©2020 Society of Economic Geologists, Inc.

Economic Geology, v. XXX, no. XX, pp. X–X

EXPRESS LETTER

ROSEN, BULGARIA: A NEWLY RECOGNIZED IRON OXIDE-COPPER-GOLD DISTRICT

Richard H. Sillitoe,1,† Georgi Magaranov,2 Veselin Mladenov,2 and Robert A. Creaser3

127 West Hill Park, Highgate Village, London N6 6ND, England
2Mundoro Capital Inc., 6th September Street 13A, Sofia 1000, Bulgaria
3Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2E3, Canada

Abstract
The Rosen copper veins in southeastern Bulgaria are recognized for the first time as an iron oxide-copper-gold
(IOCG) district. The veins are located in the East Srednogorie segment of the Carpathian-Balkan calc-alkaline
volcano-plutonic arc and were formed during an end-stage interval of extreme slab rollback and intra-arc rift-
ing, which gave rise farther east to seafloor spreading in the Western Black Sea basin. The resulting submarine
volcano-sedimentary rift basin is dominated by intermediate to mafic shoshonitic to ultrapotassic volcanism and
subsidiary gabbro to syenite intrusion. The E- to NE-striking veins define a NW-striking alignment along the
western contact of the syenite-dominated Rosen pluton, inferred to be part of a large ring dike. More than 40
veins, the most important formerly mined to depths as great as 1,000 m, contain an early, pegmatoidal, calcic-
potassic assemblage followed by predominant magnetite (including the mushketovite variety), chlorite, and
carbonates but also quartz, chalcopyrite, pyrite, and numerous other metallic minerals, which combine to give
an unusual Fe-Cu-Au-Mo-Co-Ni-U-light rare earth element (LREE)-W-Bi-Zn-Pb geochemical signature. The
close correlation between Fe, Cu, U, and LREEs is evident even in the flotation tailings. Vein molybdenite was
dated during this study at 80.6 ± 0.4 Ma, which is similar to a U-Pb zircon age for monzosyenite from the Rosen
pluton. The mineralogic and compositional features of the Rosen district are comparable to those of well-known
IOCG deposits worldwide and geometrically similar to the vertically extensive IOCG veins in the Coastal Cor-
dillera province of northern Chile. The subsidiary granitophile signature that accompanies the characteristic
siderophile IOCG suite was also recognized recently at the giant Olympic Dam deposit in South Australia and
elsewhere. Although no exposed intrusion is definitively implicated in the genesis of the Rosen veins, coexisting
gabbro and syenite fluid sources may be hypothesized at depth in or beneath the coeval ring dike.

Introduction state enterprise, during which time underground operations

The Rosen (or Rossen) copper district is located at Meden
rid (Copper ridge) near the Black Sea coast of southeastern
Bulgaria, ~12 km southeast of the city of Burgas (Fig. 1).
The district merits mention in most metallogenic syntheses
of the Carpathian-Balkan segment of the Tethyan orogen—
the Apuseni-Banat-Timok-Srednogorie belt—as a series of
polymetallic vein deposits of mesothermal character that
were mined principally for copper (Janković, 1997; Berza et
al., 1998; Ciobanu et al., 2002; Popov et al., 2002). A case is
made here for the Rosen district being a previously unrecog-
nized example of iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) mineraliza-
tion, sharing many features with the archetypal deposits that
constitute the Olympic (Gawler) and Cloncurry provinces of
Australia, Carajás province of Brazil, and, in particular, the
much younger Coastal Cordillera province of Chile and Peru
(Williams et al., 2005, and references therein).
The shallow (<100 m), supergene-oxidized parts of the
Rosen veins supported some of the world’s earliest cop-
per mining, dating back to the late sixth millennium B.C.
and continuing through the Bronze Age, Greek and Roman
times, and the Middle Ages (Leshtakov, 2013; Rehren et al.,
2016; Kunze et al., 2018). The veins were formally exploited
from 1945 to 1995 by Bourgas Copper Mining Company, a
†Corresponding author: e-mail, aucu@compuserve.com
attained maximum depths of 800 to 1,000 m. Before 1977,
when impoundments were constructed, flotation tailings were
discharged directly into the nearby Black Sea, resulting subse-
quently in an extensive cleanup operation (Bley et al., 2003).
Since mining ceased in 1995, much of the mine infrastruc-
ture has been dismantled, and there is currently no under-
ground access and little surface exposure of the veins. Hence,
the evidence for an IOCG designation is based on published
descriptions—most in Bulgarian or Russian—of the veins and
flotation tailings combined with inspection of sparse dump
material and sample suites from museum and university collec-
tions. This short report highlights the geologic setting and char-
acteristics of the Rosen IOCG district and presents an Re-Os
molybdenite age, which provides a precise timing for vein for-
mation. Since the Rosen veins constitute arguably the youngest
presently known IOCG deposits anywhere in the world, their
well-defined tectono-magmatic setting further clarifies the for-
mational environment of IOCG deposits in general.
Geologic Setting
The Rosen district is located in the Srednogorie belt, the east-
ern portion of the Apuseni-Banat-Timok-Srednogorie belt,
which trends east-west through Bulgaria (Fig. 1, inset). The
Srednogorie belt is the site of a Late Cretaceous volcano-
plutonic arc of predominantly calc-alkaline composition that

