Zircon U-Pb dating of igneous rocks in the Radzimowice and Wielisław Złotoryjski auriferous polymetallic deposits, Sudetes, SW Poland

A rhyolite porphyry in the Radzimowice deposit at Bukowinka Hill has a SHRIMP zircon U-Pb age of 314.9 ± 3.1 Ma. This is consistent with previous zircon dating of a monzogranite and a rhyodacite (ca. 315 Ma) in the Żeleźniak sub-volcanic intrusion (ZI), considered to be the igneous rocks, representing the oldest magmatic pulses in the region. First-stage mesothermal auriferous sulphide mineralization in the deposit was connected to hydrothermal processes, associated with the rhyodacite intrusions. This was followed by tectonic activity and younger alkaline magmatism in a post-collisional geotectonic setting. The first-stage Au-bearing sulphide mineralization was cataclased and overprinted by younger epithermal base-metal sulphides with microscopic Au, associated with Bi-Te-Ag minerals. The younger magmatic pulses are represented by porphyritic andesites and lamprophyric dykes, which cut the ZI. Zircon from these dykes yielded ages of 312.8 ± 2.8 Ma for an andesite porphyry and 312.4 ± 4 Ma for a lamprophyre. All these magmatic pulses, evidenced in the Radzimowice deposit, are considered to be the oldest post-orogenic sub-volcanic magmatism cutting the basement of the intramontane basins in the Sudetes, on the NE margin of the Bohemian Massif. A rhyolite porphyry in the famous 'Organy' exposure at Wielisław Złotoryjski (WZ) on the SE margin of the North-Sudetic Basin is younger, 297.5 ± 2.8 Ma. Vein-type auriferous ore mineralization, hosted by Early Palaeozoic graphitic schists in intimate contact with rhyolite porphyry in WZ, is also correlated with this magmatism. The auriferous ore mineralization at Radzimowice and Wielisław Złotoryjski formed at different times, during different magmatic pulses and successive hydrothermal stages, despite several similarities in geologic setting and country- and host-rock compositions. There was a transition from a post-collisional to a within-plate setting over about 20 Ma in Late Carboniferous-Early Permian times, with the older Żeleźniak and Bukowinka sub-volcanic intrusions in the uplifted part of the Kaczawa Metamorphic Complex (ZI) and the younger Wielisław Złotoryjski sub-volcanic intrusion in the metamorphic basement of an intramontane basin.