Geology, Wall‐rock Alteration and Vein Paragenesis of the Bilimoia Gold Deposit, Kainantu Metallogenic Region, Papua New Guinea
Authors: Espi Joseph Onglo , Hayashi Ken‐Ichiro , Komuro Kosei , Murakami Hiroyasu , Kajiwara Yoshimichi 
Published: September 2007

AbstractThe Bilimoia deposit (2.23 Mt, 24 g/t Au), located in the eastern Central Mobile Belt of mainland Papua New Guinea, is composed of fault‐hosted, NW–NNW‐trending Irumafimpa–Kora and Judd–Upper Kora Au‐quartz veins hosted by Middle–Late Triassic basement that was metamorphosed to medium‐grade greenschist facies between Middle–Late Triassic and Early–Middle Jurassic. Mineralizing fluids were introduced during crustal thickening, rapid uplift, change of plate motions from oblique to orthogonal compression, active faulting and S3 and S4 events in an S1–S4 deformation sequence. The Bilimoia deposit is spatially and temporally related to I‐type, early intermediate to felsic and late mafic intrusions emplaced in Late Miocene (9–7 Ma). Hydrothermal alteration and associated mineralization is divided into 10 main paragenetic stages: (1) chlorite–epidote‐selvaged quartz–calcite–specularite vein; (2) local quartz–illite–pyrite alteration; (3) quartz–sericite–mariposite–fuchsite–pyrite wall‐rock alteration that delimits the bounding shears; (4) finely banded, colloform‐, crustiform‐ and cockade‐textured and drusy quartz ± early wolframite ± late adularia; (5) hematite; (6) pyrite; (7) quartz ± amethyst‐base metal sulfides; (8) quartz–chalcopyrite–bornite–Sn and Cu sulfides–Au tellurides and Te ± Bi ± Ag ± Cu ± Pb phases; (9) Fe ± Mn carbonates; and (10) supergene overprint. Fluid inclusions in stage 4 are characterized by low salinity (0.9–5.4 wt% NaCl equivalent), aqueous–carbonic fluids with total homogenization temperatures ranging from 210 to 330°C. Some of the inclusions that homogenized between 285 and 330°C host coexisting liquid‐ and vapor‐rich (including carbonic) phases, suggesting phase separation. Fluid inclusions in quartz intergrown with wolframite have low salinity (0.9–1.2 wt% NaCl equivalent), aqueous–carbonic fluids at 240–260°C, defining the latter’s depositional conditions. The ore fluids were derived from oxidized magmatic source initially contaminated by reduced basement rocks. Wall‐rock alteration and involvement of circulating meteoric waters were dominant during the first three stages and early part of stage 4. Stage 5 hematite was deposited as a result of stage 4 phase separation or entrainment of oxygenated groundwater. Gold is associated with Te‐ and Bi‐bearing minerals and mostly precipitated as gold‐tellurides during stage 8. Gold deposition occurred below 350°C due to a change in the sulfidation and oxidation state of the fluids, depressurization and decreasing temperature and activities of sulfur and tellurium. Bisulfides are considered to be the main Au‐transporting complexes. The Bilimoia deposit has affinities that are similar to many gold systems termed epizonal orogenic and intrusion‐related. The current data allow us to classify the Bilimoia deposit as a fault‐controlled, metamorphic‐hosted, intrusion‐related mesothermal to low sulfidation epithermal quartz–Au–Te–Bi vein system.