ISSN 0361-0128; doi:10.5382/econgeo.4731; 8 p. Submitted: December 21, 2019 / Accepted: January 2, 2020

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 2 EXPRESS LETTER

Fig. 1. Simplified geologic map of East Srednogorie, Bulgaria (taken from Cheshitev and Kânčev, 1989), showing the posi-
tion of the Yambol-Burgas intra-arc basin (after Georgiev et al., 2012) and the main vein districts (after Popov et al., 1993).
Box in inset shows location of East Srednogorie with respect to the Apuseni-Banat-Timok-Srednogorie metallogenic belt.

was constructed during northward subduction of Neotethyan
oceanic lithosphere beneath the Eurasian plate (Dewey et
al., 1973). Copper mineralization occurs throughout much
of the arc, although the Panagyurishte district in the Cen-
tral Srednogorie belt hosts the most important porphyry and
high-sulfidation epithermal copper-gold deposits, which were
emplaced under mildly extensional conditions resulting from
southward slab rollback (von Quadt et al., 2005; Zimmerman
et al., 2008).
East Srednogorie differs from the West and Central seg-
ments of the belt, because the calc-alkaline arc underwent
extreme end-stage extension and crustal thinning to form
the Yambol-Burgas intra-arc basin, which broadens and
deepens eastward on approach to the Black Sea (Georgiev
et al., 2012; Gallhofer et al., 2015; Fig. 1). The Yambol-
Burgas basin was the site of deep submarine sedimentation
and voluminous shoshonitic basalt and basaltic andesite to
ultrapotassic volcanism, and subsidiary coeval gabbro to
syenite intrusions that define a number of volcanic centers
(Boccaletti et al., 1978; Stanisheva-Vassileva, 1980; Popov
et al., 1993; Dabovski et al., 2009; Georgiev et al., 2012;
Fig. 1). Limited U-Pb zircon dating suggests that the most
intense intra-arc magmatism was active between ~81 and 79
Ma (Georgiev et al., 2012). The Yambol-Burgas basin was
inverted by N-vergent thrusting during Neotethys closure
and continental collision, beginning in the latest Cretaceous
(Burchfiel and Nakov, 2015; Fig. 1).
In contrast to the rest of the Srednogorie arc, the intra-arc
basin in East Srednogorie hosts copper-bearing, polymetallic
vein deposits, interpreted here to be of IOCG type, instead
of porphyry and high-sulfidation epithermal deposits (Popov
et al., 1993; Fig. 1), possibly because the extension was so
extreme (Gallhofer et al., 2015). Traditionally, the veins were
assigned an intrusion-related origin (e.g., Bogdanov, 1987;
Popov et al., 1993).
IOCG deposits have not been reported from elsewhere in
the Apuseni-Banat-Timok-Srednogorie belt. However, mag-
netite-rich copper-gold occurrences considered of IOCG type
have been described farther east in the Tethyan orogenic belt,
at Divrigi and Hasançelebi in east-central Turkey, where they
are closely associated with Late Cretaceous (77–74 Ma) mon-
zonitic to syenitic intrusions emplaced during arc extension

