First insight into gold enrichment associated with Archean magmatic processes in the deep crust through melt inclusion studies: an example from the Abitibi Subprovince, Québec, Canada

Silicate melt inclusions (SMI) in rhyolitic volcanic rocks in the ~2699 – 2697 Ma Bousquet Formation, Subprovince, Québec were studied through integration of a variety of microanalytical methods (petrography, laser Raman microspectroscopy, LA-ICP-MS) to explore links between magmatic metal/volatile endowment and the high gold content of mineral deposits in the world-class Doyon-Bousquet-LaRonde mining district. The study is the first to present melt inclusion data from felsic volcanic rocks of Archean age.

Rhyolitic SMI of primary origin were characterized from magmatic quartz phenocrysts from tholeiitic rhyolite sills and calc-alkaline flows near gold-rich volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits. Silicate melt inclusion trace element chemistry records a continuous transition from ocean ridge to volcanic arc tectonic affinity. SMI Sr-Y-La-Yb systematics are  inconsistent with Archean tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG; “adakitic”) compositional domains; rather, they are consistent with post-Archean TTG (“calc-alkaline”) suggesting significant compositional modification of TTG magmas through contamination and/or plagioclase fractionation during magma storage and ascent.  Thermobarometry suggests prolonged phenocryst residence at depth prior to eruption with SMI entrapment at ~10-12 km depth. Concentrations of Au in the SMI are variable and up to two orders of magnitude higher than in the host bulk volcanic rocks. This demonstrates that whole rock data are not representative of the composition of the original magmatic liquids and, thus, cautioning the traditional use of whole rock data as a proxy for volcanic assemblage fertility in such Archean environments. Moreover, SMI show melt co-entrapment with an immiscible, high density, carbonic fluid (CO₂-dominant), indicating that rhyolitic melts were saturated in CO₂. Saturation of this fluid phase may explain, in part, the variability observed in SMI metal contents, and demands consideration of the relative importance of early separation of magmatic volatile phases versus seafloor hydrothermal leaching of volcanic products in controlling the magmatic metal endowment of Archean exhalative ore-forming systems.