Abstract: Geochemical Exploration for gold often times fail to produce favourable results because pathfinders for the gold were not properly identified, in others the pathfinders could not be linked to the host geology and so high potential deposits have remained unexploited. The aim of the study is to identify pathfinder elements for gold and provide a link between inter-elemental associations and the hosting geology using multi-element soil geochemical data from Julie belt of Ghana, this was achieved by geostatistical tools. The dendrogram identified 3 clusters; Cluster 1 is dominated with V, Zn, Cu, Zr, Sr, Cr and Rb, cluster 2 with Au, Pb, W, As, Th, Co, Cl and cluster 3 having Ti, Mn, Ca, K and Fe. The gold was associated with the second cluster. The PCA identified 6 components contributing for 70.08% of the total variability, component 1 elements (Ti, Mn, Fe, Cu and Zn) gives the elemental composition of the mafic rock which has undergone least alteration. The gold shows an apparent association with component 3 which was dominated with Ti, V, As, Pb, Zr, and W, component 3 along with cluster 2 and 3 therefore represents the geology of the sheared granitoid that primarily composed of quartz, plagioclase, hornblende and biotite with accessory minerals of titanite, zircon and magnetite. Pb, W, and Ar were therefore identified as the pathfinder elements for the gold.
Keywords: Pathfinder Elements, Gold, Geochemical Exploration, Geology, Geostatistics, Julie Belt, Ghana.
Title: Geostatistical Analysis of Gold Multi-Element Associations using Soil Geochemical Data from Julie Belt, Northwest Ghana
Author: Umar Sambo Umar, Prosper Mackenzie Nude, Prince Ofori Amponsah, Ahmad Isah Haruna
International Journal of Mathematics and Physical Sciences Research
ISSN 2348-5736 (Online)
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