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 EXPRESS LETTER 3

induced by slab rollback (Kuşcu et al., 2013)—a tectono-mag-
matic setting closely similar to that of the Rosen district.
Rosen District Veins
The six main deposits and nearby prospects in the Rosen
district define an 11-km-long, northwest alignment that fol-
lows the topographically prominent Meden rid near the west-
ern contact of the Rosen pluton (Figs. 1, 2). The pluton, 23
km long and 1 to 4 km wide, is composed mainly of syenite,
monzonite, and a multiplicity of dikes, including widespread
aplite. A sample of monzosyenite from the monzonite phase
returned a U-Pb isotope dilution-thermal ionization mass
spectrometry zircon concordia age of 79.62 ± 0.47 Ma (Geor-
giev et al., 2012). The parallelism of the elongate pluton and
the deposit alignment was considered by Bogdanov et al.
(1969) to reflect the presence of fundamental, NW-striking
structural control (Fig. 2). However, more recent geophysi-
cal evidence suggests that the Rosen pluton is just a western
segment of a large ring dike, much of which is submerged
beneath the westernmost Black Sea (Dabovski et al., 2009,
and references therein).
Each of the six deposits comprises one or two main veins
accompanied by a series of hanging- and footwall splays (Fig.
2). The veins follow an array of moderately to steeply dip-
ping, NE- to E-striking, NW- or SE-dipping normal faults and
fractures that cut a sequence of predominantly trachyandes-
itic lavas and volcaniclastic rocks intruded by diorite porphyry
dikes and, at depth, by one or more larger bodies of monzo-
diorite porphyry (Bogdanov et al., 1969; Popov et al., 1993;
Fig. 3). At least 40 subparallel veins, ranging from 0.5 to 2
m in width but attaining 6 m near vein intersections, were
exploited, and another 50 or so are known (Popov et al., 1993;
Figs. 2, 3). The main veins, up to ~3,000 m long and known
from drilling to a depth of ~2,000 m, partly follow syenite por-
phyry dikes, which were emplaced at about the same time as
monzogabbro porphyry dikes but later than the Rosen pluton
(Bogdanov et al., 1969; Fig. 3). From 1945 to 1995, the three
main mines, Rosen, Meden rid, and Propadnala voda (Fig.
3), produced 15.4 Mt of ore averaging 1.04% Cu (Milev et
al., 1996) plus undisclosed amounts of Au, Mo, Co, and other
by-products. However, production during the early years of
formal mining averaged >3% Cu (Milev et al., 1996).
Hydrothermal alteration minerals recorded from the wall
rocks of the Rosen veins include albite, K-feldspar, actinolite,
epidote, and chlorite (Bogdanov, 1987; Popov et al., 1993).
More than 100 hypogene and supergene minerals have been
identified in the veins (Todorov, 1983; Popov et al., 1993).
Early, pegmatoidal biotite, pyroxene, amphibole, K-feldspar,
and apatite, reportedly best represented in the southwestern
portions of the veins, predate sulfide introduction (Bogda-
nov et al., 1968; Fig. 4A). They are followed by the main vein
constituents: magnetite (including the mushketovite variety),
chlorite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, calcite, ankerite (plus other car-
bonates), and quartz (Bogdanov et al., 1968; Todorov, 1983;
Popov et al., 1993). Observed ore samples comprise inter-
grown magnetite ± chlorite containing centimeter-scale clots
and veinlets of chalcopyrite but commonly lesser or no pyrite
(Fig. 4B, C). The calcite, ankerite, and other minor carbonate
minerals are far more abundant than quartz and, in part, para-
genetically late and commonly barren (Todorov, 1983; Popov

Fig. 2. Map showing the main veins in the Rosen district relative to the Rosen pluton (taken from Popov et al., 1993). Note
the location of Vromos Bay. Section line A-A’ shows the position of Figure 3.

