Mineralogical and morphological studies of gold-bearing arsenopyrite and pyrite minerals of Bakyrchik and Bolshevik gold black shale deposits (Eastern Kazakhstan)

Abstract Bakyrchik and Bolshevik both are sediment-hosted disseminated gold deposits. They are located in Eastern Kazakhstan (4 km in distance between deposits) and include in the Western Qalba metallogenic zone. They originated in late Paleozoic age along structured line between palaeocontinents of Kazakhstan and Altai-Mongol. The purpose of this paper is designation of typomorphic features of gold-bearing arsenopyrite and pyrite minerals, determination of chemical composition of these two sulfides minerals. The arsenopyrite and pyrite are the main objects for analytical study of gold-bearing sulfide minerals, their different textures, morphology of the crystals and aggregates. The studies of ore samples and minerals were carried out by methods of optical microscope, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence and electron microprobe analyses. The analytical study of sulphide minerals has shown that the arsenopyrite is acicular and tabular, pyrite has three varieties - globular, hexahedral and pentahedral forms in three rock samples of the carbonaceous-terrigenous formation in the deposits.