A note on the occurrence of gold in the Ilímaussaq alkaline complex, South Greenland

Abstract

Single grains of gold measuring 22 μm have been found in analcime veinlets intersecting concentrations of pyrrhotite, pyrite and marcasite in the lowermost part of layer +16 red of the kakortokite sequence in the southernmost part of the Ilímaussaq alkaline complex (Davison 1989). The kakortokite sequence consists of a repetition of units of lower black layers rich in arfvedsonite, red layers rich in eudialyte and white layers rich in microcline (cf. Sørensen 2001, this volume, for a review of the geology of the Ilímaussaq complex). Layer +16 red is the most prominent eudialyte- rich layer of the complex. The identification of the gold grains was verified by SEM - Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (Fig. 1).