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 4 EXPRESS LETTER

Fig. 3. Northwest-southeast section through the Rosen district veins (taken from Popov et al., 1993). Section line shown
in Figure 2.

et al., 1993; Fig. 4D), although crosscutting calcite veins can
contain chalcopyrite. Minor fluorite and barite are also pres-
ent (Popov et al., 1993).
Specular hematite, molybdenite, and bornite are also promi-
nent vein minerals, along with subsidiary scheelite, wolframite,
cubanite, arsenopyrite, Co-bearing species (cobaltian pyrite,
cobaltite, carrollite), Ni-bearing species (pentlandite, violarite,
nickeline, bravoite), Bi-bearing species (mainly aikinite), sphal-
erite, galena, native gold, and electrum (Todorov, 1983; Popov
et al., 1993). The gold and electrum are encapsulated mainly
in chalcopyrite, pyrite, and carbonates (Strashimirov and
Kovachev, 1994). Other minor vein constituents include ura-
ninite and light rare earth element (LREE)-bearing minerals:
allanite and the fluorocarbonates bastnäsite, parisite, and syn-
chysite (Antonova, 1988; Popov et al., 1993). Uranium grades at
Rosen were <0.1% (Simov and Bojkov, 1992). This suite of vein
minerals gives rise to a complex and somewhat unusual Fe-Cu-
Au-Mo-Co-Ni-W-Bi-Zn-Pb-U-LREE geochemical signature.

Fig. 4. Selected samples from the Rosen veins. A. Pegmatoidal aggregates of biotite books (black) cut by a vein of fine-
grained amphibole (pale green) enclosing euhedral apatite crystals (white). Note lack of sulfide minerals. B. Massive mag-
netite cut by irregular chalcopyrite veinlet. C. Massive, coarse-grained mushketovite, showing former specular hematite
crystal faces. D. Massive magnetite and intergrown chalcopyrite cut by late calcite. Scribe tip for scale.

