Wallrock Alteration and Primary Dispersion of Elements in the Vicinity of the Mugeug Gold-bearing Quartz Veins

무극 함금석영맥광상 주변모암에서의 모암변질과 원소들의 일차분산

Mineralogical and geochemical studies on gold-bearing quartz veins and wallrock from the Mugeug mine were carried out in order to investigate the variation of mineralogical composition and the geochemical behavior of elements with distance from the gold-bearing quartz veins. Gold-bearing quartz veins occur in early Cretaceous medium- to coarse-grained biotite granite. The unaltered wallrock is composed mainly of quartz, plagioclase, orthoclase, microcline, biotite and hornblende with accessory minerals of sphene and apatite. Mineralogical changes in altered wallrock around the gold-bearing quartz veins were observed as follows; 1) biotite and hornblende altered into chlorite, and next to sericite, 2) plagioclase, orthoclase and microcline altered into sericite, and 3) calcite and quartz introduced into wallrock. Contents of $K_2O$, Rb, Cs, Au, As and Sb in altered wallrock increase, whereas those of $Na_2O$, CaO, Ba, and Sr decrease with proximity to the gold-bearing quartz veins. The loss on ignition also increases with the increase of alteration mineral. The width of primary dispersion increases in order $Au=SiO_2<As=Cs=Rb<K_2O=Sb$ and $MnO<Na_2O=CaO=Ba<Sr$. The sericitization index, $K_2O/(K_2O+Na_2O)$, is an important indicator to interpret the degree of alteration at the Mugeug mine, which is more than 0.8 in strongly and moderately altered granite, 0.5~0.8 in wea altered granite, and less than 0.5 in unaltered granite. Alteration indices for major and trace elements, and the ratio of Rb/Sr are also useful to discriminate alteration zones.