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04 - 03 - 19 Talk 01 Porphyry Systems - Introduction - Geology and Geodynamics - DavidCooke
04 - 03 - 19 Talk 01 Porphyry Systems - Introduction - Geology and Geodynamics - DavidCooke
deposits
Classification, distribution, geodynamic settings, intrusions, magma fertility, genesis
Chuquicamata porphyry Cu‐Mo
deposit, Chile – March 2015
David R Cooke
Porphyry deposits – general characteristics
Large tonnage, low grade Related to porphyritic
bulk mineable deposits intrusions
Form in subduction‐related Stockwork, disseminated
and/or collisional settings and breccia‐hosted ore
Large volumes of
hydrothermal alteration
Cerro Casale porphyry Cu‐Au deposit, Chile
Classification by metal content
Au (*10,000)
• Increasing magnetite
contents in early‐ Calc‐alkalic
formed veins and High‐K calc‐alkalic
alteration
assemblages Alkalic
• Decreasing
depth of
emplacement Modified from Kesler (1973)
and Thompson (1994)
Cu Mo (*10)
Continental arc Increasing SiO2
settings content of magmas
Magma chemistry Metal endowment of
intrusion‐related
deposits controlled
101 by the magma’s:
• oxidation state
• compositional evolution
100
Cu ‐ Au Cu ‐ Mo Mo (e.g., silica content)
W ‐ Mo Sn
Fe2O3 / W
FeO
10‐1 Increasing Sn ± W
oxidation
Increasing
fractionation
Anhydrite phenocryst with apatite
inclusions, Northparkes, NSW
Porphyry deposits
Grade and tonnage data
10
0.1
1
Au grade (ppm)
Mo grade (wt %)
1
Cu grade (wt %)
0.1
0.01
0.01
0.1
0.001
0.001
0.0001
Gold‐rich porphyry deposits
have grades > 0.4 ppm Au
Grade and tonnage data for 423 porphyry deposits
Data from USGS porphyry database: http://mrdata.usgs.gov/porcu/
Porphyry copper deposits
Location
Ray
Behemothian
Super‐giant
Cu‐Au‐Mo deposits
El Salvador
Cu‐Mo deposits
Cu‐Au deposits
Aktogay‐Aiderly
Cuajone
Pima
Giant porphyry copper deposits
La Granja
Radomiro Tomic
Resolution
Cerro Colorado
Reko Diq
Morenci‐Metcalf
Lone Star
Pebble
Escondida
Los Pelambres
Grasberg
Cananea
Bingham
Butte
Oyu Tolgoi
Collahuasi
Chuquicamata
El Teniente
204.3 Mt Cu Rio Blanco
– Los Bronces
0
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Contained copper metal (Mt)
Where in the world?
The largest porphyry copper deposits and districts
Pebble Aktogay‐
Aiderly
Oyu Tolgoi Butte
Bingham Canyon
SW Arizona / Reko Diq
Sonora
Grasberg
La Granja
Southern Peru
Northern Chile
Central Chile
Alumbrera
Cu‐Mo deposits
Cu‐Au deposits
Galore Creek
El Teniente
Giant gold‐rich porphyry deposits
Escondida
Tampakan
Minas Conga
Batu Hijau
Ok Tedi
Elang
Panguna
Cerro Casale
Tujuh Bukit
Kerr‐S‐M
FSE/Lepanto
Dalneye
Kal'makyr
Wafi‐Golpu
Reko Diq
Cadia district
Oyu Tolgoi
Bingham
Pebble
Grasberg
0
800
400
2800
2400
2000
1600
1200
Gold (tonnes)
Giant gold‐rich porphyry gold deposits
Location
Pebble
Galore Creek
Kerr – Sulphurets ‐ Mitchell Dalneye
Oyu Tolgoi Bingham Canyon
Sar Chesmeh Almalyk
Philippines Cerro
PNG – Irian Jaya Colorado Reko Diq
Minas Conga
Eastern Panguna
La Escondida
Sunda Bajo de la Alumbrera
Cadia Cerro Casale
Porphyry Cu‐Au Porphyry Cu‐Au‐Mo
Porphyritic intrusions
Diorite (Cu‐Au) Tonalite (Cu‐Au) Quartz monzonite Dacite (Cu‐Mo) Granite
Far Southeast, Tujuh Bukit, (Cu‐Au) Chuquicamata, (Cu‐Mo)
Philippines Indonesia Northparkes, Australia Chile Yerington, USA
• Mineralising intrusion in porphyry metallogenic belts
typically share a common porphyritic intrusive rock type
