Riacho dos Machados (RDM) is held under the name of Mineração Riacho dos Machados (MRDM), an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Equinox Gold, incorporated under the laws of Brazil.
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Summary:
The Riacho dos Machados gold deposit is considered to be a classic mesothermal orogenic gold deposit in a sheared and deformed Archean to Proterozoic age greenstone belt sequence. It is comprised of metamorphosed volcanic-sedimentary rock units intruded by slightly younger post-tectonic igneous bodies.
The principal host for the gold mineralization is the quartz-muscovite schist of the RMG. The mineralization occurs in a belt of hydrothermally altered rock developed along a district-scale shear zone that extends almost 30 km along a N20°E strike direction and dips 40° to 45° east. The mineralization has a typical amphibolite facies mineral association which is progressively altered to greenschist facies assemblage. The gold mineralization occurs as “stacked” tabular horizons that are mostly concordant with the principal rock foliation (shear zone). These tabular zones typically consist of a main zone which may be sided by a thinner footwall or hanging wall zones, separated by three meters to ten meters of unmineralized rock. Continuity along strike and at depth is good with gold mineralization occurring continuously over a 2,000 m strike length and up to 1,000 m down dip.
Gold grades in the mineralized zone are closely related to sulphide content, especially arsenopyrite. Gold occurs as microscopic native-gold grains typically finer than 400 mesh (37 µm). The gold grains occur interstitial to quartz grains, muscovite grains, and sulphide grains, and also as inclusions in arsenopyrite, and less commonly in pyrrhotite, quartz-veinlets, tourmaline, and pyrite.
The following minerals and features, listed from high to low importance, are noted as indicators of gold mineralization:
-Arsenopyrite (both anhedral and euhedral needles);
- Pyrrhotite;
- Abundant quartz veinlets (sheared into foliation plane);
- Pyrite;
- Crenulation folding;
- Tourmaline veins (fine-grained massive intergrown).
The arsenic content of the mineralization is relatively high, with an average of approximately 4,000 ppm for samples greater than 1.0 g/t Au. Silver content is very low, with the average Ag/Au ratio of 0.5:1.0 for samples with a gold concentration of greater than 1.0 g/t. Antimony, copper, lead, and zinc are not commonly anomalous.
The gold mineralization is closely related to the structural fabric. The mineralizing fluid was probably channelled upward in the thrust-related shear zones with minor or local lateral escape into intersecting shear zones. Brittle deformation at the RDM deposit is limited to poorly defined crossfaults that may have anomalous geochemistry but do not host gold mineralization.
The area presents the occurrence of graphite, which influences the metallurgical behaviour of the ore. Graphite occurs in shear zones filling intrafolial planes, ranging from 2 to 20 cm thick, and in the form of boulders, with lenticular geometry or symmetrical boudins associated with quartz veins, with thicknesses of up to 1.5 m. They have dark grey and black coloration and low hardness, and due to graphite's lubricating characteristics, act as zones of geomechanical weakness. Graphite is in nonmineralized areas, associated with domains of marginal or waste contents, or in mineralized areas with the presence of high sulphidation.