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Gold occurrences of the Woumbou–Colomine–Kette district, eastern Cameroon: ore-forming constraints from petrography, SEM–CL imagery, fluid inclusions, and C–O–H–S isotopes

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Abstract

The Woumbou–Colomine–Kette district is located in the East Metallogenic Province of the Republic of Cameroon. Northeast- to E-striking splays of the regional Pan-African crustal-scale Sanaga Shear Zone control widespread gold mineralization. Gold occurs within local shear zones developed along granite-gneiss contacts, as well as within the margins of the Pan-African intrusions. Field investigations coupled with mineralogical and textural studies reveal two stages of gold mineralization. Stage 1 led to pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, pyrrhotite, bismuthinite, tellurobismuthite, galenobismuthite, and native gold deposition with quartz, sericite/muscovite, chlorite, calcite, and ankerite as gangue minerals. Stage 2 included the precipitation of pyrite, hematite, tellurobismuthite, and native gold. A SEM–CL study distinguished the two stages of quartz, as well as an early remnant barren quartz depositional stage. Two fluid inclusion assemblages (FIAs) with four types of fluid inclusions can be observed. The FIA 1 is aqueous-carbonic (±N2±CH4), with carbonate daughter minerals, which is related to stage 1 of the gold mineralization and composed of low salinity (~7.5 wt% NaCl equiv) H2O-CO2-NaCl (type 1), CO2-rich (type 2), and H2O-rich (type 3a) fluid inclusions. The inclusions provide evidence of episodic phase separation, with unmixing at P~2 kbar, T~300 °C, and at a paleodepth of ~7 km. The FIA 2 consists of aqueous (type 3b) fluid inclusions with a salinity of 0.2 to 11.7 wt% NaCl equiv and trapping temperatures between 205 and 245 °C. The δ18Oquartz (+11.0 to +11.7‰), δDfluid inclusions (−46.2 to −40.9‰) and δ13Cfluid inclusions (−4.9 to −4.1‰) for gold-bearing quartz veins suggest a metamorphic source for the ore-forming fluids, although some contribution from the mantle and/or magmatic source(s) cannot be ruled out. The δ34S (+6.5 to +7.0‰) for gold-bearing pyrites suggests a metamorphic source for the sulfur that transported gold and was involved in the precipitation of sulfide minerals. These data are consistent with a mesozonal orogenic gold deposit model for the Woumbou–Colomine–Kette district, which is an important part of the emerging greenfields exploration region for Pan-African orogenic gold and with the more significant targets defined by granite-gneiss contacts along NE- and E-striking shear zones.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the traditional chiefs of Woumbou, Colomine, and Kette localities for their kind support and accommodation during the fieldwork. We acknowledge the technicians at the Beijing Institute of Uranium and Geology Beijing GeoAnalysis Co. Ltd. for their help during Raman spectroscopy and SEM–CL image analyses, respectively. Special thanks to Yunwei Qu, Xiaoyu Shan, Kai Cui, and Chesther Ebotehouna for their support during SEM/TDS analyses and fluid inclusion microthermometric measurements. We are grateful to the reviewers Lenka Baratoux and Dr. Ghislan Tourigny whose comments and suggestions improved the quality of the manuscript. The authors also acknowledge the Editor-in-Chief Prof. Bernd Lehmann and the Associate Editor Prof. Hartwig Frimmel for their remarks, constructive suggestions, and editorial handling.

Funding

This study was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China (State Key Research Plan, No. 2017YFC0601302) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41472072).

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  1. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Kevin Igor Azeuda Ndonfack & Yuling Xie

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Yaoundé I, P.O. Box 812, Yaoundé, Cameroon

    Kevin Igor Azeuda Ndonfack

  3. State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, People’s Republic of China

    Richard Goldfarb

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All authors contributed to the study, conception, and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analyses were performed by Kevin Igor Azeuda Ndonfack and Yuling Xie. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Kevin Igor Azeuda Ndonfack and then revised with input from Richard Goldfarb and Yuling Xie. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript, read, edited, and approved the final manuscript.

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Azeuda Ndonfack, K.I., Xie, Y. & Goldfarb, R. Gold occurrences of the Woumbou–Colomine–Kette district, eastern Cameroon: ore-forming constraints from petrography, SEM–CL imagery, fluid inclusions, and C–O–H–S isotopes. Miner Deposita 57, 83–105 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-021-01050-7

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