Deposit type
Sunrise Dam is considered to be a mesothermal gold deposit, typical of many orebodies found in the Archaean Greenstone Belts of Western Australia
Mineralisation style
At Sunrise Dam, gold mineralisation is structurally controlled, and vein-hosted.
The style of mineralisation can be differentiated depending on the structure or environment in which it is hosted.
There are three dominant styles recognised:
• Shear-related and high-strain e.g. Sunrise Shear Zone
• Stockwork development in planar faults with brittle characteristics (these occur in all rock types and are commonly concentrated at contacts within the volcanic stratigraphy or the porphyry margin and within hinge positions within the magnetite shales) e.g. Cosmo, Dolly and Vogue orebodies
• Placer-style mineralisation hosted within the palaeo-fluvial sediments, near surface
Gold mineralisation at Golden Delicious is hosted by a suite of granitoids, which intrude intermediate to mafic volcanic and volcaniclastic greenschist host rocks. The area has been deeply weathered, partly eroded and blanketed by transported lateritic gravels.
Mineralisation characteristics
Mineralisation is typically hosted in quartz-carbonate veins and breccias with varying quantities of pyrite and arsenopyrite. Gold occurs as free gold and is also occluded in the sulphides. The gold mineralisation is often associated with strongly altered count ........