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REFINED TIMING OF PORPHYRY COPPER FORMATION IN THE SERBIAN AND BULGARIAN PORTIONS OF THE CRETACEOUS CARPATHO-BALKAN BELT

Andor L.W. Lips

Mineral Resources Division, BRGM, 3, avenue C. Guillemin B.P. 6009, 45060 Orléans cedex 2, France, and Vening Meinesz Research School of Geodynamics, Utrecht University, Netherlands

R. J. Herrington

Department of Mineralogy, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, United Kingdom

G. Stein

Mineral Resources Division, BRGM, 3, avenue C. Guillemin B.P. 6009, 45060 Orléans cedex 2, France

D. Kozelj

Copper Institute, Zeleni Bulevar 35, 19210 Bor, Serbia

K. Popov

University of Mining and Geology "St. Ivan Rilski" Faculty of Geology, Stoudentski Grad, Sofia 1700, Bulgaria

J. R. Wijbrans

Faculteit der Aard- en Levenswetenschappen, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands

Corresponding author: email, a.lips{at}brgm.fr

The Bor district in Serbia and the Panagyurishte district in Bulgaria are part of the mineralized Late Cretaceous Carpatho-Balkan igneous belt. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar laser probe radiometric age information from porphyry copper deposits of the two districts in this study provides new constraints on the timing of host-rock emplacement and the hydrothermal alteration that is linked to the porphyry mineralization. In the Bor district, igneous hornblende from the host intrusions has an average plateau age at 84.0 ± 1.5 Ma (2). The timing of alteration is constrained by white mica with an average inverse isochron age of 85.4 ± 1.8 Ma and an average plateau age at 86.6 ± 1.0 Ma (elevated by a small excess ⁴⁰Ar contribution). Together, these analyses indicate that porphyry mineralization occurred around 85 Ma. In the Panagyurishte district previous isotopic studies have produced much older host-rock ages in the northwest than mineralization ages in the southeast. Ages of igneous and alteration mineral separates from Elatsite and Medet in the northwestern and central parts of the district from the present study confirm pluton emplacement at 90.8 ± 0.8 Ma but much younger alteration at 79.5 ± 0.5 Ma. It is proposed that two episodes of magmatic-hydrothermal activity have affected the district, one at ~91 Ma, with the emplacement of the majority of the plutonic rocks, and one at 79 to 80 Ma during which the alteration micas were reset. Integration of these new ages with existing radiometric age information emphasizes the complex history of magmatic-hydrothermal activity along the immature Late Cretaceous Carpatho-Balkan convergent margin.

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