Abstract
The Passa Três granite is a NNE-SSW elongated shape intrusion located in the Paraná State (southern Brazil). This intrusion was emplaced within metapelites of the Mesoproterozoic Votuverava Group, which are part of the N040°E trending Lancinha Shear Zone. Gold mineralisation within the Passa Três granite is held by meter-scale quartz veins forming orebodies with variable massive, banded, sheared and/or brecciated internal textures. Structural data indicate the existence of two orthogonal directions of structures, N-S and E-W, dipping 60–75°W and 45–70°S respectively. Mineralised veins contain, in addition to the quartz of the gangue, and in chronological order: fluorite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, gold, aikinite, molybdenite, muscovite, carbonate and baryte. Gold occurs as native grains within fractures that affect pyrite, commonly associated with chalcopyrite and aikinite. Quartz veins are sometimes bordered by aplitic dykes. Additionally, some of the veins exhibit a thin margin of K-feldspar minerals that could represent the early stage of vein formation. These observations, the presence of Unidirectional Solidification Textures (UST), along with abundant expression of pegmatite-rich pockets within granite that crops out close to the surface allow the reconstruction of the granite architecture in terms of late magmatic evolution, magmatic-hydrothermal transition and position of the cupola. N-S and E-W systems are interpreted to be contemporaneous and conjugate. Normal displacements are predominant and main mineralised veins are essentially located within extensional pull-apart structures. The structural model suggests that the normal faults were initiated along former low-angle planes associated with aplite and/or early quartz veins that subsequently controlled the opening of the pull-apart structures that represent the economic orebodies. Zircon from the granite and muscovite grains from mineralised veins were dated by U-Pb and Ar-Ar methods, respectively. Zircons from the main facies (medium grained: GEM and microgranite: GEF) provided undistinguishable ages which were pooled to give an age of 611.9 ± 3.6 Ma. A less abundant, leucocratic facies (“white granite”: GEB) yielded a significantly younger age of 592.8 ± 7.1 Ma. Muscovites from quartz veins gave Ar-Ar ages of 612.9 ± 2 to 608.8 ± 2 Ma (transitional vein with a K-feldspar border), 611.7 ± 2 to 608.8 ± 2 Ma (mineralised veins) and 608.4 ± 2 Ma (barren quartz vein). Thus, the Passa Três granite and its gold mineralisation appear to represent a unique example of an intrusion-related gold system in which the mineralisation concentrates in the core of the magmatic intrusion in the form of meter-scale veins strongly controlled by tectonics.