Mechanisms for Pd-Au enrichment in porphyry-epithermal ores of the Elatsite deposit, Bulgaria

This research was supported by Spanish projects: RTI2018-099157-A-I00, CGL2015-65824-P and CGL2016-81085-R granted by the "Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades" and "Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad" (MINECO), respectively. Additional funding for chemical analysis was provided by the Ramon y Cajal Fellowship RYC-2015-17596 to JMGJ. Maria del Mar Abad, Isabel Sancez Almazo and Rocio Marquez Crespo (CIC, University of Granada) are acknowledged for her assistance with HRTEM, and HR-SEM and FESEM analysis respectively. We are also indebted to Miguel Angel Hidalgo Laguna from CIC of University of Granada and Xavier Llovet from the Centres Cientifics i Tecnologics of the Universitat of Barcelona (CCiTUB) for their careful help with EMPA. This paper was written during the lockdown provoked by the pandemic COVID-19 and the authors would like to dedicate this manuscript to the memory of those who lost their lives.
Porphyry Cu can contain significant concentrations of platinum-group elements (PGE: Os, Ir, Ru, Rh, Pt, Pd). In this study, we provide a comprehensive in situ analysis of noble metals (PGE, Au, Ag) for (Cusingle bondFe)-rich sulfides from the Elatsite, one of the world's PGE-richest porphyry Cu deposits. These data, acquired using laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), indicate that Pd was concentrated in all the (Cusingle bondFe)-rich sulfides at ppm-levels, with higher values in pyrite (~6 ppm) formed at the latest epithermal stage (i.e., quartz–galena–sphalerite assemblage) than in bornite and chalcopyrite (
Spanish projects - "Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades" RTI2018-099157-A-I00 CGL2015-65824-P CGL2016-81085-R
Spanish projects - "Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad" (MINECO) RTI2018-099157-A-I00 CGL2015-65824-P CGL2016-81085-R
Spanish Government RYC-2015-17596