Trace and Rare-Earth-Element Chemistry of Quartz from the Tuztaşı Low-Sulfidation Epithermal Au-Ag Deposit, Western Türkiye: Implications for Gold Exploration from Quartz Mineral Chemistry

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Özbaş F., Bilal E., Touil A.

MINERALS, cilt.15, sa.7, ss.758, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 15 Sayı: 7
  • Basım Tarihi: 2025
  • Doi Numarası: 10.3390/min15070758
  • Dergi Adı: MINERALS
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, ABI/INFORM, Aerospace Database, CAB Abstracts, Communication Abstracts, INSPEC, Metadex, Directory of Open Access Journals, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.758
  • Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
  • İstanbul Üniversitesi-Cerrahpaşa Adresli: Hayır

Özet

The Tuzta¸sı low-sulfidation epithermal Au–Ag deposit (Biga Peninsula, Türkiye) records a

multi-stage hydrothermal history that can be interpreted through the trace and rare-earthelement

(REE) chemistry of quartz. High-precision LA-ICP-MS analyses of five representative

quartz samples (23 ablation spots; 10 analytically robust) reveal two fluid stages.

Early fluids were cold, dilute meteoric waters (δ18O(H2O) ≈ −6.8 to +0.7‰), whereas later

fluids circulated deeper, interacted with felsic basement rocks, and evolved in composition.

Mineralized quartz displays marked enrichment in As (raw mean = 2854 ± 6821 ppm;

filtered mean = 70 ± 93 ppm; one spot 16,775 ppm), K (498 ± 179 ppm), and Sb

(57.8 ± 113 ppm), coupled with low Ti/Al (<0.005) and elevated Ge/Si (0.14–0.65 μmol

mol−1). Chondrite-normalized REE patterns show pronounced but variable LREE enrichment

((La/Yb)n ≤ 45.3; ΣLREE/ΣHREE up to 10.8) and strongly positive Eu anomalies

(δEu ≤ 9.3) with slightly negative Ce anomalies (δCe ≈ 0.29); negligible Ce–Eu covariance

(r2 ≈ 0.05) indicates discrete redox pulses. These signatures indicate chemically evolved,

reducing fluids conducive to Au–Ag deposition. By contrast, barren quartz is characterized

by lower pathfinder-element contents, less fractionated REE profiles, higher Ti/Al, and

weaker Eu anomalies. A composite exploration toolkit emerges: As > 700 ppm, As/Sb > 25,

Ti/Al < 0.005, Ge/Si > 0.15 μmol mol−1, and δEu ≫ 1 reliably identify ore-bearing zones

when integrated with δ18O data and fluid-inclusion microthermometry from earlier studies

on the same vein system. This study provides one of the first systematic applications

of integrated trace-element and REE analysis of quartz to a Turkish low-sulfidation epithermal

system, offering an applicable model for vectoring mineralization in analogous

settings worldwide.