Chernorechensk gold ore deposit (Eastern Donbass)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the characteristics of the Chernorechensk gold ore deposit, one of the promising gold mining facilities in Eastern Donbass. The relevance of the proposed study is determined by the need to assess the prospects for identifying industrial reserves of non-ferrous metals and gold in the Eastern Donbas for the diversification of the mining industry in Southern Russia due to highly liquid metallic minerals, in particular gold. The aim of the study. Providing the general scientific community with preliminary results of the study of the Chernorechensk gold ore occurrence, as well as the results of the author’s analysis of some features of its geological structure and gold content based on modern geodynamic concepts. The initial data for this study are materials on the geological structure, magmatism and ore content of the Eastern Donbass, presented in production reports on geological surveys and prospecting for non-ferrous metals and gold conducted by production geological organizations in the last fifty years, as well as a digital database of the results of modern geophysical medium-scale surveys covering the Eastern part of the Donetsk basin and adjacent territories. Methods. Metallogenic analysis of geological and geophysical data based on modern geodynamic concepts, according to which the manifestations of the magmatism of the Nesvetaevsky complex most correspond to the situation of convergent margins, and the magmatism of the Miusko-Kerchiksky complex correspond to the situation of transform margins. Results. The Chernorechenskoye gold occurrence is the most studied in the Kondakovskaya ore-magmatic system (RMS). Gold ore zones with gold grades up to 6-8 g/t have been established here. The ore occurrence is confined to a thrust transtensional stretching structure of the fan type, which is the structural basis of the Kondakovskaya RMS. The geological basis of the ore deposit is formed by two small andesite-dacite stems in the central part of the RMS. Four ore zones of northwestern strike are identified within the ore occurrence. The length of the zones is from 550 to 900 meters, thickness from 10 to 145 meters. They are represented by tectonically disturbed and metasomatically altered rocks in exo- and endocontacts of andesitedacite drifts. Gold mineralization is represented by a sulfide and vein-embedded type, with pyrite predominating, and chalcopyrite, arsenopyrite, galena and sphalerite also occurring.