The origin of the Hope Brook Mine, Newfoundland: A shear zone-hosted acid sulphate gold deposit

he Hope Brook deposit is hosted by the Hope Brook Alteration Complex (HBAC) in the Hermitage Flexure of southwestern Newfoundland. The HBAC records a complex tectonic, magmatic, metamorphic and hydrothermal history. It is deformed within the Cinq Cerf Fault Zone (CCFZ), a Late Precambrian structure reactivated during Silurian tectonism when a composite pre-Silurian basement was faulted against the Silurian felsic volcanic La Poile Group. The principal protoliths to the HBAC are trondhjemitic Late Precambrian porphyry dikes of the Roti Intrusive Suite (RIS). Sedimentary rocks of the basement terrane are less common protoliths. Mafic dikes comprise three distinct geochemical populations in the HBAC. Late Precambrian group 1 and Silurian group 2 are low TiO;The HBAC is comprised of aluminous and silicified alteration zones consisting of quartz + rutile, with and without andalusite, muscovite, paragonite, pyrophyllite, and(or) kaolinite, respectively. Sericitic alteration of RIS injections in the subparallel dike swarm represents a third alteration domain. The orebody, comprised of disseminated gold ;Acid leaching, exemplified by the silicified and aluminous zones, and locally abundant alunite indicate the HBAC is an acid sulphate gold deposit. Early acidic alteration occurred during syntectonic RIS and group 1 magmatism in the CCFZ. Paragenetic relationships and the change from phengitic muscovites in CCFZ mylonites to weakly phengitic, sodium-enriched muscovites...