• Those intrusions may be diorites, tonalites, dacites, quartz
monzonites, syenites or granites
Porphyritic intrusions
Stage 1 plagioclase – Stage 2 hornblende‐plagioclase
Quartz monzonite porphyry,
hornblende porphyry, Golpu diorite porphyry, Golpu
Northparkes, NSW Golpu intrusive complex, PNG
Multi‐phase intrusions
• Multiple pipes, dykes or sills typically
comprise mineralised intrusive
complexes
• Only one or two intrusive phases
create significant mineralisation
• A number of factors may affect an
intrusion’s capacity to exsolve
abundant volatiles and metals,
including:
• depth of emplacement
• volatile content
• crystallisation history
• seismic activity
Early, high grade quartz monzonite porphyry cut by later, lower grade crystal‐rich
Quartz monzonite porphyry, Northparkes porphyry Cu‐Au deposit, NSW
Multi‐phase intrusions
Bingham Canyon, Utah
Hydrous mafic and felsic magmas
Hornblende quartz diorite
porphyry, Far South East, Hornblende‐megacrystic dyke with chilled margins,
Philippines Liw‐Liw Creek, Baguio district, Philippines
Multi‐phase intrusions
LEGEND
LP3
Alluvium
Post‐Mineralization
Porphyry
N Northwest Porphyry
LA
100 m
LP3 Late P3 Porphyry
Quartz Eye Porphyry
P2
EP3 Early P3 Porphyry
Los Amarillos Porphyry
LA and igneous breccia
EP3
P2 Porphyry
P2
-66°36’15
LP3
Northeast Porphyry
Andesite volcanic and
volcaniclastic rocks
-27°20’
from Proffett, 2003
Multi‐phase intrusions
3‐D geology block model
Dinkidi Stock (Wolfe, 2001)
Identifying timing relationships between
intrusive phases (Sillitoe, 2000)
Combinations of any or all of the following:
1. Veins truncated at intrusive contacts
• The older intrusion will contain more vein generations
2. Chilled margins on the margin of the younger
intrusion
3. Narrow zones of flow‐aligned phenocrysts in the
younger intrusions adjacent to the contact
4. Xenoliths in the younger intrusion
• Either of the older intrusion and/or quartz vein xenoliths
5. Better textural preservation and lower vein densities
in the younger intrusion
6. Abrupt change in metal grades
• Grades are lower in the younger intrusion
Truncated veins
Quartz – chalcopyrite vein in biotite‐
altered andesite truncated by quartz Intrusive contact
monzonite porphyry, E27, NSW between two phases of
quartz monzonite
porphyry, Ridgeway NSW
Marsden, NSW
Abrupt grade changes – 0.5 cm
intrusive contacts
Ridgeway, NSW: Quartz monzonite porphyry
late‐mineral intrusion, NC498, 798.5 m
‘Blind’ intrusions
Biotite‐altered
trachyandesite
QMP
E27 open pit,
Northparkes, NSW
Intrusive complexes
Northparkes porphyry Cu‐Au
Ordovician Monzonite
Volcanics stock
Pipe
Pluton
Arizona porphyry Cu‐Mo
Laramide
volcanic edifice
Laramide
Intrusive
Pluton
complex
Stock
Precambrian
Stock
intrusions
Sections from Lang and Titley (1998) and Lickfold et al. (2003)
Deposit clusters
E27
E22
E48
E28
E37 E31
E26
Endeavour porphyry Cu‐Au deposits, North Parkes, NSW
(photo courtesy North Parkes Mines)
Batholithic roots ‐ Yerington, Nevada
Ann‐Mason PCD McArthur PCD
Yerington cross‐section from Dilles et al. (2000)
Porphyry provinces
• In any given province, porphyry
deposits are typically emplaced
within a time interval of a few
million years
• Similar magma suites characterise
individual provinces
• Similar metal suite characterise
each metallogenic event
• There is a general relationship to
subduction environment
• Specific relationship to tectonic
change
