Application of portable X-ray and micro-X-ray fluorescence spectrometry to characterize alteration and mineralization within various gold deposits hosted in southern New Brunswick, Canada

Abstract New Brunswick hosts multiple types of gold deposits related to various stages of Appalachian orogenesis. Some of these structurally controlled deposits are considered intrusion-related; however, the majority have characteristics of orogenic deposits. The geochronology and genesis of the gold and antimony deposits in southern New Brunswick have been studied to varying degrees, but the relationship between mineralization and tectonism remains unresolved. This study involves the examination and comparison of auriferous quartz (-carbonate) veins associated with orogenic and intrusion-related gold mineralization of southern New Brunswick. The Belleisle Bay and Annidale groups (Annidale area) are host to mainly orogenic type gold mineralization, whereas in the Cookson and Mascarene groups (Clarence Stream area), gold mineralization is characterized as intrusion-related. For this study, the Devil Pike Brook deposit and Sheba Pit, East Scotch Settlement BP gold occurrences and the Bald Hill antimony deposit represent the Annidale area, whereas the South (Central and East subzones), George Murphy, Richard, and Jubilee zones represent gold mineralized areas in the Clarence Stream region. To facilitate the geochemical investigation of the various deposits and occurrences, an Olympus Vanta™ portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (pXRF) was used to rapidly analyse the composition of the different auriferous quartz (-carbonate) veins and characterize the alteration assemblages related to gold mineralization. The precision and accuracy of the pXRF data was monitored through QA/QC procedures, with the resulting corrected pXRF data undergoing principal component analysis (PCA) to fully interrogate the large data set. The PCA results highlight hydrothermal alteration and mineralization geochemical trends in the studied orogenic and intrusion-related gold deposits and occurrences. Some gold pathfinder elements reflect these different trends on the PC analysis on the studied samples. From the different PCs, various information about alteration and mineralization can be deduced. In Annidale area PC1 retrieves positive loadings of S, Cu, As, Pb, Zn, Fe, and Sb consistent with mineralization, PC2 displays positive loadings of Ca, Sr, Y, Mn and Ti, and PC3 extracts information about K, Rb, Ba, Zr, and Al consistent with alteration. In the Clarence Stream area, PC1 retrieved information about Al, K, Zr, Ba, Nb, Th and Rb consistent with alteration, PC2 displays positive loadings of As, Sb, Fe, Co, and S consistent with mineralization and PC3 extracts information about Zn, Pb, Mn, Fe, Cu, S and Si. Data obtained from the micro-X-Ray fluorescence–energy dispersive spectrometer (μ-XRF) analyses of the same sample suite concur with the alteration and mineralization characteristics identified using pXRF; these data indicate that chloritic and sericitic alteration with sulphides are associated with quartz (-carbonate) veins. The μ-XRF analysis is also helpful to further investigate sulphide and gold mineralization, as well as to locate potentially datable minerals, such as titanite, rutile, zircon, apatite, and monazite, in the gold-bearing quartz (-carbonate) veins; these data identified rutile and titanite in the Annidale samples and apatite in Clarence Stream samples that are being followed up geochronologically.