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ORES OF GOLD
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Settlement of the country after the volcanic activity. The
ores are Middle or Upper Kainozoic in date, and have not the
Secondary enrichments common in older lodes.
New Zealand, in addition to gold-quartz veins in slates,
has two goldfields in volcanic rocks with fracturing of a
different pattern from that usual in the plateau eruptions of
the Rocky Mountains ; it is however similar to that at Gold
Field, Nevada, which as shown by F. L. Ransome (U.5.G.S.,
Prof, Pap., 66, 1919, p. 196) was torn across by intersecting
fissures without fault movements. In the Hauraki Gold-
field in the North Island Kainozoic andesites and dacites were
traversed by a network of ruptures along which were deposited
Quartz, calcite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, blende, galena, and gold.
When the fissures were full the solutions were forced into the
country and formed replacement lodes 50 feet, and at the
800 feet level, even 100 feet wide. Owing to the saturation
of the country by the solutions the ore-shoots were remarkably
Persistent to the depths of 1000 feet, and they have been
worked to the depth of 1900 feet (cf. J. M. Bell, Tr. Austr.
LME, 1911, pp. 548-79; and P. C. Morgan, Bull. Geol. Surv.
N.Z, 1924, No. 26). The Thames Goldfield, on a peninsula
E. of the Hauraki Gulf, illustrates the formation of a gold-
field where the fracturing and ore deposits are shallower.
The andesites there have been intensely altered hydro-
thermally to the depth of 500 feet, and traversed by veins
of quartz with rich pockets of ore where the main veins are
joined by small quartz stringers.
PNEUMATOLY TIC OrEs—CRrIPPLE CREEK, AND PASSAGEM,
BraziL—Cripple Creek, in the red pre-Cambrian granite
of Pike's Peak, Colorado, represents the pneumatolytic
goldfields. Itisin the pipe of a Middle Kainozoic volcano and
Pneumatolytic agents are shown by the characteristic mineral
being telluride of gold, by the abundance of fluorite, and the
alteration of felspars into kaolinite (cf. p. 169). The volcanic
breccia in the pipe has been so silicified that its original nature
IS recognizable only under the microscope. The breccia was
cut by dykes of basalt, andesite, and phonolite, and has been
torn by fractures due to shrinkage of the cooling rocks. The
lodes are later than the dykes, which contain chimney-shaped
ore-shoots ; the ascent of the solutions was doubtless aided
by the reheating due to the intrusion of the dykes.