Geochemical properties of soils surrounding the Deliklitaş Au deposit, Turkey

Abstract

The Deliklitas gold deposit is in northwest Turkey, where a renowned gold province containing many major hydrothermal deposits related to Tertiary volcanic rocks. Because of the limited outcrops in the region, one of the most effective ways to prospect for new deposits is soil sampling. In this study, 183 soil samples were systematically collected from the area around the Deliklitas Au deposit. Metal content of the samples, and their relationships and distribution according to distance away from the ore body were statistically investigated. The analysis of metals and metalloids in soil samples yielded the following metal ranges: Au from 0.005 to 0.54 mg/kg (average 0.04); Ag from 0.03 to 2.66 (average 0.22); As from 3.4 to 315 (average 303); Sb from 0.15 to 19.25 (average 1.62); Cu from 2.5 to 35 (average 11.73); Pb from 17.4 to 545 (average 73.76) and from Zn 14-1240 mg/kg of soil (average 106.71). For the areal distribution of metals 50%, 70%, 90% and 95% of the cumulative data were used for contouring element contents in the soils, using 50% as the baseline value and 95% as the anomalous value. Eigen values, Varimax Rotation method with Kaiser Normalization tested and determined the suitability of the number of data sets. Factor numbers were determined as 3, according to Eigen values determined for the soil samples. Factor 1 refers to ore minerals of epithermal system, Factor 2 refers to main rock sources of Pb and Zn and Factor 3 refers to environmental effects. Ag-Au, Pb-Zn and Sb-As pairs show high correlation in the cluster analysis indicating element relations. Please add an overarching sentence here, on implications etc.