Mineralogical and petrographic characteristics of the Ugahan deposit

The article considers the mineralogical-petrographic and geochemical characteristics of the Ugahan gold ore deposit with the aim of creating a scheme of the mineralogical associations’ formation that is inscribed in the general geodynamic evolution of the Bodaibo region. The study has been carried out on the copyright material obtained in the research area during the fieldwork. The mineralogical-petrographic and analytical work has been carried out at the Research Sharing Center “Isotope-geochemical studies” of Vinogradov Institute of Geochemistry, the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The mineralogical and petrographic research has identified three generations of carbonate minerals, formed at different times and associated with different stages of the field formation. Within the deposit, the development of the regenerative quartz aggregates is widely observed. The phenomenon is especially widespread in the upper members of the Buzhuikhta formation that are composed of quartz sandstones. The development of the mineral associations in the deposit took place in the following order. At the early low-temperature stage, the framboid and small idiomorphic pyrite were formed (I and II). Later, the high-temperature minerals association developed, that included arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite, pyrite-III, native gold, galena, sphalerite, and gray copper ores. At the post-ore stage, the pyrite-IV crystallization in a quartz-carbonate rim occurred. A similar sequence of mineral association formation is observed at the Krasny and Sukhoy Log deposits, which suggests that the formation of ore mineralization of the Sukhoy Log type deposits is a result of similar ore-forming processes. The confinement of the Ugahan deposit to the Buzhuikhta formation allows us to consider this stratigraphic unit as promising in terms of further exploration for gold deposits. The content of arsenic (as the main gold-accompanying element in the Bodaibo region) in the deposits of the Buzhuikhta formation is an order of magnitude lower, which suggests that it should be excluded from the search characteristics within the boundaries of this stratigraphic level.

gold, Bodaibo region, Ugahan deposit, mineralogy, petrography, geochemistry

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