Multi-Stage Evolution of Gold-Bearing Hydrothermal Quartz Veins at the Mokrsko Gold Deposit (Czech Republic) Based on Cathodoluminescence, Spectroscopic, and Trace Elements Analyses

• Main Authors: Vojtěch Wertich, Jaromír Leichmann, Marek Dosbaba, Jens Götze
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-08-01
• Series: Minerals
• Subjects: hydrothermal quartz; gold deposit; cathodoluminescence (CL); trace elements; titanium; germanium; intrusion-related
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/8/8/335

We performed a detailed analysis of hydrothermal quartz at the Mokrsko gold deposit (Čelina, Mokrsko-East, and Mokrsko-West deposits). Twenty-one samples were studied by scanning electron microscopy cathodoluminescence (CL) imagining, CL emission spectra and trace elements were measured on six selected samples. Four quartz growth generations Q1 to Q4 were described. Homogeneous early blue CL Q1 with initial emission spectra at 380 and 500 nm was observed at the Čelina deposit with typical titanium concentrations in the range of 20–50 ppm. Hydrothermal quartz at Mokrsko-West, which also includes early Q1, late subhedral faces of yellow CL Q2, and microfissures of greenish CL Q3 (both 570 nm), is characterized by titanium depletion. The titanium concentration is comparable to previous studies of crystallization temperatures proving titanium concentration in quartz as a good geothermal indicator. Q4, developed in microfissures only at Čelina, has no visual CL effect. Mokrsko-West is specific in comparison to Mokrsko-East and Čelina by germanium enrichments in hydrothermal quartz (up to 17 ppm) and the presence of fluorite. Tectonic (sheeted veinlets system, regional tectonic setting) and geochemical (germanium in quartz, the presence of fluorite) characteristics of the quartz veins link the late mineralization stages at the Mokrsko-West deposit to the temporally related Blatná intrusive suite.