Epithermal gold veins in a caldera setting: Banská Hodruša, Slovakia

Abstract

The central zone of the large Miocene Stiavnica stratovolcano in the Western Carpathians hosts epithermal Au mineralization of intermediate-sulfidation type, located at deep levels of the historic Rozalia base-metal mine at Banska Hodrusa. 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, Rozalia 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 Rozalia 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 Rozalia 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.