Gold-telluride Mineralization of the Billyakh Zone of the Tectonic Melange of the Anabar Shield

For the first time, the mineralogical features of ore gold from metasomatites of the Billyakh zone of the tectonic mélange of the Anabar Shield have been studied in detail. Ore mineralization is represented by chalcocite, bornite, chalcopyrite, tellurides of Au, Ag, Cu, Pb, and Bi. Native gold is characterized by a wide variation in fineness (from 550 to 926‰) and an admixture of Cu (up to 7.87%). Most often, it forms symplectite intergrowths with Au tellurides – calaverite and krennerite. Inclusions of chalcocite, bornite, altaite, tellurobismuthite, rickardite, petzite and clausthalite have been identified in native gold and Au tellurides. Discovery of low-temperature gold-telluride association in mineral parageneses of ore-bearing rocks and as inclusions in native gold allows us to distinguish the epithermal gold-telluride mineral type of mineralization.