Trace-element chemistry of barren and ore-bearing quartz of selected Au, Au-Ag and Sb-Au deposits from the bohemian massif

Abstract

The trace-element contents in gold-bearing and barren quartz veins from eight Au, Au-Ag and Sb-Au Variscan deposits in the Bohemian Massif have been determined in situ in order to evaluate the differences between the various types of gold deposits and discuss trace-element variations in the successive generations of quartz veins. The variability of Ti, Al, Ge, Li and Sb abundances obtained by Laser-Ablation Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) roughly correlates with the origin and the temperature of the mineralizing fluids. The Al content ranges up to 4020 ppm (median value 230 ppm), while the Li content is generally low (< 4 ppm). The elevated Sb content (30-360 ppm Sb) is only related to quartz that immediately preceded deposition of Sb-rich phases. The titanium content of the ore-bearing vein quartz follows bimodal distribution: gold deposits with assumed higher temperature (> 450 °C) formation exhibit higher median values (~10 ppm Ti) than medium-to-low (< 300 °C) temperature deposits (~2 ppm Ti). A statistically significant threshold value (8 ppm Ti) has been recognized as an empirical tool for discriminating between them. In terms of the Ti and Al contents, the studied Bohemian gold deposits fall within and in between fields of orogenic gold and porphyry deposit types.