Formation conditions of copper porphyry mineralization in the Kadica-Bukovik ore district, eastern Macedonia

Abstract

Macedonia is located in the Serbian–Macedonian sector of the Eurasian Tethys metallogenic belt (Fig. 1). Mineralization related to Cenozoic activation in this area is expressed in the formation of a volcanoplutonic complex in the dispersed spreading setting [1]. Previous joint works with Macedonian geologists made it possible to establish that the present-day tectonic structure of Macedonia reflects dislocations closely related to Cenozoic magmatism and productive mineralization [2]. The Kadica–Bukovik ore district is located in the easternmost Surdulica–Osogovo–Pasos metallogenic zone characterized by the wide development of lead– zinc mineralization (Fig. 1). The zone incorporates systems of sheeted bodies and discordant dikes of quartz latites with an absolute age within 24–12 Ma. Recent discovery of the gold-bearing porphyry copper mineralization in the eastern Kadica ore district is inconsistent with its metallogenic specialization and previous metallogenic model of this belt [2]. To study this phenomenon, we carried out complex studies, which involved structural–geomorphological analysis of ore district [4], on the one hand, and thermobarogeochemical study of ore formation conditions, on the other hand.