Oxygen and sulfur isotope constraints on the origin of gold deposits at the Haile Gold Mine, Lancaster County, SC

Abstract

Gold at the Haile Gold Mine, in the Carolina Slate Belt (CSB), is located within silicified metasediments of the Richtex Formation near the contact with the older, metavolcanic Persimmon Fork Formation. Deposits at Haile have been characterized either as epithermal forming due to hydrothermal activity associated with volcanism, or as orogenic forming from fluids derived during regional metamorphism. Because pyrite and quartz are associated with gold mineralization at Haile, δ18O values of 138 quartz samples and δ34S values of 17 pyrite samples were measured in order to better constrain the origin of the gold deposits. δ18O values for quartz ranged from 5.9 to 9.1 per mil and δ34S values for pyrite ranged from -1.6 to +3.4 per mil. Assuming reasonable temperatures for orogenic and epithermal deposits (200-400°C), this data indicates that the gold deposits formed in an epithermal system.