Gold resources on Ringvassøy, Troms-III: Geochemistry of heavy-mineral concentrates from stream sediments and potential gold sources

Abstract

The geochemistry of heavy-mineral concentrates panned from stream sediments on Ringvassøy is reported. The presently known occurrences of gold inside the RGB comprise mostly quartz-vein mineralisation with a low economic potential. The stratabound Au-As-Zn mineralisation at Sørdalshøgda-South is the only one that, under favourable conditions, can be of economic interest. All of these gold occurrences were detected by the panning method together with most of the deposits carrying high concentrations of Ag, Cu, Zn, As and Sb. The geochemistry of heavy-mineral concentrates shows that the metal enrichment is mainly confined to rivers inside the RGB, whereas those in the DTC and the Caledonides carry normal background levels.