The Nizhny Birkachan Gold-Silver Epithermal Deposit, Omolon Massif, Northeast Russia: Geological Structure, Ore Mineralogy, and Age

We have studied the geological structure, material composition of the ores, and the age of the Nizhny Birkachan volcanogenic gold–silver deposit discovered recently. The ore bodies consist of veins and vein-streak zones of adularia-carbonate-quartz composition; they lie in granodiorite porphyries with U‒Pb zircon age (ID-TIMS) equal to 335 ± 2 Ma. The ores are low sulfide, low silver (Au/Ag = 1–2), with pyrite dominating the ore minerals. The Ag minerals are tennantite, Ag sulfide, native gold and silver, and hessite. From an ore vein we obtained an adularia-based 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age equal to 169 ± 4 Ma, which reflects the rejuvenation of the isotopic argon system after the emplacement of a dike of unaltered Jurassic basites that cuts through the ore body. The Nizhny Birkachan deposit has a geological structure and ore composition that are very similar to those of other Au-Ag deposits at the Kedon volcano-plutonic belt such as Kubaka and Birkachan; it was also formed in the age span 290–335 Ma.