Alteration at the Sam Goosly copper-silver deposit, British Columbia

Copper-silver mineralization at Sam Goosly occurs as a conformable lens within pyroclastic dacites of probable late early Cretaceous age. Most mineralization is contemporaneous with development of aluminous alteration minerals. Distribution zones of scorzalite, andalusite, and an innermost corundum zone, are concentric and broadly outline the mineralized zone. Southwards, along strike, the andalusite zone becomes an andalusite-pyrophyllite zone in which mineralization post-dates aluminous alteration. Regional metamorphlsm has overprinted a propylitic, or greenschist, assemblage on aluminous alteration. Country rocks and mineralization are intruded by two stocks: a 59 ± 3 m.y. quartz monzonite to the west of the ore zone, and a 51 ± 3 m.y. gabbro-monzonite stock to the east. Contact metamorphlsm associated with the gabbro-monzonite has produced a narrow, discontinuous zone of biotite hornfels and recrystallized metallic minerals in the ore zone. Alteration mineral assemblages and sulphide exsolution textures imply temperatures between 350°C and 625°C in the main ore zone. The assemblage andalusite-pyrophyllite-quartz indicates alteration temperatures of about 350°C in the andalusite-pyrophyllite zone. Chemical analysis of the altered volcanic host rocks suggests significant loss of soda and lime, and residual concentration of silica and alumina. These chemical changes probably result from exchange of Na⁺ and Ca⁺⁺ for H⁺ from a hydrothermal fluid, resulting in formation of aluminous minerals and quartz. The value of log mK+/mH+ of the fluid phase is deduced to be between 1 and 2. By analogy with other occurrences, this process probably takes place in a high-temperature solfataric, or geothermal environment.Science, Faculty ofEarth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department ofGraduat