriferous quartz lodes assigns a lithological control on gold mineralisation. Subsequent folding and remobilization due to the regional shear constrained the geometry of the lode zones implying structural control.