Structural and mechanical controls on intrusion-related deposits of the Tombstone Gold Belt, Yukon, Canada, with comparisons to other vein-hosted ore-deposit types

Intrusion-related gold deposits at the Clear Creek, Scheelite Dome and Dublin Gulch properties of the Tombstone Gold Belt (TGB), Yukon Territory have dominantly E-striking, steeply dipping, auriferous quartz extension veins within intrusions. In adjacent metasedimentary rocks gold is hosted in subvertical NW- to NNW-striking sinistral faults as veins and breccias, in E-striking extension veins and locally in E- to ENE-striking fault veins. These structural relationships indicate low magnitude, broadly E-W-directed shortening and N-S extension during stock emplacement and gold mineralisation at similar to92 Ma. The lack of any deviation or deflection of the extension vein orientations in the country rocks, with respect to their orientation within the stocks, indicates consistent stress trajectories in both rock types. These TGB deposits formed at 5 - 8 km depth, where mean and differential stresses may be greater in magnitude than in shallower porphyry environments. Many porphyry systems feature magmatic-related stresses that dominated the local stress field, with more variable vein orientations the result. Conversely, orogenic gold systems usually exhibit strong dimensionality in vein orientations. Fault-hosted mineralisation in metasedimentary rocks of the TGB deposits in this study is comparable in geometry, but generally smaller in size than in many orogenic gold systems. Intrusion-related systems of the TGB exhibit intermediate structural styles of mineralisation that provide a useful bridge in understanding the diversity of mechanically controlled structural styles in otherwise mostly unrelated gold deposit types. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.