Author(s)

N’Guessan Nestor Houssou, Marc Ephrem Allialy, Fossou Jean-Luc Hervé Kouadio, Allou Gnanzou

Geology of Basement and Metallogeny Laboratory (GBML), Training and Research Unit of Earth Sciences and Mining Re-sources, University of Felix HOUPHOUET-BOIGNY, Abidjan-Cocody, Cote d’Ivoire.

Located in the southwestern of the Oume-Fettekro greenstone belt, the Agbahou gold deposit is controlled by structural factors. Geophysics, teledetection and core data suggest the presence of NE and NW faults. However, the NE-faults define two major shear zones (ATZ: Agbahou Tectonic Zone and WTZ: West Tectonic Zone) that control the Agbahou gold mineralization. These first order structures are subparallel to the regional tectonic grain mostly north-east oriented. They seem to respectively develop on the both arms (eastern and western) of an anticline moderately plunging ~25° towards northeast. Each shear-zone contains several second-order shear-zones or lenses of variable direction and of 50° - 80° dip. NW-faults however correspond to strike-slip faults and their development should be related to transcurrent tectonics. They acted as control channels on the distribution of gold mineralizations. The ductile-brittle character of shear-zones favored the ascent of hydrothermal fluids and the formation of multiple auriferous quartz veins: veins Type IIa and veins Type IIb relating respectively to the shear-veins and extensional veins. However, Agbahou also shows the existence of a disseminated sulphides-bearing mineralization within host-rocks. At Agbahou, the precipitation of gold probably occurred in a post to late ductile-brittle deformation period.

Gold-Bearing Mineralization, Structural Control, Birimian, Agbahou, Ivory Coast

Houssou, N. , Allialy, M. , Kouadio, F. and Gnanzou, A. (2017) Structural Control of Auriferous Mineralization in the Birimian: Case of the Agbahou Deposit in the Region of Divo, Côte d’Ivoire. International Journal of Geosciences, 8, 189-204. doi: 10.4236/ijg.2017.82008.