Metallogenic fingerprint of a metasomatized lithospheric mantle feeding gold endowment in the western Mediterranean basin Schettino, Erwin Marchesi, Claudio González Jiménez, José María Gervilla Linares, Fernando Garrido Marín, Carlos Jesús We thank the Associate Editor W.U. Reimold, and the referees T. Jalowitzki and M.L. Fioren-tini for their constructive reviews of the submitted version of the manuscript. This research was sup-ported by the BES-2017-079949 Ph.D. fellowship to ES. The Spanish projects PID2019-111715GB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and RTI2018-099157-A-I00 provided funding for field emission gun-environmental scanning electron microscopy (FEG-ESEM) and electron microprobe microanaly-ses (EMPA) /laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) analyses of sulfides, respectively, while the Junta de Andalucia project FUMESA B-RNM-189-UGR18 financed LA-ICP-MS analyses of silicates. Research grants, infrastructures, and human resources leading to this research have benefited from funding by the European Social Fund and the European Regional Development Fund. We thank Jesus Montes Rueda (Universidad de Granada) , Isabel Sanchez Almazo (Centro de Instru-mentacion Cientifica [CIC] , Universidad de Granada) , Xavier Llovet (Centres Cientifics i Tecnolgics, Uni-versitat de Barcelona) , Miguel Angel Hidalgo La-guna (CIC, Universidad de Granada) , and Manuel Jesus Roman Alpiste (Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas-Universidad de Granada) for their careful technical assistance during sample preparation, FEG-ESEM, electron microprobe analyzes, and LA-ICP-MS analyses, respectively. Spinel peridotite xenoliths (one plagioclase- bearing) hosted in alkaline basalts from Tallante (southeast Spain) record the mineralogical and geochemical fingerprint of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) evolution beneath the southern Iberian margin. Mantle metasomatism in fertile lherzolites caused the crystallization of clinopyroxene + orthopyroxene + spinel clusters through the percolation of Miocene subalkaline melts during the westward migration of the subduction front in the western Mediterranean. In the Pliocene, heat and volatiles provided by alkaline host-magmas triggered very low melting degrees of metasomatic pyroxene-spinel assemblages, producing melt quenched to silicate glass and reactive spongy coronae around clinopyroxene and spinel. Refertilization of the Tallante peridotites induced the precipitation of base-metal sulfides (BMS) included in metasomatic clino- and orthopyroxene. These sulfides consist of pentlandite ± chalcopyrite ± bornite aggregates with homogeneous composition in terms of major elements (Ni, Fe, Cu) and semi-metals (Se, As, Te, Sb, Bi), but with wide variability of platinum-group elements (PGE) fractionation (0.14 < PdN/IrN < 30.74). Heterogeneous PGE signatures, as well as the presence of euhedral Pt-Pd-Sn-rich platinum-group minerals (PGM) and/or Auparticles within BMS, cannot be explained by conventional models of chalcophile partitioning from sulfide melt. Alternatively, we suggest that they reflect the incorporation of distinct populations of BMS, PGM, and metal nanoparticles (especially of Pt, Pd, and Au) during mantle melting and/or melt percolation. Therefore, we conclude that Miocene subalkaline melts released by asthenosphere upwelling upon slab tearing of the Iberian continental margin effectively stored metals in metasomatized domains of this sector of the SCLM. Remarkably high Au concentrations in Tallante BMS (median 1.78 ppm) support that these metasomatized domains provided a fertile source of metals, especially gold, for the ore-productive Miocene magmatism of the westernmost Mediterranean. 2022-02-23T07:58:38Z 2022-02-23T07:58:38Z 2021-09-20 journal article Erwin Schettino... [et al.]. Metallogenic fingerprint of a metasomatized lithospheric mantle feeding gold endowment in the western Mediterranean basin. GSA Bulletin 2021; doi:[https://doi.org/10.1130/B36065.1] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/72948 10.1130/B36065.1 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ open access Atribución 3.0 España Geological Society of America