%0 Journal Article
%A Iglesias Martínez, Mario
%A Ordóñez Casado, Berta
%A Berrezueta, Edgar
%A Pérez Garrido, Carlos
%T Morphological and compositional characterizationof gold contained in ferricretes of a weatheredprofile (Minvoul greenstone belt, Gabon)
%D 2018
%@ 1885-7264
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/13449
%X This study presents the quantification and morphologicalcharacterization of particles and nuggets of almost puregold found in the iron duricrust of a weathering profileof the Archean greenstone belt of Minvoul (Republic ofGabon). The weathered profile on the area (Figure 1)was defined through pits and trenches and consists, frombottom to top, on saprolite, mottled clay zone, ironduricrust, pisolitic gravels and yellow latosol. The ironduricrust constitutes a hard continuous layer, which isconcretionary and pisolitic and consists of cementednodules of goethite, hematite and other iron oxides andhydroxides. Samples from this horizon contain abundantparticles of gold. The study of morphology andmicrochemical composition of gold grains has beenwidely used as a tool for the understanding of thedissolution, dispersion and gold concentration processesin supergene environments, and for determining theprimary or secondary origin of gold grains across thelateritic horizons (Webster and Mann, 1984; Butt andHough, 2006). Moreover, the results obtained representa contribution for the knowledge of the gold-potential ofthe Ntem complex greenstone belts wheremineralization on bedrock remains unknown.
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