LOW SULFIDATION EPITHERMAL GOLD DEPOSITS IN INDONESIA: CHARACTERISTICS AND EXPLORATION IMPLICATIONS – AN UPDATE
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51835/ijeg.2025.1.1.500Abstract
Indonesia is famous for its abundant occurrences of gold deposits of various mineralization types, i.e. porphyry, low-sulfidation epithermal/ LSE, intermediate-sulfidation epithermal/ ISE, high-sulfidation epithermal/ HSE, volcanogenic massive sulfide/ VMS), orogenic gold, etc. The total gold endowment from those types of mineralization accounted to 10,288 tons, of which the LSE (+ISE) type contributed to total of 1,251 tons or 12.2% of the gold endowment. This significant credit of LSE (+ISE) gold to the amount of gold endowment represents the importance of LSE gold mineralization type as an exploration target. Hence this study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of LSE in Indonesia today and its implications for future exploration initiatives. A total of 85 gold deposits/ occurrences, that has been reported and/ or considered as LSE types have been selected for the assessment and evaluation in this study. Several parameters have been used to assess each occurrence. Further exploration programs that have resulted in recent discoveries or re-definition of LSE gold deposits in general have been vectored based on the comprehensive assessment of the targets. The improved understanding of Indonesian LSE deposits particularly on the tectonic and geological setting, controlling structures, mineralized body shapes and metal contents, alteration system and size with regards to the LSE environmental levels would reduce the challenges and hurdles on recognition and identification of the LSE signatures.
Keywords: Low sulfidation epithermal, LSE, mineral exploration
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