Constraining the source of the alluvial gold from the Whiteadder river drainage, SE Scotland

Abdulkadir, A.M. and Cunningham, John and Beard, Andy and Smith, A.S. (2019) Constraining the source of the alluvial gold from the Whiteadder river drainage, SE Scotland. In: UNSPECIFIED (ed.) Proceedings of the 15th SGA Biennial Meeting, 27-30 August 2019, Glasgow, Scotland. Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits, pp. 807-810. ISBN 9780852619636.

Abstract

Alluvial gold grains panned from the Whiteadder River drainage, SE Scotland, are much larger than previously reported. Morphological studies tentatively indicate a maximum dispersal distance of 7.5 km. However, this does not constrain potential sources, since the study area is geologically diverse, supporting a wide range of potential gold mineralisation styles, from orogenic to low T oxidising hydrothermal. A Devonian palaeoplacer is also possible, but neither Au grains nor associated heavy minerals were panned from the basal conglomerate matrix. Microchemical characterisation studies reveal heterogeneity both between grains and within individual grains with Ag ranging up to 44% and Cu to 5%; however, grains of pure gold up to 98% Au also occur. Rimmed and non-rimmed grains occur, but chemical heterogeneity is also expressed by sharp boundaries between areas of materially different Ag levels within non-rimmed grains. Mineral inclusion analysis conducted so far has identified only quartz and feldspar (albite), Hg is apparently absent and a possible Pd occurrence is unconfirmed. While low levels of Te exist, the apparent absence of inclusions such as Hg, Pd, Bi tellurides and sulphosalts limit the possibility of constraining the type of source. Current work will expand the data set to confirm microchemical signature/s, and thereafter enable mapping of mineralisation style to potential source.

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