177 A review of the Birimian Supergroup- and Tarkwaian Group-hosted gold deposits of Ghana Albertus J. B. Smith1,2*, George Henry1,2 and Susan Frost-Killian3 1 DST-NRF Centre of Excellence for Integrated Mineral and Energy Resource Analysis, Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, 2006, South Africa. *Corresponding author e-mail address:
[email protected] 2 Palaeoproterozoic Mineralisation Research Group, Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, 2006, South Africa 3 The MSA Group, 20B Rothesay Avenue, Craighall Park, 2196, South Africa DOI: 10.18814/epiiugs/2016/v39i2/95775 Ghana is the largest producer of gold in West Africa, veins. The vein- and sulphide-hosted gold is strongly a region with over 2,500 years of history with regards to associated with deformational fabrics formed by the gold production and trade. Modern exploration for and Eburnean extensional and compressional events, mining of gold in Ghana dates from 1874 with the respectively, suggesting that disseminated sulphide establishment of the British Gold Coast Colony, which mineralisation predates quartz vein-hosted was followed in 1957 by the independence of Ghana and mineralisation. The fluid from which the gold precipitated increased gold production since the early 1980s through is believed to have been of metamorphic origin and Ghana’s Economic Recovery Plan. At the time of writing, carbon dioxide (CO2) dominated, with lesser water (H2O) gold production (108.2 tonnes or 3.48 million ounces and nitrogen (N2) and minor methane (CH4). Gold [Moz] in 2014) accounted for approximately one-third precipitation was probably caused by decrease in of Ghana’s export revenues, with 36% of gold production pressure, temperature and CO2-H2O immiscibility, at coming from small-scale mining.