ABSTRACT
Gold can be regarded as possessing cosmopolitan features as it is found in deposits of various formational affinities of practically all geological periods. Nevertheless, each deposit has its own characteristic geochemical specialisation. Black metamorphic shales represent an important genetic type of gold deposits of the Proterozoic and partly Vendian epoch. Gold deposits of the Palaeozoic and Early-Middle Mesozoic eras occur in mafic and neutral volcanics, carbonate and terrigenous formations, as well as in rocks of granitoid composition. The genetic association of gold with such rocks is distinctly traced in many ore regions. Gold-antimonite ore columns formed from sulphide melt possess some specific features. The sum total of data on the geology of deposits, morphology of ore bodies with stalky columns of 'cast iron' ores and the specific features of their mineralogical composition suggest their formation from a sulphide-salt melt, most probably generated in deep centres where magma of andesite composition melted.
