Abstract
The central zone of the large Miocene Štiavnica stratovolcano in the Western Carpathians hosts epithermal Au mineralization of intermediate-sulfidation type, located at deep levels of the historic Rozália base-metal mine at Banská Hodruša. The Au mineralization occurs as subhorizontal veins at the base of pre-caldera andesites, close to the roof of a subvolcanic granodiorite intrusion. The veins are dismembered by a set of quartz–diorite porphyry sills and displaced by the younger, steeply dipping, Rozália base-metal vein, and parallel structures. The base-metal vein structures are related to resurgent horst uplift in the caldera center. The Au mineralization formed during two stages. Based on fluid inclusion evidence, both stages formed from fluids of low salinity (0–3 wt% NaCl eq.), which underwent extensive boiling at moderate temperatures (280–330°C). Variable pressure conditions (39–95 bars, neglecting the effect of CO2) indicate continual opening of the system and a transition from suprahydrostatic towards hydrodynamic conditions at shallow depths (~550 m). The fluid inclusions of the Rozália base-metal vein show homogenization temperature peaks at ~285 and 187°C and salinities between 1 and 4 wt% NaCl eq. Precipitation of Au is considered to be the result of prolonged boiling of fluids and associated decrease in Au solubility. Oxygen and hydrogen isotope data for quartz and carbonate from the Au veins show a relatively homogeneous fluid composition (−2.7 to 1.1‰δ18O, −78 to −62‰δD). The combined δ18Ofluid and δDfluid values suggest a mixed character of fluids, falling between the fields of typical magmatic and meteoric water influenced by δ18Ofluid shift due to fluid–rock isotopic exchange. End stages of open-system boiling and fractionation could have been reached, at least locally. Significantly lower isotopic composition of meteoric fluids associated with Au mineralization compared to those associated with the intrusion-related mineralizations could have resulted from changing paleoclimate and/or analytical problems of extraction of water from fluid inclusions. The proposed genetic model for the Au deposit at Rozália mine highlights the importance of hydrothermal activity during the early stage of caldera collapse. Caldera subsidence established new, convective, fluid-flow paths along marginal caldera faults, which acted as infiltration zones. Major metal precipitation occurred within subhorizontal structures that formed as the result of a collapse-related stress field. A shallow, differentiated magma chamber at the base of the volcano was the likely source of heat and magmatic components for the mineralizing fluids.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the Slovenská Banská s.r.o. for access to underground workings and assistance during the field work. This study has been carried out as a part of the project “Metallogenetic evaluation of the Slovak Republic Territory” financed by the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic. The first author gratefully acknowledges the financial support provided by NATO and the Royal Society of London during the tenure of a NATO-Royal Society Fellowship in the School of Earth Sciences and Geography, Kingston University. We are grateful to Prof. J. Cann FRS for his support. The Scottish Universities Environmental Research Center (SUERC) is funded by a consortium of Scottish Universities and NERC. Reviews by Jeffrey Hedenquist and an anonymous reviewer have significantly improved the original manuscript.
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Koděra, P., Lexa, J., Rankin, A.H. et al. Epithermal gold veins in a caldera setting: Banská Hodruša, Slovakia. Miner Deposita 39, 921–943 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-004-0449-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00126-004-0449-5