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 EXPRESS LETTER 5
The other Late Cretaceous, volcanic rock-hosted vein dis-
tricts farther west in the Yambol-Burgas intra-arc basin, most
notably Varli Bryag, Zidarovo, and Bakadjik (Fig. 1), pos-
sess mineralogic and geochemical similarities to those in the
Rosen district. However, quartz, Au, Zn, and Pb contents are
higher and Mo, W, Co, and Ni contents lower, possibly due to
shallower levels of erosion than in the Rosen district (Todorov,
1983; Popov et al., 1993).
Rosen Flotation Tailings
The Black Sea coast at Vromos Bay (Fig. 2) was heavily con-
taminated by flotation tailings from the Rosen plant, giving
rise to high levels of radioactivity (Vapirev et al., 1996). Ap-
proximately 8 Mt of magnetite-rich tailings were discharged
into the bay, with ~10% of them being concentrated by wave
action to form a black-sand beach placer 2.3 km long, up to
150 m wide, and 2.3 m (locally up to 6 m) thick (Bley et al.,
2003). The sand contained 60% magnetite along with specu-
lar hematite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, molybdenite, and subsidiary
bornite, supergene chalcocite, and other sulfide minerals. In
the early 1990s, the mining company began removal of the
black sand from the beach; it was subjected to regrinding pri-
or to magnetic separation and flotation to recover a magnetite
concentrate, averaging 55% Fe, and a chalcopyrite concen-
trate grading 13 to 15% Cu and 4 to 5 g/t Au (Bley et al.,
2003).
The nonmagnetic fraction of the black sand contained ura-
nium and LREE minerals, including uraninite and allanite
(Bley et al., 2003). Even 14 years after beach restoration was
completed, the remaining black sand returned values of 12 to
32 ppm U and 290 to 1,050 ppm REEs, mostly LREEs. High
correlation coefficients (r = 0.90–0.93) between Fe, Cu, U,
and LREEs support the close association of these elements
(Surguchev et al., 2011).
Molybdenite Age Determination
A sample of molybdenite-bearing copper ore was collected
at the Propadnala voda mine shaft for Re-Os dating. The
sample consists of massive magnetite and chlorite containing
coarsely intergrown clots of chalcopyrite and molybdenite.
A molybdenite mineral separate was prepared by metal-free
crushing followed by gravity and magnetic concentration. The
187Re and 187Os concentrations in the molybdenite were de-
termined by isotope dilution mass spectrometry using Carius
tube, solvent extraction, anion chromatography, and negative
thermal ionization mass spectrometry techniques (Selby and
Creaser, 2004; Markey et al., 2007). A mixed double spike
containing known amounts of isotopically enriched 185Re,
190Os, and 188Os was used. Isotopic analysis was made using
a ThermoScientific triton mass spectrometer by means of a
Faraday collector. Total procedural blanks for Re and Os were
<3 and <2 pg, respectively, which are insignificant compared
Table 1. Molybdenite Re-Os Isotope and Age Data, Rosen District, Bulgaria
Re 187Re 187Os Model age ±2σ
Sample (ppm) ±2σ (ppm) ±2σ (ppb) ±2σ (Ma) (Ma)
Bulgaria 260.6 0.8 163.8 0.5 220.0 0.2 80.6 0.4
Bulgaria rpt 286.0 0.9 179.7 0.5 241.7 0.2 80.7 0.4
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to the Re and Os concentrations in molybdenite. Reference
material 8599 Henderson molybdenite (Markey et al., 2007)
is routinely analyzed as a standard, and during the past five
years returned an average Re-Os date of 27.78 ± 0.07 Ma (n =
15), indistinguishable from the reference age value of 27.66 ±
0.1 Ma (Wise and Watters, 2011).
The results of the Re-Os age determination are detailed
in Table 1. The age uncertainty is quoted at 2σ level and
includes all known analytical uncertainty, including that in the
decay constant of 187Re. The analysis yielded a Late Creta-
ceous (Campanian) age of 80.6 ± 0.4 Ma. The molybdenite
mineral separate was replicated with an identical age result,
within uncertainty (Table 1). This Re-Os age accords with an
imprecise K-Ar age of 83.0 ± 3.0 Ma reported by Palshin et al.
(1989) for biotite from one of the Rosen veins.
Timing of Vein Formation and Intrusion
The new Re-Os molybdenite age is consistent with the Rosen
veins having formed during the Yambol-Burgas intra-arc rift-
ing event and falls within the 81 to 79 Ma peak of volcano-
plutonic activity defined by Georgiev et al. (2012). The vein
molybdenite appears to be 0.1 to 1.9 m.y. older than the age
(79.62 ± 0.47 Ma) of the monzosyenite from the nearby Rosen
pluton, taking into account the age uncertainties (Georgiev et
