EMPLACEMENT OF THE ORE DEPOSITS IN MINING DISTRICT TAXCO, GUERRERO, MEXICO

The Taxco Mining District is located at the border between the Mixteco and Guerrero terranes of southern Mexico. The ore bodies present in the district are Ag-Pb-Zn-Cu replacement mantos and chimneys, stockworks, and veins. They are hosted in Jurassic siliciclastic sedimentary rocks, Cretaceous limentones, and Oligocene igneous rocks. Two main systems of veins are northwest and north-south in strike. The main deposits have a strong structural control that has been active at least during two tectonic events. The first event deformed the pre-Cretaceous rocks during the Laramide Orogeny. During this event the rocks were folded, and overthrusted.

The second event is post laramidic and affected the Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks and Tertiary dioritic dikes. A right-lateral fault system, N5°W in strike is compatible with a model of in echelon faults. Rhyolitic domes and dikes, and associated hydrothermal systems were emplaced in these faults. Low-sulfidation, mesothermal to epithermal mineralization, was developed along those conduits