A lead isotope study of an Archaean gold prospect in the Attu region, Nagssugtoqidian orogen, West Greenland

Abstract

This paper presents a lead isotope investigation of a gold prospect south of the village Attu in the northern part of the Nagssugtoqidian orogen in central West Greenland. The Attu gold prospect is a replacement gold occurrence, related to a shear/mylonite zone along a contact between orthogneiss and amphibolite within the Nagssugtoqidian orogenic belt. The mineral occurrence is small, less than 0.5 m wide, and can be followed along strike for several hundred metres. The mineral assemblage is pyrite, chalcopyrite, magnetite and gold. The host rocks to the gold prospect are granulite facies ‘brown gneisses’ and amphibolites. Pb-isotopic data on magnetite from the host rocks yield an isochron in a ²⁰⁷Pb/²⁰⁴Pb vs. ²⁰⁶Pb/²⁰⁴Pb diagram, giving a date of 3162 ± 43 Ma (MSWD = 0.5). This date is interpreted to represent the age of the rocks in question, and is older than dates obtained from rocks elsewhere within the Nagssugtoqidian orogen. Pb-isotopic data on cataclastic magnetite from the shear zone lie close to this isochron, indicating a similar origin. The Pb-isotopic compositions of the ore minerals are similar to those previously obtained from the close-by ~2650 Ma Rifkol granite, and suggest a genetic link between the emplacement of this granite and the formation of the ore minerals in the shear/mylonite zone. Consequently, the age of the gold mineralisation is interpreted to be late Archaean.