al., 2012). Significantly, however, only two zircons were ana-
lyzed to produce the concordia age (Georgiev et al., 2012),
and, bearing in mind the likelihood of multiple intrusive phas-
es in the Rosen pluton, it is possible that the crystallization age
of part of the pluton could have been essentially synchronous
with vein formation.
The difficulty of precisely identifying the causative intru-
sion for the Rosen veins is typical of IOCG deposits in general
(e.g., Williams et al., 2005; Groves et al., 2010). Nonetheless,
irrespective of whether any exposed intrusion overlaps tem-
porally with vein formation, the proximity of the vein array
and parallel dike swarm to the Rosen pluton (Fig. 2) strongly
suggests a genetic relationship between the IOCG deposits
and intrusions comprising the ring dike.
Discussion
A comparison of the geologic and mineralogic features report-
ed for the Rosen veins with those considered by Groves et
al. (2010) to typify true IOCG deposits strongly supports the
proposal that the district may be considered as a legitimate
member of the IOCG clan rather than simply as a series of
mesothermal vein deposits. Following Groves et al. (2010),
the defining criteria are magmatic-hydrothermal origin, eco-
nomic Cu and Au contents, structural control, abundance of
low-Ti iron oxides, LREE enrichment, subordinate role of py-
rite and quartz, temporal relationship to intrusive rocks, and
large scale of pre-ore alteration. In the Rosen district, only the
last criterion remains to be further assessed.
 6 EXPRESS LETTER
The Late Cretaceous intra-arc rift setting of the Rosen dis-
trict, with its thinned crust and high heat flow (Georgiev et al.,
2012), is consistent with the extensional environments widely
proposed for most IOCG deposits worldwide (Groves et al.,
2010), and closely comparable to the intra-arc extensional/
transtensional setting of the Middle Jurassic to mid-Creta-
ceous IOCG deposits in the Coastal Cordillera of the central
Andes (Sillitoe, 2003, and references therein), where intra-
arc (and back-arc) basin formation was also caused by slab
rollback (Ramos, 2009). The Yambol-Burgas basin appears to
be the aborted on-land prolongation of the seafloor spreading
center responsible for oceanic crust generation and opening
of the Western Black Sea basin (Tari et al., 2015). The Rosen
district occupies the part of the Yambol-Burgas basin nearest
to the Black Sea (Fig. 1) and, as a consequence, is underlain
by the thinnest crust (~28 km; Yosifov and Pchelarov, 1977).
The mafic tendency of the magmatism in the Yambol-Bur-
gas intra-arc rift—attributed to remelting of clinopyroxene-
and amphibole-bearing upper mantle-lower crustal cumulates
(Georgiev et al., 2009, 2012)—recalls the intimate association
of some IOCG deposits elsewhere with mafic and even ultra-
mafic intrusions, as in the Coastal Cordillera of northern Chile
(Sillitoe, 2003) and at Olympic Dam (Ehrig et al., 2012). The
intermediate to mafic shoshonitic suite that dominates the
Yambol-Burgas intra-arc rift is also reminiscent of the high-K
calc-alkaline to shoshonitic volcanic rocks present in parts of
some other IOCG provinces, including the Mesozoic Coastal
Cordillera of the central Andes (Sillitoe, 2003, and references
therein) and Paleoproterozoic Great Bear magmatic zone of
Northwest Territories, Canada (Ootes et al., 2017).
Many IOCG deposits comprise either irregular, structurally
and/or stratigraphically controlled replacement bodies, and/
or hydrothermal breccias, which can be intimately associ-
ated with discrete, subvertical veins (e.g., Candelaria-Punta
del Cobre district, northern Chile; Marschik and Fontboté,
2001). However, geometrically, the Rosen veins are most
closely comparable with the steep, vertically extensive, stand-
alone IOCG vein systems in the Coastal Cordillera of north-
ern Chile (Sillitoe, 2003).
The Rosen veins are dominated by magnetite and lesser
specular hematite that are closely associated with chalcopy-
rite—a defining feature of more deeply exposed IOCG depos-
its (Hitzman et al., 1992; Sillitoe, 2003; Groves et al., 2010).
A notable difference, however, is the intergrowth of magnetite
with chlorite in the Rosen veins instead of with actinolite, bio-
tite, and/or K-feldspar as in most IOCG deposits worldwide
(e.g., Sillitoe, 2003; Williams, 2010; Corriveau et al., 2016);
however, a magnetite-chlorite association has been described
elsewhere (e.g., Carajás province; Tallarico et al., 2000; Tor-
resi et al., 2012). The abundance of magnetite pseudomorphs
after specular hematite (mushketovite) is another characteristic
