YanacochaPeru

History and Geologic Overview of the Yanacocha Mining

District, Cajamarca, Peru
Lewis Teal, Alberto Benavides
DOI: 10.2113/econgeo.105.7.1173 Published on November 2010, First Published on March 02, 2011

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Fig. 1
Schematic map showing the geology of western Peru and general location of the Yanacocha mining district.

Fig. 2
Original drill hole location map and assay results from initial Newmont-Peru scout drilling campaign at Yanacocha Norte
and Yanacocha Sur, November 1986.

Fig. 3
Yanacocha district end-of-year gold reserves 19942008; note that all Yanacocha gold reserves shown are classified
metallurgically as oxide.

Fig. 4
Chacquicocha sulfide deposit showing >3 g/t Au sulfide zone beneath the 2005 hypothetical oxide pit design based on a
2005 $400 gold price (red), and a hypothetical $425 sulfide pit (green). Note that the late-stage, fresh to weakly altered
Montura dome formed a rheological boundary to gold-bearing hydrothermal fluids, which caused precipitation of gold in
the favorable host Yanacocha pyroclastic sequence.

Fig. 5
Yanacocha mine showing footprint of the central Yanacocha diatreme, hypobyssal Yanacocha diorite (Yp), and breccia
envelopes crosscutting the Yanacocha pyroclastic sequence (white). Shown are projected composite models of high-grade
oxide (red) and sulfide gold mineralization (blue), plus high-grade sulfide copper mineralization (green). Note how gold
and copper mineralization types are focused around the diatreme complex. At Yanacocha Sur gold is hosted in the
Yanacocha pyroclastic sequence and is controlled along a rheological boundary that extends beneath the eastward
dipping contact of the Yanacocha diorite.

Fig. 6
Yanacocha regional geologic setting along northeast-trending Yanacocha-Chicama trans-arc break. Deposit footprints are
shown to scale (red) within alteration envelope (red hatched pattern). Note that the west-northwest to east-west
deflection of fold axes in Cretaceous sedimentary basement rocks is interpreted as a regional manifestation of this trans-
arc structure. Deposit footprints of the Andean parallel northern Peru porphyry belt: Cerro CoronaPerol-Chaulhuagon
La Carpa-Galeno-Michiquillay shown in the northeast quadrant of the map. Also shown are smaller high sulfidation-type
gold deposits, including Sipan and La Zanja. Modified after Rivera (1980) and Wilson (1985).

Fig. 7
Yanacocha district schematic stratigraphic column showing mineralized horizons by deposit and volcanic sequences.
Modified after Bell et al. (2004).

Fig. 8
Yanacocha district schematic column showing breccia subclassifications and general occurrences within the volcanic
sequences.

Fig. 9
Schematic cross section of the Chaquicocha Sur deposit showing a high sulfidation-type alteration assemblage of massive
to vuggy siliceous core and with preserved granular quartz cap. Note buried gold mineralization beneath barren granular
quartz cap.

Fig. 10
Schematic of the Yanacocha district structural kinematics: primary northwest-striking left-lateral transpressional fabric
with superimposed northeast translational fabric (from Rehrig and Hardy, 2001).

Fig. 11
Yanacocha district image of airborne time domain EM response (ohm-m) in which the signal has been upward continued
to create a hypothetical depth slice response of 100m with isopach footprints of the deposits superimposed. Note spatial
relation of gold deposits with higher resistivity response. In the case of Corimayo and Tapado deposits, these are blind
lode deposits discovered beneath a >150-m barren cap; consequently, the 100-m depth sliced resistivity response is not
reflected (modified after Bolin, 2006).

Fig. 12
Yanacocha district image of reduced to pole airborne magnetic response (nT) with gold deposit footprints. Note broad
magnetic low with elevated northeast-trending response interpreted to reflect the Turners (1997) Yanacocha-Chicama
cross-arc structural corridor (modified after Bolin, 2006).

Fig. 13
Yanacocha district image of radiometric potassium response (K percent). Note deposits correspond to relative potassium
lows, interpreted to reflect potassium feldspar destruction within the advanced alteration envelope (modified after Bolin,
2006).

Fig. 14
Yanacocha district image of gravity response (mgal). Note northwest-trending relative lows that correspond to the
Quebrada Colorado graben (northeast) and the La Quinua graben (southwest) (modified after Bolin, 2006).

Fig. 15
Core from Kupfertal deposit, illustrating transition from the base of the high sulfidation system exposed in Encajon Creek;
this transition consists of a patchy textured, amorphous silica-pyrophyllite (top), to wormy textured A-type veining
(middle), to A-type veining. This transition occurs over a vertical column of 100 to 150 m; after Pinto (2002).

Fig. 16
Copper sulfide mineralization of the Yanacocha Verde deposit beneath the Yanacocha Sur gold deposit. Mineralization
consists of a supergene sulfide assemblage of covellite + chalcocite intermixed with hypogene enargite. Mineralization
grades downward into hypogene covellite and eventually into a chalcopyrite dominant-assemblage in the underlying
porphyry.