A major Archean, gold- and crust-forming event in the Kaapvaal Craton, South Africa

Jason Kirk; Joaquin Ruiz; John Chesley; John Walshe; Gavin England

doi:10.1126/science.1075270

A major Archean, gold- and crust-forming event in the Kaapvaal Craton, South Africa

Jason Kirk, Joaquin Ruiz, John Chesley, John Walshe, Gavin England

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100 Scopus citations

Abstract

The 2.89- to 2.76-gigayear-old conglomerates of the Central Rand Group of South Africa host an immense concentration of gold. The gold and rounded pyrites from the conglomerates yield a rhenium-osmium isochron age of 3.03 ± 0.02 gigayears and an initial ¹⁸⁷Os/¹⁸⁸Os ratio of 0.1079 ± 0.0001. This age is older than that of the conglomerates. Thus, the gold is detrital and was not deposited by later hydrothermal fluids. This Middle Archean gold mineralization event corresponds to a period of rapid crustal growth in which much of the Kaapvaal craton was formed and is evidence for a significant noble metal flux from the mantle.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1856-1858
Number of pages	3
Journal	Science
Volume	297
Issue number	5588
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1075270
State	Published - Sep 13 2002

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abstract = "The 2.89- to 2.76-gigayear-old conglomerates of the Central Rand Group of South Africa host an immense concentration of gold. The gold and rounded pyrites from the conglomerates yield a rhenium-osmium isochron age of 3.03 ± 0.02 gigayears and an initial 187Os/188Os ratio of 0.1079 ± 0.0001. This age is older than that of the conglomerates. Thus, the gold is detrital and was not deposited by later hydrothermal fluids. This Middle Archean gold mineralization event corresponds to a period of rapid crustal growth in which much of the Kaapvaal craton was formed and is evidence for a significant noble metal flux from the mantle.",

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AU - Kirk, Jason

AU - Ruiz, Joaquin

AU - Chesley, John

AU - Walshe, John

AU - England, Gavin

PY - 2002/9/13

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AB - The 2.89- to 2.76-gigayear-old conglomerates of the Central Rand Group of South Africa host an immense concentration of gold. The gold and rounded pyrites from the conglomerates yield a rhenium-osmium isochron age of 3.03 ± 0.02 gigayears and an initial 187Os/188Os ratio of 0.1079 ± 0.0001. This age is older than that of the conglomerates. Thus, the gold is detrital and was not deposited by later hydrothermal fluids. This Middle Archean gold mineralization event corresponds to a period of rapid crustal growth in which much of the Kaapvaal craton was formed and is evidence for a significant noble metal flux from the mantle.

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A major Archean, gold- and crust-forming event in the Kaapvaal Craton, South Africa

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