Recently, advances in analytical protocols for the study of both textural and chemical characteristics of ore-bearing minerals have allowed for the direct inference of processes that control the ore-forming fluid conditions, metal transport and deposition. This study documented the trace element geochemical data of hydrothermal sulfides related to gold-associated quartz ± carbonate veins that overprint a paleoplacer gold deposit at Damang, SW Ghana. Evaluation of the textural and trace element patterns in these sulfides improved our understanding of the ore fluid conditions and evolution that led to the hydrothermal gold mineralization. At Damang, pyrite (py) and pyrrhotite (po) are the dominant hydrothermal sulfides, with py > po in the Banket Conglomerates and py ≤ po in the Tarkwa Phyllite and mafic intrusive rocks. From this study, both py and po formed contemporaneously from the same hydrothermal fluid (i.e. the one fluid source model). Multivariate statistical analysis data for pyrite in the Banket Conglomerate and mafic intrusives show a Au–Ag-Bi-Te-Sb-(W) association, indicating incorporation of similar ore metals in the pyrite lattice during sulfidation. However, variations in Co and Ni ratios suggest that the hydrothermal fluid of metamorphic ± magmatic origin evolved from low fO2 conditions (reduced) in the mafic intrusives to relatively high fO2 conditions (oxidized) in the Banket Conglomerate during fluid-rock interaction; and agrees with the py ≤ po and py > po ore assemblages, respectively. The relative oxidation of the ore-forming fluid by the Banket conglomeratic units is partly due to the abundant detrital magnetite and hematite. This means that wall rock alteration and its attendant changes in the fO2 conditions at high temperatures (T > 300 °C) were dominant over temperature decrease during the hydrothermal gold mineralization at Damang. It is recommended that additional data on the ore minerals be acquired to: (a) establish any consistency with the current data set and interpretations reported herein and (b) compare with the large database in the literature that have utilized trace element plots of pyrites to clarify origins of hydrothermal ore-forming fluids.