The Proterozoic basement of Suriname consists of a greenstone–tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite belt in the northeast of the country, two highgrade belts in the northwest and southwest, respectively, and a large granitoid–felsic volcanic terrain in the central part of the country, punctuated by numerous gabbroic intrusions. The basement is overlain by the subhorizontal Proterozoic Roraima sandstone formation and transected by two Proterozoic and one Jurassic dolerite dyke swarms. Late Proterozoic mylonitisation affected large parts of the basement. Almost 50 new U–Pb and Pb–Pb zircon ages and geochemical data have been obtained in Suriname, and much new data are also available from the neighbouring countries. This has led to a considerable revision of the geological evolution of the basement. The main orogenic event is the Trans-Amazonian Orogeny, resulting from southwards subduction and later collision between the Guiana Shield and the West African Craton. The first phase, between 2.18 and 2.09 Ga, shows ocean floor magmatism, volcanic arc development, sedimentation, metamorphism, anatexis and plutonism in the Marowijne Greenstone Belt and the adjacent older granites and gneisses. The second phase encompasses the evolution of the Bakhuis Granulite Belt and Coeroeni Gneiss Belt through rift-type basin formation, volcanism, sedimentation and, between 2.07 and 2.05 Ga, high-grade metamorphism. The third phase, between 1.99 and 1.95 Ga, is characterised by renewed high-grade metamorphism in the Bakhuis and Coeroeni belts along an anticlockwise cooling path, and ignimbritic volcanism and extensive and varied intrusive magmatism in the western half of the country. An alternative scenario is also discussed, implying an origin of the Coeroeni Gneiss Belt as an active continental margin, recording northwards subduction and finally collision between a magmatic arc in the south and an older northern continent. The Grenvillian collision between Laurentia and Amazonia around 1.2–1.0 Ga caused widespread mylonitisation and mica age resetting in the basement. ... Read more

Gold has been a major economic asset for Suriname for more than a century. The long history of gold mining, concentrated in large parts of a greenstone belt in the northeast of the country, began with small-scale artisanal extraction activities and has recently seen the development of major open-pit operations. Despite the range of mining activities, Suriname’s gold deposits and occurrences are under-explored from a scientific point of view. Primary gold mineralisations in the greenstone belt occur in multiple forms, and although their origin is commonly related to the Palaeoproterozoic Trans-Amazonian orogeny, the controls of ore formation in specific cases often remain obscure. This contribution presents an abridged overview of currently available information on the geological setting and characteristics for some of the main deposits where gold is extracted. In view of the consistent link between gold metallogeny and granitoid–greenstone belts in the northern Guiana Shield, the mineralised settings in Suriname are discussed in a regional context. ... Read more

This special issue of the Netherlands Journal of Geosciences / Geologie en Mijnbouw contains the proceedings of the Conference on the Economic Geology of Suriname, held on 16 January 2015 in The Hague, the Netherlands, to honour Dr Eddie Jharap (Fig. 1), founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Staatsolie, Suriname. At this conference the President of the Royal Netherlands Geological and Mining Society (KNGMG), Drs Lucia van Geuns, awarded him the prestigious Van Waterschoot van der Gracht Medal, the highest honour available to an earth scientist in the Netherlands. Dr Jharap expressed his gratitude in a warm and humble speech which highlighted both his strong personal motivation to contribute to the development of Suriname, and his astonishing accomplishments since the 1980s in founding and developing Staatsolie. ... Read more