An electrodeless plasma produced in an ion guide ion source by a high-energy heavy ion beam propagating through a noble gas has been studied. The plasma parameters in Ar and He buffer gases have been calculated and analysed for projectile beam intensities from 10$^{9}$ to 10$^{17}$ pps cm$^{-2}$. The plasma is characterized by very low electron and gas temperatures, but with an appreciable number of electrons with energy sufficient to ionize atoms of most chemical elements. The ion guide ion source plasma, combined with laser-enhanced ionization of the studied element, is used to improve the detection limit by enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio.