TOMO 2 - Geologa Econmica

EVOLUTION OF THE LOS PELAMBRES EL PACHN

PORPHYRY COPPER-MOLYBDENUM DISTRICT, CHILE/
ARGENTINA
Alfredo Bertens *1, Alan H. Clark 2, Fernando Barra 3 and Katja Deckart 4
1

Department of Geology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX,
UK. a.bertens@gl.rhul.ac.uk
*Direccin actual: Exploraciones Mineras S.A., Av. Apoquindo 4775, Santiago, Chile.
abertens@codelco.cl
2

Department of Geological Sciences & Geological Engineering, Miller Hall, Queens

University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada. charbon@geol.queensu.ca

Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Gould-Simpson Building #77, 1040 E

4th St., Tucson, AZ 85721, USA. fbarra@geo.arizona.edu
4

Departamento de Geologa, Universidad de Chile, Plaza Ercilla 803, Casilla 13518,

Santiago, Chile. kdeckart@cec.uchile.cl

World-class porphyry Cu-Mo mineralization in the Mio-Pliocene sub-province of Central

Chile and contiguous Argentina was initiated in the Los Pelambres El Pachn district. These
adjoining deposits, centred respectively at Lat. 3142S, Long. 7129W and 3145S, 7026W,
constitute a behemothian (e 31.62 Mt Cu: Clark, 1993) concentration, and the occurrence of
tonalite porphyry dykes and K-silicate alteration in the intervening 7 km has led to the assumption
that ore formation took place simultaneously in the two centres (e.g., Sillitoe, 1973; Sillitoe and
Perell, 2005). However, new multi-sample geochronological data for magmatic (LA-ICPMS zircon),
hydrothermal (Re-Os molybdenite) and supergene (40Ar/39Ar jarosite) events, integrated with (U,Th)/
He (zircon and apatite) and 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology, delimit an extended period of Middle to
Late Miocene magmatic-hydrothermal activity and demonstrate that mineralization at El Pachn
occurred significantly later than that at Los Pelambres. Moreover, the data clarify the late-Neogene
tectonic environment in the Cordillera Principal at this latitude and permit temporal correlation with
Cu-Mo mineralization further south at Ro Blanco-Los Bronces (4.5 to 5.9 Ma; Deckart et al.,
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2005; K. Deckart, unpublished) and El Teniente (4.7 to 5.9 Ma: Maksaev et al., 2004; Cannell et
al., 2005).
Field observations and detailed mapping suggest that local and regional N-S extensional
structures delimit and probably controlled the intrusion emplacement at Los Pelambres during their
reactivation. This tectonic fabric, also evident on the eastern slope of the Cordillera Principal, comprises
numerous, N-S elongated, structural blocks bounded by high-angle, east-vergent, contractional
faults. Hypabyssal intrusions, including intra-mineralization porphyry bodies at Los Pelambres, were
emplaced in a block overlain by lowermost-Miocene, Abanico Formation, volcanic units translated
by high-angle faults over a footwall basement block on the east.
The Middle Miocene Los Pelambres tonalitic dioritic intrusive complex is hosted by strongly
deformed volcano-sedimentary successions of the Neocomian Los Pelambres (139 Ma) and Upper
Cretaceous Salamanca (118 Ma) Formations, enclosing tectonic slivers of the rhyolitic Choiyoi Group
(265 Ma). Precursor intrusion was initiated at 13.92 Ma and continued to 12.51 Ma. Cu-Mo
mineralization overlapped with the emplacement of small bodies of A (11.56 Ma) and B (11.24
Ma) dioritic to dacitic porphyry. 13 Re-Os molybdenite dates, conforming strictly with newlyrefined paragenetic relationships, show that Mo mineralization at Los Pelambres extended at least
from 11.66 to 11.00 Ma. Ore formation coincided with intense tectonic contraction, during which
the large phaneritic Las Gualtatas quartz dioritic-granodioritic pluton (21.6 -18.4 Ma), west of Los
Pelambres, was juxtaposed over coeval volcanic and sedimentary units of the Abanico (21-25 Ma)
and the older Los Pelambres (139 Ma)

Formations.

40

Ar/39Ar > 90% apparent age plateaux for igneous and hydrothermal minerals (biotite,

muscovite and hornblende) in and immediately surrounding the Los Pelambres deposit range overall
from 9.52 to 10.58 Ma. These ages do not conform with U-Pb or Re-Os dates, and are interpreted
as recording cooling during tectonic uplift and exhumation shortly following hypogene mineralization.
The 40Ar/39Ar dates overlap extensively with zircon and apatite (U, Th)/He ages of 8.15 to 10.37
Ma which define the cooling trajectory of the Los Pelambres deposit over a vertical interval of 1 km.
In turn, four paragenetically constrained Re-Os molybdenite dates from El Pachn (8.43-9.16 Ma)

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TOMO 2 - Geologa Econmica

demonstrate that this centre represents a distinct magmatic-hydrothermal system which was emplaced
during the uplift and exhumation of the more northwesterly Los Pelambres deposit.
The youngest event recorded by this study is the supergene leaching and sulphide enrichment
of the Los Pelambres deposit. 40Ar/39Ar age spectra for jarosite-group minerals confirm that the
deposit had been unroofed by 5.34 Ma, prior to the onset of major alpine glaciation, but was most
intense from ca. 3.06 to ca. 0.93 Ma. The supergene upgrading of the Los Pelambres deposit thus
began simultaneously with the development of hypogene mineralization at Ro Blanco and El Teniente.
However, numerous new apatite and zircon (U,Th)/He data from Ro Blanco (3.8 Ma), El Teniente
(3.3 Ma) and other intrusions along this province coincide with the initiation of major enrichment at
Los Pelambres, suggesting common exhumation and uplift conditions ascribable to an orogen-wide
Pliocene contractional event.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Richard Leclerc, Piotr Paleczek and Eduardo Gonzlez from Falconbridge Chile SA. are
thanked for their collaboration and for permitting the publication of the El Pachn data.
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