Gold in the Neoproterozoic juvenile Bossoroca Volcanic Arc of southernmost Brazil: isotopic constraints on timing and sources

The Neoproterozoic Bossoroca juvenile Volcanic Arc of southernmost Brazil contains arc-related gold deposits. The Bossoroca gold deposit consists of veins and stockworks of quartz-gold ores with minor pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena and tellurides. Carbonate, chlorite, sericite and tourmaline are the main gangue minerals. The ore shoots are contained in calc-alkaline pyroclastic andesites and dacites with minor basalts and epiclastic rocks of the Campestre Formation. SHRIMP U/Pb investigations of zircon show that the island-arc volcanogenic sequence was formed ca 757 m.y. ago in the early Brasiliano Cycle and metamorphosed into transitional greenschist/amphibolite facies of low-pressure regional metamorphism at ca 700 Ma. Nearby, the post-tectonic Sمo Sepé Granite was intruded into the volcanic arc at ca 550 Ma. The mineralising fluids have been related either to metamorphism or to solutions derived from post-tectonic intrusive granites. Lead isotopic analyses, carried out on galena from the gold ore, on feldspar and total rock from the associated volcanic pile, and also on feldspar and total rock from the Sمo Sepé Granite, indicate that gold mineralisation is related to the volcanogenic rocks, and that the deposit should be considered to be of an epizonal orogenic type.