Abstract The Allchar Au-As-Sb-Tl deposit is situated in the western part of the Vardar zone, the main suture zone along the contact between the Adriatic and the Eurasian tectonic plates. It is spatially and temporally associated with a Pliocene (~5 Ma) postcollisional high-K calc-alkaline to shoshonitic volcano-plutonic center. The Allchar deposit shares many distinctive features with Carlin-type gold deposits in Nevada, including its location near a terrain-bounding fault in an area of low-magnitude extension and intense magmatism. The mineralization is mostly hosted in calcareous sedimentary rocks at intersections of high-angle faults in permeable stratigraphy. The alteration types (carbonate dissolution, silicification, and argillization), ore mineralogy (auriferous arsenian pyrite and marcasite, stibnite, realgar, orpiment, and lorandite), high Au/Ag ratios, and low base metal contents are also typical of Carlin-type gold deposits in Nevada. However, the Allchar deposit differs from Nevada Carlin-type gold deposits as follows: it is an isolated Au prospect with a close spatial and temporal relationship to a shoshonitic volcano-plutonic center in a mineral belt dominated by intrusion-related Cu-Au porphyry, skarn, and hydrothermal polymetallic deposits. The deposit is clearly zoned (proximal Au-Sb to distal As-Tl), it has a significantly higher Tl content, trace elements in pyrite and marcasite are homogeneously distributed, and synore dolomitization is a widespread alteration type. Gold mineralization is most abundant in the southern part of the deposit. It occurs mostly as invisible Au in disseminated pyrite or marcasite and as rare native Au grains. Gold mineralization is accompanied by intense decarbonatization and silicification. Fluid inclusions and the hydrothermal alteration mineral assemblage indicate that Au was deposited from hot (>200°C), saline (up to ~21 wt % NaCl equiv), moderately acidic (pH <5) fluids that carried traces of magmatic H 2 S and CO 2 . In the calcareous host rocks, mixing of such fluids with cool, dilute, near-neutral groundwater triggered deposition of Au and Fe sulfides. In Tertiary tuff, isocon analysis shows that sulfidation of preexisting Fe minerals was a critical factor for deposition of Au and Fe sulfides. Antimony mineralization prevails in the central part of the deposit, and it is mostly associated with dark-gray to black jasperoid. Stibnite, the most common Sb mineral in the Allchar deposit, occurs as fine-grained disseminations in jasperoid and as fine- to coarsely crystalline masses that fill vugs and fracture zones lined with drusy quartz. Fluid inclusions entrapped by stibnite-bearing jasperoid, quartz, and calcite crystals suggest that stibnite was deposited from more dilute and cooled fluids (aqueous-carbonic fluid inclusions: 6.0–3.5 wt % NaCl equiv, T h = 102°−125°C; aqueous fluid inclusions: 14.5 and 17.1 wt % NaCl equiv, T h = 120°−165°C). In contrast to stibnite, As sulfides (orpiment and realgar) and Tl mineralization are associated with argillic alteration. Fluid inclusions hosted by realgar, orpiment, dolomite, and lorandite record deposition from more dilute (2.6–6.9 wt % NaCl equiv) and relatively cold fluids (T H = 120°−152°C) enriched in K. Isocon diagrams show a tight link between Tl and the low-temperature argillic alteration as well as a significant correlation between Tl and K. The spatial relationship of Tl mineralization with dolomite suggests that Tl deposition was also promoted by neutralization of acidic fluids. The δ D and δ 18 O data obtained from gangue minerals and fluid inclusions indicate that magmatic fluid mixed with exchanged meteoric water at deep levels and with unexchanged meteoric water at shallow levels in the system. The δ 13 C and δ 18 O values of carbonate minerals and extracted fluid inclusions suggest mixing of carbonate rock buffered fluids with magmatic and atmospheric CO 2 . The sulfur isotope values of early disseminated pyrite and marcasite show that H 2 S was initially derived from diagenetic pyrite in sedimentary rocks. In contrast, Sb and As mineralization indicate a strong input of magmatic H 2 S during the main mineralization stage. Late-stage botryoidal pyrite and marcasite are depleted in 34 S, which indicates a diminishing magmatic influence and predominance of sulfur from sedimentary sources during the late-mineralization stage. Fractionation of isotopically light sulfide species from isotopically heavy sulfates due to oxidation under increased oxygen fugacity cannot be excluded.

Abstract The mining of metallic and non-metallic commodities in Central Europe has a history of more than 2000 years. Today mainly non-metallic commodities, fossil fuels and construction raw materials play a vital role for the people living in Central Europe. Construction raw materials, albeit the most significant raw material, are not considered further here; for details refer to thematic maps issued by local geological surveys and comprehensive studies such as the textbook by Prentice (1990) . Even if many deposits in Central Europe, especially metallic deposits, are no longer extensive by world standards, the huge number and variety of deposits in Central Europe is unique and allows the student of metallogenesis to reconstruct the geological history of Central Europe from the Late Precambrian to the Recent in a way best described as ‘minerostratigraphy’. The term ‘deposit’ is used in this review for sites which were either mined in the twentieth century or are still being operated. A few sites that underwent exploration or trial mining have also been included in order to clarify certain concentration processes. They are mentioned explicitly in the text to avoid confusion with real deposits. Tonnage and grade are reported in the text only for the most important deposits. Production data for the year 2005 are listed in Table 21.1 for the countries under consideration. Reserves and production data of hydrocarbons in Central European basins are given in Table 21.2 . In the present study, Central Europe covers the Variscan core zones in the extra-Alpine part of Central Europe stretching from eastern France (Massif Central) into Poland where the contact between the Variscan Orogen and the Baltic Shield is concealed by a thick pile of platform sediments. In a north-south direction, Central Europe stretches from central Denmark to the southern boundary of the Po Plain in Italy, making the entire Variscan Foreland Basin, the Alpine Mountain Range, the Western Carpathians and the North Dinarides part of the study area. An outline of the geological and geographical settings is shown in Figure 21.1 . The precise geographical position of mineral sites, wells of special interest, hydrocarbon provinces, oil shale deposits and coal fields may be deduced from Tables 21.3 to 21.11 and the map ‘Mineral and energy resources of Central Europe’, at a scale 1:2 500 000 (see CD inside back cover).