Geochemical correlation of gold placer and indication of Au-Cu-Pb-Zn-Ag mineralization at Parigi Moutong, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract Parigi Moutong area is known as a destination for craftsmen and small-scale gold mining to get gold grains on rock, soil and river deposits. Gold granules were found in two morphological, there are Northern Hills (MNH) - and Morphology of Southern Hills (MSH), both of these morphologies were controlled by geological structures. The morphology of Northern Hills (MNH) is composed by granite, diorite, andesite non-andesite mineralization of sulphide mineralization, the dominance of the composition of gold granules found in river deposits on the soil. The morphology of the South Hills (MSH) spreads to the terrain and beaches composed by granite, andesite, schist, gneiss, molasses, Tinombo Formation, and the dominance of gold granular concentrations found on the soil. This paper aims to differentiate geochemical characteristics of MNH and MSH on soil and gold grains obtained by panning concentrate methode of river deposit and soil, and predicts the types of primary deposits as a source of gold granules. The difference of gold association is related to the type of placer deposit, i.e the fluvial placer in the soil in the form of a residual deposit bag takes the path of weathering transport of andesite mineralization and fluvial tectonic transported zona brecciated. By normal P-P plot normality test knowing that the type of Au deposit correlates strongly with Cu compared to Pb correlated Au, and Cu increases linearly with Pb. Concentration on soil fluvial weathering and changes is higher than in soil fluvial tectonic transported. The result rotation of the Au, Cu, Pb, Zn matrix components show there are two distributions of strongly correlated variables, namely (1) Au (0.953)-Ag (0.949) and (2) Cu (0.900) -Zn (0.902). Those order correlation is a strong indication of the presence of placer deposit sources as hydrothermal deposits: 1) Au-Cu (2) Au-Zn (3) Cu-PB and (4) epithermal Au-Ag.

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