IOCG mineralogic feature (e.g., Marschik and Fontboté, 2001;
Sillitoe, 2003; de Haller and Fontboté, 2009). Although quartz
is present at Rosen, it is not the dominant gangue mineral as
it is in most base and precious metal-bearing vein deposits
worldwide. The abundance and partly late timing of calcite and
other carbonate minerals is also typical of the IOCG depos-
its in northern Chile and elsewhere, as is the intergrowth of
minor chalcopyrite with some of the late calcite (e.g., Sillitoe,
2003). Furthermore, calcite is more abundant in the distal,
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particularly northeastern portions of the Rosen veins (Bogda-
nov et al., 1968; Todorov, 1983), as it is in some of the northern
Chile deposits (e.g., Manto Verde; Vila et al., 1996).
The Fe-Cu-Au-Mo-Co-Ni-U-LREE association at Rosen
is typical of many IOCG deposits, although the additional
presence of appreciable W, Bi, Zn, and Pb is less common.
Nonetheless, these metals have been reported from other
deposits considered as IOCG type, with major Bi and Co
and minor W being present at NICO, Great Bear magmatic
zone (Acosta-Góngora et al., 2015); Bi, Co, Ni, and LREEs
at Guelb Moghrein, Mauritania (Kirschbaum and Hitzman,
2016); Zn at Candelaria (Marschik and Fontboté, 2001); Bi,
Sn, Pb, Zn, Ni, Co, and REEs at Alvo 118, Carajás province
(Torresi et al., 2012); Mo, Co, As, Bi, W, Sn, U, and REEs
at Ernest Henry, Cloncurry province (Mark et al., 2006); and
W, Mo, As, and Sb in the southeastern lobe of Olympic Dam
(Dmitrijeva et al., 2019), where hematite throughout the
deposit is enriched in W, U, Sn, and Mo (Verdugo-Ihl et al.,
2017). A mafic rock association would offer a ready explana-
tion for the elevated Co and Ni values in the Rosen district
and elsewhere, but the occurrence of elevated W, Sn, Mo, Bi,
and even U and LREEs favors a granitophile affinity. Perhaps
the combination of siderophile and granitophile geochemistry
could imply involvement, perhaps comingling, of both gab-
broic and syenitic magmas at Rosen and a comparable deeply
sourced, compositionally bimodal magmatic input to some
other IOCG districts.
Conclusions
The newly obtained Late Cretaceous mineralization age con-
firms the Rosen veins to be the youngest example of unam-
biguous IOCG deposits encountered to date anywhere in the
world. The veins formed in an extensional, intra-arc, subma-
rine basinal setting that concluded conventional calc-alkaline
magmatic arc construction and are broadly associated with
intermediate to mafic shoshonitic magmatism triggered by
extreme slab rollback. The veins are coeval with the nearby
syenite-dominated Rosen pluton but cannot be genetically
linked with any confidence to a specific intrusive phase. Por-
phyry and high-sulfidation epithermal copper-gold depos-
its, widely developed farther west in the Carpathian-Balkan
(Apuseni-Banat-Timok-Srednogorie) belt, are notably absent
from this end-stage rift setting.
The Rosen veins contain anomalously high Mo, W, Bi, Zn,
and Pb values in addition to the more typical Fe-Cu-Au-Co-
Ni-U-LREE IOCG suite, and a similar subsidiary lithophile
element signature was also recently recognized at the Olym-
pic Dam deposit and elsewhere, perhaps indicating a hybrid
siderophile and granitophile magmatic source. In the case of
Rosen, this source presumably lies in relatively deep seated
gabbroic and syenitic magmas that fed the contiguous Rosen
pluton portion of the inferred ring dike.
Acknowledgments
Initial field work was conducted on behalf of Mundoro Capi-
tal Inc., with subsequent studies benefiting from inspection of
sample suites at Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Earth
and Man National Museum, and University of Mining and
Geology St. Ivan Rilski, and discussions with Kamen Bogda-
nov. Publication is with permission of Teo Dechev.
 EXPRESS LETTER 7
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Richard Sillitoe gained B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees
from the University of London, England. After
working for the Geological Survey of Chile and then
returning to the University of London as a Shell
postdoctoral research fellow, he has operated for
over 45 years as an independent consultant to more
than 300 mining companies, international agencies,
and foreign governments. He has worked on a wide variety of precious, base,
and lithophile metal deposits and prospects in 100 countries worldwide but
focuses primarily on the epithermal gold and porphyry copper environments.