The Rosebel gold district belongs to the Paleoproterozoic Trans-Amazonian belt associated with sub-meridian crustal shortening. Here, we present new structural observations (cleavage, stretching lineations, veins, fault slip data, aeromagnetic maps). Regional cleavages are steeply dipping and bear steeply plunging stretching lineations. Finite strains are of flattening type. Fault slip data reveal a complex deformation history. The overall strain pattern of the reflects vertical motions, a feature consistent with pop-down tectonics involving vertical stretch and burial of supracrustal deposits during horizontal shortening of a hot and weak continental lithosphere.