Fault/fracture density and mineralization: a contouring method for targeting in gold exploration

A widely observed correlation between high fracture density and mineralization throughout terranes and geological time indicates a fundamental underlying ore-forming process. In Archaean greenstone-hosted deposits, high-density fracturing was accompanied by enhanced fluid flow during fault/fracture network development, producing regional-scale fluid pressure gradients that focussed hydrothermal fluids into preferentially fractured areas. Fracture density is both increased and decreased during faulting and fault healing, and fracture density accumulates over time, in zones of high palaeo-fluid flow. Localised zones where the density of fracturing is increased by deformation, become permeability nodes for migrating hydrothermal fluids leading to large zones of alteration and gold precipitation. The Ora Banda mining centre in Western Australia contains significant gold deposits that appear to demonstrate a close association between high-density fracturing and gold precipitation. Fracture density in the Ora Banda mines was enhanced by fault–fault intersections, fault–contact intersections and changes in fault geometry. The mine-scale relationships between fracture density and gold mineralization are repeated at smaller and larger scales, hence these relationships may be used in targeting for gold exploration. Contouring the density of fracturing in a region provides a semi-quantitative way to rank areas for exploration and uses data from mapping, drilling and high-quality geophysical data as a basis for analyses. Fracture density contouring is complementary to other prospectivity-analysis methods.