Reproduced from Sillitoe (2012)
N
Ridge subduction La Granja
(10 Ma)
Inca
Plateau
Tectonic trigger for LosPelambres
(10 Ma)
Miocene porphyry and HS Juan Fernandez Ridge RíoBlanco (6 Ma)
and northern Peru,
400 km
and central Chile
Peruvian flat slab segment
Subducted Inca
Nazca Ridge Plateau
• Slab buoyed by subduction of anomalously hot oceanic crust
• Shallowing of subduction angle puts overriding plate into
compression
Image from Gutscher et al. (1999)
Geodynamics: Mankayan 200 km
Philippine
Plate
Eurasian
Plate
200 km
Source: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/ mgg/
image/2minrelief.html
Mankayan district
(2 – 1 Ma)
Northern Luzon,
8 Mt Cu & 37 Moz Au Philippines
Baguio district
(3 – 1 Ma)
3 Mt Cu & 35 Moz Au
aseismic Scarborough
Ridge
Subducted part of
Scarborough Ridge
Image courtesy of Paddy Waters, AngloAmerican (Philippines)
Gandese belt, Tibet – Post‐collisional porphyry deposits
Wang et al. (2014)
Volatile exsolution
• ‘Slushy’ textures are features of the transition from
magmatic to hydrothermal conditions:
• Unidirectional solidification textures (USTs)
• Miarolitic cavities
• High temperature alteration patches
• Vein dykes
• Pegmatite pods and pegmatite veins
• These textural features provide evidence for
volatile exsolution and concentration in the top of
granitoids
• Fertile magmas crystallise in batches
• They may release volatiles episodically through a
significant part of their crystallisation history
15 cm Comb quartz layers (USTs) in intra‐mineral
monzonite, Ridgeway Cu‐Au deposit, NSW
Magmatic‐hydrothermal transition
3 cm
Unidirectional solidification textures (USTs)
Slushy textures ‐ USTs
Monzonite‐hosted quartz‐magnetite UST, Ridgeway porphyry Cu‐Au deposit, NSW
Permeability architecture
• Will a crystallising magma produce high‐grade mineralisation or a dispersed
geochemical anomaly?
• Connectivity between pockets of volatiles is critical in determining whether
hydrothermal fluids coalesce and are concentrated in the apices of the
intrusion
• Bubbles trapped within the melt as isolated miarolitic cavities or pegmatite
pods will not contribute to mineralisation
Tourmaline orbicules, Pieman Heads Granite, W Tasmania
Volatile accumulation
and UST growth
• Buoyant hydrothermal fluid migrates upwards through the melt and
accumulates in the roof of the inwardly‐crystallizing magma
• Bands of distinctly prismatic crystals (e.g., qz, mt) grow downwards
from the roof of the volatile pocket
Quartz USTs,
Northparkes, NSW
Fluid release during brittle failure
• Carapace fractures, allowing metal‐bearing fluids and melt to escape
• Rapid under‐cooling and devolatilisation of the magma causes aplite
deposition, sealing of fractures and growth of the next UST layer
Magnetite USTs cut by qz‐
bn veins, Ridgeway, NSW
Porphyry ore genesis
• Tectonic trigger (e.g., ridge subduction)
Outflow and
• Incompatible behaviour of metals and mineralisation
volatiles allows magmatic transport of
metals and sulfur Episodic fluid
accumulation and
release
• Multiple phases of intrusive activity – one
Several kms
or more of which efficiently concentrates
and releases metals
• Fluid exsolution may be triggered by
mafic magma underplating of felsic Volatile
magma chamber migration
• Cycles of volatile accumulation and
release at the apex of the Felsic
mineralizing intrusion (multiple magma
seismic events) Mafic magma (?)